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IDKMYDE: Monrovians vs KKK · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Have y'all ever heard about the Wichita Monrovians. Well, on
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: today's episode, if I didn't know, maybe you didn't either.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Let me take you back to nineteen twenty five. Picture
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: this an all black baseball team taking on the KKK
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: in Kansas. I'm talking about a real game, bats balls, bigotry,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: all on the same field. Sit back so I can
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: share the most gangster sports story you'd never heard in
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: your life. I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. I
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: didn't know. Now, the Monrovians, not the Moravians. The Moravians
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: are members of the Moravian Church. The Monrovians refers to
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: the baseball team named after Monrovia, Liberia. They were the
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Wichita Monrovians, and it was a Negro league baseball team
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: in the nineteen twenties, and they used to put belt
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: to ass. But let me say the scene. It's June,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: it's hottest fish grease hundred and two degrees in the shade,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: and these brothers roll up to play against the ku
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Klux Klan's own baseball team. Now, first of all, I
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: ain't even know the KKK had a baseball team. You
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: mean to tell me these foods got time to hate
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: and learn how to bunch. How you multitasking your racism
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: and get this. Both teams agreed to bring in two
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Irish Catholic umpires, but Catholics was on the Klans hit
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: list too, So basically everybody on that field knew they
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: were playing for more than just runs. This was about
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: proving something. It was black excellence versus white supremacy, and
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: y'all know, damn well, excellence always got a better bat
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: and average. So both the game starts and that's a
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: straight up dog fight, great pitching back and forth. But
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: then the Monrovians got hot. They came through with them
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: clutch hits, slid in the bases like they was dodging
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Jim Crow loss. By the end, Monrovians win ten to eight.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: They didn't just beat the Klan, they in bare. Can
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: you imagine a post game plan meeting, now, brother, Jebidah,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: you said you could pinch. You had them colors out
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: there smacking balls laughing, right, Jebidah, we might have to
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: take your white card. Jebidaih. Now you might think, what's
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: the big deal, just a baseball game, but Nah, this
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: was deeper than that. This is nineteen twenty five. It
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: wasn't just about sports. This was about black folks standing tall,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: staring oppression right in the face and saying, we'll beat
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: you at your own game. And they did. Now, fast
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: forward to today, what's the lesson. We still swinging, y'all.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Every time we excel in places that they said we couldn't.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: We're still channeling that Monrovian spirit. So the next time
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: someone tries to play you, just remember, if the Monrovians
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: can beat the Klan in nineteen twenty five, you can
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: handle Karen in Hr On Monday. You didn't time mine
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: because I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either, I didn't know.