Speaker 1: Have y'all ever heard about the Wichita Monrovians. Well, on
Speaker 1: today's episode, if I didn't know, maybe you didn't either.
Speaker 1: Let me take you back to nineteen twenty five. Picture
Speaker 1: this an all black baseball team taking on the KKK
Speaker 1: in Kansas. I'm talking about a real game, bats balls, bigotry,
Speaker 1: all on the same field. Sit back so I can
Speaker 1: share the most gangster sports story you'd never heard in
Speaker 1: your life. I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know.
Speaker 1: I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. I
Speaker 1: didn't know. Now, the Monrovians, not the Moravians. The Moravians
Speaker 1: are members of the Moravian Church. The Monrovians refers to
Speaker 1: the baseball team named after Monrovia, Liberia. They were the
Speaker 1: Wichita Monrovians, and it was a Negro league baseball team
Speaker 1: in the nineteen twenties, and they used to put belt
Speaker 1: to ass. But let me say the scene. It's June,
Speaker 1: it's hottest fish grease hundred and two degrees in the shade,
Speaker 1: and these brothers roll up to play against the ku
Speaker 1: Klux Klan's own baseball team. Now, first of all, I
Speaker 1: ain't even know the KKK had a baseball team. You
Speaker 1: mean to tell me these foods got time to hate
Speaker 1: and learn how to bunch. How you multitasking your racism
Speaker 1: and get this. Both teams agreed to bring in two
Speaker 1: Irish Catholic umpires, but Catholics was on the Klans hit
Speaker 1: list too, So basically everybody on that field knew they
Speaker 1: were playing for more than just runs. This was about
Speaker 1: proving something. It was black excellence versus white supremacy, and
Speaker 1: y'all know, damn well, excellence always got a better bat
Speaker 1: and average. So both the game starts and that's a
Speaker 1: straight up dog fight, great pitching back and forth. But
Speaker 1: then the Monrovians got hot. They came through with them
Speaker 1: clutch hits, slid in the bases like they was dodging
Speaker 1: Jim Crow loss. By the end, Monrovians win ten to eight.
Speaker 1: They didn't just beat the Klan, they in bare. Can
Speaker 1: you imagine a post game plan meeting, now, brother, Jebidah,
Speaker 1: you said you could pinch. You had them colors out
Speaker 1: there smacking balls laughing, right, Jebidah, we might have to
Speaker 1: take your white card. Jebidaih. Now you might think, what's
Speaker 1: the big deal, just a baseball game, but Nah, this
Speaker 1: was deeper than that. This is nineteen twenty five. It
Speaker 1: wasn't just about sports. This was about black folks standing tall,
Speaker 1: staring oppression right in the face and saying, we'll beat
Speaker 1: you at your own game. And they did. Now, fast
Speaker 1: forward to today, what's the lesson. We still swinging, y'all.
Speaker 1: Every time we excel in places that they said we couldn't.
Speaker 1: We're still channeling that Monrovian spirit. So the next time
Speaker 1: someone tries to play you, just remember, if the Monrovians
Speaker 1: can beat the Klan in nineteen twenty five, you can
Speaker 1: handle Karen in Hr On Monday. You didn't time mine
Speaker 1: because I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either, I didn't know.