Negro Baseball League, Anacosta Museum and Washington DC International Art Show

The Washington DC Historical Society has an exhibition on the Negro Baseball League.

There were all-African American baseball teams starting after the Civil War. But there wasn't an organized league until the 1920's. There were integrated teams until the 1910's where there was an agreement to segregate the game.

The exhibit focused on stars of the league's later years-Josh Gibson, Satchel Page and James "Cool Papa" Bell. The highpoint of the league was the war years where major league parks began to notice that there was more fans for the Negro Baseball league than for the other professional league. At this point, Sam Lacey, a reporter at the Afro-American newspaper which was a national paper out of Baltimore, began to urge Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers to integrate its team. It was interesting that the Washington D.C. Historical Society didn't note that Lacey's grandfather was the first African American detective on Washington D.C.'s police department.

The exhibit highlights the Homestead Grays which was based in Pittsburg (Homestead is a suburb of the Steel City) and during the 1930's and 1940's, also played at Griffith Park in Washington D.C. Interestingly, the exhibit never mentioned the influence of the Grays' long-time principal owner, Cumberland Posey. A former player, "Cum" Posey recruited a long line of future Hall of Famers which resulted in the Grays sweeping the Negro League national pennant throughout the 30's and 40's.

The Smithsonian Anacosita Museum is located in a southeastern neighborhood of Washington D.C. that is facing gentrification. It is a quiet neighborhood that has a rural feel. Anacostia was originally founded by a group of freed slaves and its largest home was once owned by Frederick Douglass. The exhibit showed the struggles of the residents to get services (and respect) from the District.

This weekend, the Washington International Art Show held its 2nd annual art show at the Washington DC Convention Center. While there was approximately 100 exhibits, there weren't many visitors. The exhibit was located in one corner of the theater and the art ranged from Walmart-quality to very good.

Nicole's Gallery of Chicago exhibited several collages of Allen Stringfellow. Stringfellow had achieved international acclaim, including several pieces in the Smithsonian. But according to the owner of Nicole's Gallery, his dream was to have an exhibit at Krannert Museum at the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign.

Stringfellow grew up in Champaign and his dream was to have a major exhibit in his hometown's leading art museum. It finally achieved his dream in 2003 when he was 80 years old. The exhibit ended in the beginning of October 2003 and Stringfellow became ill several days later. The owner of Nicole's Gallery said that it was obvious that once Stringfellow had achieved his boyhood dream, he was ready to face death.

Here are some links to Stringfellow's work:

http://www.octobergallery.com/paintmagazine/pages/mg_stringfellow.html