Hall of Fame reveals name of new Black baseball exhibit: 'The Souls of the Game'

PATERSON, N.J. – The National Baseball Hall of Fame’s permanent exhibit on Black baseball opened in 1997 to mark the 50^th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s debut. After a quarter-century, it’s time to revisit that story.

A year ago, the Hall announced plans for a new exhibit to replace “Ideals and Injustices” and to convey the Black baseball experience in a new way. On Monday at a press conference at Hinchliffe Stadium, where the New York Black Yankees, New York Cubans and Newark Eagles of the Negro National League once played home games, Hall of Fame president Josh Rawitch announced that the new exhibit will be called “The Souls of the Game: Voices of Black Baseball.”

“It was time for us to create a completely new exhibit that tells a more inclusive story of the Black baseball experience, and it will reflect the evolving diversity of our game,” Rawitch said in announcing the new name while standing next to Larry Doby’s plaque on the concourse.

Discussion about a new exhibit began more than three years ago and has included a literal Hall of Fame roster of consultants – Ken Griffey Jr., Ferguson Jenkins, Andre Dawson, Ozzie Smith and Lee Smith – as well as Black baseball historians; Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum; and journalist Claire Smith.

The new exhibit, which draws its name from W.E.B. Du Bois’ book The Souls of Black Folk, will tell the story of not just the Negro Leagues, but of Black baseball before Rube Foster launched the Negro National League in Kansas City’s Paseo YMCA in 1920. First-person accounts, artifacts, documents and photos, as well as audio, video and interactive elements will, as the Hall says, “tell a more inclusive story of baseball, shine a light on and correct misconceptions about Black baseball, and provide an authentic, cohesive narrative of African-American baseball history.”

“From the very beginning,” Rawitch said, “it's been very important to all of us involved in this project that this story be told through the voices and the words of those who have lived that experience: Black players, executives, coaches, managers, scouts, umpires and fans.”

In addition to the new exhibit, which is expected to open in the spring of 2024, the Hall’s Black Baseball Initiative will include outreach programs, educational materials and virtual programming to tell these stories outside of Cooperstown. Funding for all this was provided by the Yawkey Foundation, Bill Janetschek in honor of his siblings Robert and Ann, the Anthony A. Yoseloff Foundation and the Bisignano family.

“Those who visit our exhibit or engage in our outreach programs are going to come away with a richer, deeper understanding of the history of racism and race in baseball,” Rawitch said. “The project will provide a cohesive narrative of Black baseball's history and explore the complicated relationship with baseball that Black people have experienced in working for American democracy and citizenship through the game of baseball, and we're going to do all this while celebrating Black culture through the lens of baseball.”