MLBPA Youth Development Fund announces $2 million grant for Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is getting closer to completing its campaign for a new facility.

The MLB-MLBPA Youth Development foundation announced a $2 million grant on Thursday to benefit the campaign, supporting the museum’s goal of building a new 30,000 square-foot facility to continue telling the story of the Negro Leagues and its players.

“The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is thrilled to receive this generous grant from the MLB-MLBPA Youth Development Foundation to support our efforts to build a new museum,” NLBM president Bob Kendrick said in an MLBPA news release. “We are tremendously proud of our partnership with Major League Baseball and the Players Association that has already profoundly elevated the awareness of the Negro Leagues.

“We look forward to our next exciting phase of growth that will give us even greater capacity to educate, enlighten and inspire future generations through this story of triumph over adversity.”

Thursday’s announcement, made by Kendrick, was also joined by Royals chairman and CEO John Sherman, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, YDF executive director Jean Lee Batrus, MLBPA executive director Tony Clark and MLB senior vice president of social responsibility April Brown.

The NLBM’s campaign for a new facility, beginning in May 2023 and titled “Pitch for the Future, will create a “Negro Leagues Campus” in downtown Kansas City’s 18th and Vine district. The new facility will be built adjacent to the Buck O’Neil Education and Research Center (BOERC), located in the former Paseo YMCA where Andrew “Rube” Foster and Negro Leagues team owners established the Negro Leagues in 1920.

“In 1997, that dream became a reality when the NLBM moved into its new 10,000 square-foot home at Historic 18th & Vine,” the NBLM’s campaign page reads. “Today, over two million visitors have learned about and been inspired by the men and women whose passion for America’s national pastime changed the game and America too.

“Over the course of three decades the NLBM has grown from an idea into one of the most important cultural facilities in the world. It’s a powerful civil rights and social justice museum seen through the lens of baseball that continues to foster a greater understanding of the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion.”

Thursday’s announcement follows a $500,000 grant made in June to the Negro Leagues Family Alliance. The June grant was in connection with the “MLB at Rickwood Field: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues” game between the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants in Birmingham, Alabama.

“Players in the Negro Leagues had an enduring impact on baseball and society, while creating opportunities for me and so many others with their extraordinary courage and sacrifice,” MLBPA Executive Director Tony Clark said. “The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, as an institution, serves as a beacon of education and enlightenment to keep their stories alive for future generations. We are proud to support the museum in this important initiative.”