(KAIR)--Baseball, including its connections with black history, will be the focus of an Atchison presentation, featuring a founder of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City as presenter.

According to a release from Atchison United, the community organization will host the evening presentation and discussion, "The Kansas City Monarchs and America's National Pastime," on the evening of Wednesday, February 28, as part of Black History Month. It will take place in the Community Room of the USD 409 Board of Education, located at 626 Commercial Street, beginning at 6:00.

The program, made possible by Humanities Kansas, will be presented by Phil Dixon, the author of nine baseball books, leading him to interview over 500 former Negro League players and family members, as well as being a co-founder of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
Atchison United is encouraging those who attend the presentation to wear Kansas City Monarchs Gear as a welcoming to Dixon.
The Kansas City Monarchs barnstormed across Kansas and the region to play more than 400 games between 1920 and 1957 against local towns

According to the release, the talk will shed new light on that sports history, as well as Kansas baseball history. It will also address modern day progress, as 2020 marked two major milestones for baseball: the Negro Leagues celebrated their 100th anniversary and Major League Baseball merged statistics of those African American players with those of the major league. The release says "the history of Negro League baseball in America mirrors the racial strife experienced by African Americans in society, as it was plagued by discrimination, racism, and inequality."

The program is part of Humanities Kansas's Speakers Bureau, featuring humanities-based presentations designed to "share stories that inspire, spark conversations that inform, and generate insights that strengthen civic engagement."