February 27, 2020–8:13 a.m.
NEWS RELEASE
The Rome Area History Museum is partnering with Berry College to offer a free event celebrating the contributions of black baseball to American history. The lunchtime event will be held Thursday, February 27 at 12 p.m. Join us for a conversation with Larry Lester and Negro Leagues player Butch Haynes.
Lester is an author, historian, and co-founder of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. Haynes who is from Rome, Georgia, played for the Kansas City Clowns. They will share their experiences and the legacy of a sport played in black communities all over the South, including Floyd County.
The event is free.
This event will be followed by a guest lecture given by Lester at Berry College at 5 p.m. The lecture, “Only the Ball was White” will be held at McAllister Auditorium and commemorates the centennial of professional black baseball in America, marking 100 years since the founding of the Negro National League in February 1920.