The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Fourth-grader Donovan Bohannon showed up at Roswell’s City Hall Sunday to see Negro League baseball infielder James “Red” Moore and an exhibition of photographs featuring many of Moore’s teammates from baseball’s segregated era.
“I never thought I’d be able to meet any of them,” said Donovan, a student at Hembry Springs Elementary School in Roswell. He and a few dozen other people came to meet the man who was known for putting on flashy fielding demonstrations before games.
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Joey Ivansco/StaffDonovan Bohannon, 9, (left) and Josh Bell, 10, got face to face with history in the person of James ‘Red’ Moore, who played in the Negro Major Leagues.
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Joey Ivansco/jivansco@ajc.comJames ‘Red’ Moore, 92, autographs a shirt for Tawanna Sellars. Moore was the guest of honor Sunday during the ‘Legends, Legacies and Torchbearers: The Brenda J. Turner Collection’ exhibit celebrating the Negro Major League for Black History Month in Roswell.
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For Donovan’s father, Ken Bohannon, the event was an opportunity to show his kids that the opportunities now open to African-Americans weren’t always available.
“They don’t know how we got here,” he said.
Moore was born in Atlanta and, at age 92, still lives here. He played first base for the Atlanta Black Crackers, among other Negro League teams in the era before Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947 and became the first African-American to play for a major league team.
The Atlanta Black Crackers played home games at the old Ponce de Leon Park in Midtown Atlanta, the same field used by the white Atlanta Crackers.
Brenda Turner, a Marietta photographer, started the collection of Negro League players. She became fascinated by the history of African-Americans in sports when she stumbled across a pin featuring black gymnast Dominique Dawes at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
She was glad for the opportunity to show off her collection and to let people meet Moore, whom she called a “real hero.”
But she wishes Americans would give more attention to Negro League players and other African-American achievers during months other than February — Black History Month.
“It’s sad to me that it constantly has to be tied into black history,” said Turner, who is herself African-American. “It’s not just black history. It’s American history.”
For his part, Moore is pleased for the run of attention he and the few other surviving Negro League players have been receiving in recent years.
He has been inducted into the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame, honored by a Georgia General Assembly resolution and drafted by the Atlanta Braves in an honorary draft for Negro League players.
“I’m just glad God’s let me live this long to enjoy it,” he said.
Atlanta Black Crackers player brings history to life | ajc.com
