Amplify’d from www.nytimes.com

January 14, 2011 Remembering Baseball’s First Black Players By STEVEN McELROY UNLIKELY as it may seem with snow on the ground, baseball season is under way in Elmont. Thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Elmont Memorial Library is one of 50 libraries around the country chosen to present the traveling exhibition “Pride and Passion: The African-American Baseball Experience.” Organized by the American Library Association’s Public Programs Office and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, it covers the history of African-Americans in baseball from the time of the Civil War to the present, including the establishment of Negro Leagues beginning in 1920 and the debut of Jackie Robinson with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, which broke baseball’s color barrier. The Elmont library is the only one on Long Island where the exhibition, based on a permanent one at the museum in Cooperstown, will be shown. Though it outwardly concerns the challenges faced by African-American baseball players, the exhibition is ultimately about “the country growing up and maturing into a more tolerant and better place for all Americans,” said Maggie Gough, the library director. The exhibition offers a lot of history, but Ms. Gough isn’t stopping there. Ancillary events are also on the agenda, including free performances of “Jackie Robinson: My Story,” a solo production about Robinson, with Stephen Hill playing the title role. The show is based on the film of the same name by Marino Amoruso (and starring Mr. Hill), and was adapted for the stage by Mr. Hill and the director, Warren Schaefer. Mr. Hill said the show offered a close look at Robinson and some of the difficulties he faced. “We don’t want to go back to work after we have a rough day, but this guy had a rough day every day,” he said. Baseball, Mr. Hill said, “wasn’t just something he loved to do, it was something he had to endure.” Read more at www.nytimes.com

 

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