The Negro Leagues Baseball Grave Marker Project is an effort started by

Peoria, Illinois Peoria ( ) is the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and the largest city on the Illinois River. As of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census, the city had a population of 113,150. It is the principal city of the Peoria ...

anesthesiologist Anesthesiology, anaesthesiology, or anaesthesia is the medical specialty concerned with the total perioperative care of patients before, during and after surgery. It encompasses anesthesia, intensive care medicine, critical emergency medicine, ...

Jeremy Krock and with support of the

Society for American Baseball Research The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is a membership organization dedicated to fostering the research and dissemination of the history and record of baseball primarily through the use of statistics. Established in Cooperstown, New ...

to put a proper

headstone A headstone, tombstone, or gravestone is a stele or marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. It is traditional for burials in the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religions, among others. In most cases, it has the deceased's name, da ...

on the graves of former

Negro league baseball The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...

players.

History of the Project

Founded in 2004, the Project started when Dr. Krock contacted members of the

after he discovered there was no

on the grave of

Jimmie Crutchfield John "Jimmie" William Crutchfield (March 25, 1910 – April 1, 1993) was a professional baseball outfielder in Negro league baseball from 1930 to 1945. Career Crutchfield began his career with the Birmingham Black Barons in 1930 but the foll ...

, a player who grew up in Krock's childhood home of

Ardmore, Missouri Ardmore is an unincorporated community in Macon County, in the U.S. state of Missouri. History Ardmore was platted in the early 1890s as a mining community A mining community, also known as a mining town or a mining camp, is a community that ...

."Negro Leagues project marks history" ESPN's Outside the Lines" ESPN Network, Last Update on February 20, 2011
/ref> After

Crutchfield Crutchfield Corporation is a North American retailer specializing in a wide range of electronics, including mobile audio and video equipment for the automobile, along with speakers, televisions, and other electronics for home or portable use, se ...

, the Project went on to place headstones on the graves of notables like John Donaldson,

Candy Jim Taylor James Allen "Candy Jim" Taylor (February 1, 1884April 3, 1948) was an American third baseman and manager in Negro league baseball. In a career that spanned forty years, he played as an infielder in the early years of the 20th century for over a ...

, Theodore "High Pockets" Trent,

Steel Arm Johnny Taylor John Boyce Taylor (August 12, 1879 – March 25, 1956) was the second-oldest of four baseball-playing brothers, the others being Charles, Benjamin, and James. Taylor was a pitcher and played in professional pre-league and Negro league baseball ...

Sam Bankhead Samuel Howard Bankhead (September 18, 1910 – July 24, 1976) was an American baseball player in the Negro leagues. He played from 1931 to 1951. He also played for the Dragones de Ciudad Trujillo along with Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson. In 1951, ...

, Bobby Robinson,

Bill Gatewood William Miller "Big Bill" Gatewood (August 22, 1881 – December 8, 1962) was an American Negro league baseball pitcher and manager for several years before the founding of the first Negro National League, and in its first few seasons. He pitch ...

, James Edward "Sap" Ivory, Robery "Fuzzy" Garrett, Frank Grant"Negro League Star Frank Grant Finally Gets Tombstone In Clifton, NJ" CBS Radio, WCBS 880 AM, New York, NY Website Posting on June 15, 2011
/ref> and

Dink Mothell Carroll Ray "Dink" Mothell (August 13, 1897 – April 24, 1980) was a catcher and utility player who played for 15 years in the Negro leagues. Known for his versatility, Mothell played every position. It was said you could use him "most any place, ...

."Negro Leagues' heroes finally get their tombstones" NBC Nightly News, July 19, 2011
/ref> Some of the cemeteries where the group has installed stones include

Burr Oak Cemetery Burr Oak Cemetery is a cemetery located in Alsip, Illinois, United States, a suburb southwest of Chicago, Illinois. Established in 1927, Burr Oak was one of the few early Chicago cemeteries focused on the needs of the African-American community, ...

Cook County, Illinois Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40% of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. As of 20 ...

Springdale Cemetery Springdale Cemetery is a historic, non-sectarian, active cemetery in the United States city of Peoria, Illinois. It was chartered in 1855, received its first interment in 1857. Almost 78,000 individuals are buried at the cemetery. It contains a p ...

, East Ridgelawn Cemetery in

Clifton, New Jersey Clifton is a city in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Criss-crossed by several major highways, the city is a regional commercial hub for North Jersey and is a bedroom suburb of New York City in the New York Metropolitan Area. As ...

, Mt. Zion Cemetery in

York County, Pennsylvania York County ( Pennsylvania Dutch: Yarrick Kaundi) is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 456,438. Its county seat is York. The county was created on August 19, 1749, from part of Lancaster ...

,"Baseball historians pull back curtain on Wizard of York" Fox43 News, York, PA, May 30, 2017 Retrieved June 1, 2017
/ref> and Greenwood Cemetery and

Allegheny Cemetery Allegheny Cemetery is one of the largest and oldest burial grounds in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is a historic rural cemetery. The non-sectarian, wooded hillside park is located at 4734 Butler Street in the Lawrenceville neighborhood, and boun ...

"Awards To Honor Legacy Of Negro League Baseball Great" KDKA, CBS News, Pittsburgh, PA, August 14, 2011
/ref> which are both in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

. While the grave marker project depends mostly on small contributions, the group has also received sizeable donations from people like

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and p ...

owner

Jerry Reinsdorf Jerry Michael Reinsdorf (born February 25, 1936) is the owner of the NBA's Chicago Bulls and MLB's Chicago White Sox. He started his professional life as a tax attorney with the Internal Revenue Service. He has been the owner of the White So ...

, former player and manager

Don Zimmer Donald William Zimmer (January 17, 1931 – June 4, 2014) was an American infielder, manager, and coach in Major League Baseball (MLB). Zimmer was involved in professional baseball from 1949 until his death, a span of 65 years, across 8 d ...

, and former 8th

Commissioner of Baseball The Commissioner of Baseball is the chief executive officer of Major League Baseball (MLB) and the associated Minor League Baseball (MiLB) – a constellation of leagues and clubs known as "organized baseball". Under the direction of the Commiss ...

Fay Vincent Francis Thomas Vincent Jr. (born May 29, 1938), known as Fay Vincent, is a former entertainment lawyer, securities regulator, and sports executive who served as the eighth Commissioner of Major League Baseball from September 13, 1989 to Septembe ...

. In fact,

Vincent Vincent ( la, Vincentius) is a male given name derived from the Roman name Vincentius, which is derived from the Latin word (''to conquer''). People with the given name Artists *Vincent Apap (1909–2003), Maltese sculptor *Vincent van Gogh ...

noted he had met

and liked him. Vincent has gone on to say the

Baseball color line The color line, also known as the color barrier, in American baseball excluded players of black African descent from Major League Baseball and its affiliated Minor Leagues until 1947 (with a few notable exceptions in the 19th century before the li ...

which led to good black athletes being excluded from

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

was ..."one of the great insults to a community." The project has managed to seed other gravesite work in the community and in the burial industry. For instance, the wife of

lay beside him and was also unmarked until the

Cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

donated a marker for Julia Crutchfield. Olivia Taylor, the wife of

C.I. Taylor Charles Isham Taylor (January 20, 1875 – February 23, 1922) was an Americans, American second baseman, manager (baseball), manager and executive in Negro league baseball. Born in Anderson, South Carolina, he was the oldest among four sons of a M ...

is also on the list for a

. Often a

, such as the marker for

"For Negro League Players, a Measure of Recognition" New York Times, June 30, 2010
/ref> was donated by the

engraver, which automatically advances the donated money to the next

player

. Baseball historian Larry Lester works with Dr. Krock and with other researchers of the

, they have compiled a list of about 3,600 players, their birth dates and death dates, where they are buried, and if they have headstones. Much of the research comes from the Negro Leagues Research Committee, an arm of the

List of Players Given Headstones by the Project

List of Players Given Headstones by Coordinators Outside the Project

(2007 - Springdale Cemetery) Organized by Pekin Coalition for Equality *

Lester Lockett Lester Lockett (March 25, 1912 – October 4, 2005) was an American baseball player in the Negro League baseball, Negro leagues. He played from 1937 to 1948 with several teams. References External links anSeamheads Home Run Johnson Grant U. "Home Run" Johnson (September 23, 1872 – September 4, 1963) was an American shortstop and second baseman in baseball's Negro leagues. In a career that spanned over 30 years, he played for many of the greatest teams of the deadball era ...

(2014 - Lakeside Cemetery) Funding efforts led by Henry W. Henry, Jr."Immortalizing a little-known legend" The Buffalo News, June 25, 2014. Retrieved June 25, 2014.
/ref> * Clarence "Waxey" Williams (2016 - Atlantic City Cemetery) Coordinated with the Friends of Waxey Williams

Future Grave Markers Currently Receiving Funding

Honors and awards

In 2011, the

Josh Gibson Joshua Gibson (December 21, 1911 – January 20, 1947) was an American baseball catcher primarily in the Negro leagues. Baseball historians consider Gibson among the best power hitters and catchers in baseball history. In 1972, he became the se ...

"Celebration Of Negro Leagues Held Downtown" KDKA, CBS News, Pittsburgh, PA, August 14, 2011
/ref> foundation honored Dr. Krock and the people behind his Grave Marker Project.

Gibson Gibson may refer to: People * Gibson (surname) Businesses * Gibson Brands, Inc., an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and audio equipment * Gibson Technology, and English automotive and motorsport company based * Gi ...

himself was buried in an unmarked grave for nearly three decades. Krock has received numerous awards from

, including a 2011

Most Valuable Partner Award at the

Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference The Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference (JMNLC) is an annual conference sponsored by Negro league baseball, Negro leagues Committee (NLC), a standing committee of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organizatio ...

. Krock also gives an annual report at this conference.

Burr Oak Cemetery Controversy

On July 9, 2009 Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart alleged that four workers at

dug up more than 200 graves, dumped the bodies into unmarked mass graves, and resold the plots in a scheme that went back at least five years.

has become well known as one of the few cemeteries that has historically focused on the needs of the

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

community, it is the final resting place of many black celebrities, including Chicago blues musicians, athletes, and other notables. Chicago's

Cook County Sheriff's Office The Cook County Sheriff's Office is the principal law enforcement agency that serves Cook County, Illinois, Cook County, Illinois. It is the second largest sheriff's department in the United States, with over 6,900 members when at full operationa ...

created a website to give anyone in the world the ability to search 43,555 photos in a database of marked, identified graves at the Burr Oak Cemetery. While it is unknown if any

players' graves were involved in the

scandal, researchers continue work to determine if this is true.

References

{{Reflist, colwidth=30em

External links

The Official Website of the Negro Leagues Baseball Grave Marker Project

Cook County Sheriff's Office Burr Oak Cemetery Information Website

Ongoing Research Site for John Donaldson

The Carrol Ray "Dink" Mothell Research Site
Negro league baseball