History of Negro League Baseball

[For All Ages] Join us on Major League Baseball’s Opening Day to learn about the history of the Negro League in our area, as well, as nationally from Phil S. Dixon an expert in the field and co-founder of the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City. 

Registration is encouraged but not required. Please join us.

Phil S. Dixon is an American road warrior, a veracious interviewer, a tireless researcher and writer with over 500 appearances under his belt. He has interviewed over 500 players, and their families for a unique perspective of the American and Negro League baseball experience, works for which he won a SABR MacMillan Award (Society of American Baseball Researchers) for his excellence in historical research. He is best known for his 10 non-fiction books including “The Negro Baseball Leagues A Photographs History, 1867-1955,” a Casey Award winner as the best baseball book of the year in 1992.

Baseball’s quintessential barnstormer is a designation he embraces. His 2019 release of, “The Dizzy and Daffy Dean Barnstorming Tour; Race, Media and America’s National Pastime,” continues that tradition. Dixon’s latest book, about the 1910 Chicago Leland Giants, released in 2023, is a real page turner of 452 pages and a recipient of a “Best of Illinois,” book award from the Illinois State Historical Society. His writings are illustrated with stories and photographs which familiarize readers with baseball’s forgotten Negro stars through primary source research obtained during his many years of dedication to this topic.

Dixon is the Great-Great nephew of Senator B.K. Bruce, the first African American to serve a full term in the Senate (1875-1881). Dixon left home at age-17 to pursue a musical career. He traveled the mid-west and Southern Chitlin' Circuit and journaled his experiences. He returned to Kansas City where he earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri at Kansas City. His free-lance writing for the African American owned Kansas City Call led to a major league press pass, which eventually landed him a job with the American League Kansas City Royals where he worked in Public Relations. In 1990 he co-founded the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City. Most recently served major league baseball, with Commissioner Rob Manford’s task force on the inclusion of Negro League statistics into major league baseball records. Phil is the husband of Dr. (Kerry) his wife of 40 years, and father of three HBCU college graduates who represent: (Langston, Howard and Fisk). Dixon, a Kansan at birth, now makes his home in Lenexa, Kansas with the wife, his trumpet surrounded by historic artifacts while earnestly working on future book projects, and fulfilling a heavy demand for his public speaking appearances.