WEBVTT - IDKMYDE: Monrovians vs KKK

0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.200
<v Speaker 1>Have y'all ever heard about the Wichita Monrovians. Well, on

0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:06.080
<v Speaker 1>today's episode, if I didn't know, maybe you didn't either.

0:00:06.400 --> 0:00:09.280
<v Speaker 1>Let me take you back to nineteen twenty five. Picture

0:00:09.360 --> 0:00:13.240
<v Speaker 1>this an all black baseball team taking on the KKK

0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:19.160
<v Speaker 1>in Kansas. I'm talking about a real game, bats balls, bigotry,

0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:22.000
<v Speaker 1>all on the same field. Sit back so I can

0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:24.599
<v Speaker 1>share the most gangster sports story you'd never heard in

0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:30.920
<v Speaker 1>your life. I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know.

0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:36.360
<v Speaker 1>I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. I

0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:40.360
<v Speaker 1>didn't know. Now, the Monrovians, not the Moravians. The Moravians

0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:44.239
<v Speaker 1>are members of the Moravian Church. The Monrovians refers to

0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:48.120
<v Speaker 1>the baseball team named after Monrovia, Liberia. They were the

0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:51.400
<v Speaker 1>Wichita Monrovians, and it was a Negro league baseball team

0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:54.160
<v Speaker 1>in the nineteen twenties, and they used to put belt

0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:57.240
<v Speaker 1>to ass. But let me say the scene. It's June,

0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:01.920
<v Speaker 1>it's hottest fish grease hundred and two degrees in the shade,

0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:04.679
<v Speaker 1>and these brothers roll up to play against the ku

0:01:04.760 --> 0:01:08.600
<v Speaker 1>Klux Klan's own baseball team. Now, first of all, I

0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:11.520
<v Speaker 1>ain't even know the KKK had a baseball team. You

0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:13.759
<v Speaker 1>mean to tell me these foods got time to hate

0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:17.520
<v Speaker 1>and learn how to bunch. How you multitasking your racism

0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:20.679
<v Speaker 1>and get this. Both teams agreed to bring in two

0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:25.479
<v Speaker 1>Irish Catholic umpires, but Catholics was on the Klans hit

0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:29.440
<v Speaker 1>list too, So basically everybody on that field knew they

0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:32.800
<v Speaker 1>were playing for more than just runs. This was about

0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:36.600
<v Speaker 1>proving something. It was black excellence versus white supremacy, and

0:01:36.720 --> 0:01:40.160
<v Speaker 1>y'all know, damn well, excellence always got a better bat

0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:43.000
<v Speaker 1>and average. So both the game starts and that's a

0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:46.679
<v Speaker 1>straight up dog fight, great pitching back and forth. But

0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:50.360
<v Speaker 1>then the Monrovians got hot. They came through with them

0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:53.120
<v Speaker 1>clutch hits, slid in the bases like they was dodging

0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:57.520
<v Speaker 1>Jim Crow loss. By the end, Monrovians win ten to eight.

0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:00.760
<v Speaker 1>They didn't just beat the Klan, they in bare. Can

0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:03.919
<v Speaker 1>you imagine a post game plan meeting, now, brother, Jebidah,

0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:06.600
<v Speaker 1>you said you could pinch. You had them colors out

0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:10.200
<v Speaker 1>there smacking balls laughing, right, Jebidah, we might have to

0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:13.440
<v Speaker 1>take your white card. Jebidaih. Now you might think, what's

0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:16.960
<v Speaker 1>the big deal, just a baseball game, but Nah, this

0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:20.200
<v Speaker 1>was deeper than that. This is nineteen twenty five. It

0:02:20.360 --> 0:02:24.200
<v Speaker 1>wasn't just about sports. This was about black folks standing tall,

0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:27.360
<v Speaker 1>staring oppression right in the face and saying, we'll beat

0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:30.600
<v Speaker 1>you at your own game. And they did. Now, fast

0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:33.919
<v Speaker 1>forward to today, what's the lesson. We still swinging, y'all.

0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:37.200
<v Speaker 1>Every time we excel in places that they said we couldn't.

0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:41.200
<v Speaker 1>We're still channeling that Monrovian spirit. So the next time

0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:44.200
<v Speaker 1>someone tries to play you, just remember, if the Monrovians

0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:47.639
<v Speaker 1>can beat the Klan in nineteen twenty five, you can

0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:51.480
<v Speaker 1>handle Karen in Hr On Monday. You didn't time mine

0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:55.600
<v Speaker 1>because I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either, I didn't know.