Anderson Monarchs Baseball Team Stops at Boys and Girls Club
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A little league baseball team that includes superstar pitcher Mo’ne Davis rolled through Montgomery today as part of a 23 day, 21 city Civil Rights tour. They’ve been touring historic sites in the deep south. But today, they took time to visit the Regency Park Boys and Girls Club, which was burglarized twice just days ago.
Alabama News Network was the only local television station there.
The team is from Philadelphia and they are a group of very disciplined, talented baseball players.
For the past six months, they’ve been studying black history and this tour is allowing them to experience first hand where many of the Civil Rights events happened.
As a tribute to Jackie Robinson, the Negro Leagues and the Civil Rights Movement, the Anderson Monarchs Baseball Team is traveling the country, touring places where major Civil Rights events took place. They’re getting from city to city in an authentic 1947 bus, complete with no air-conditioning. Little league pitching sensation Mo’ne Davis, the only girl on the team, says it’s important to learn from the past.
“You don’t want to make those same mistakes in the future because it’s been super hard for African Americans back then and you don’t want it to be as hard,” she said.
Before coming to Montgomery, the team stopped in Birmingham.
“Playing on Rickwood Field, knowing how many historical people have played there,” said player Jared Spratue’lott.
Thursday morning, they toured the Rosa Parks Museum in downtown Montgomery.
“They talked about more in depth about what Rosa Parks did instead of just saying, no, I won’t sit at the back of the bus,” said Myles Eaddy.
The team took a short break from their tour to make a special stop at the Billy Thames Boys and Girls Club in Regency Park. The club, which was burglarized twice just nine days ago, is still missing televisions, computers, and other equipment. But the kids say the team has put a smile on their faces during a tough time.
“It’s real good,” said club member Shanaya Thomas. “It’s nice to know that some people out there, they really do care so it’s real nice.”
“We actually are the oldest African American club in the state so it’s kind of interesting, the timing,” said Boys and Girls Club Director Joe Williams.
Head Coach Steve Bandura says the tour is indeed timely, the first night of the tour, the Charleston, South Carolina church shooting happened.
“If you don’t understand slavery in this country, you can’t understand the Civil Rights Movement. If you don’t understand the Civil Rights Movement, you can no way understand Ferguson and Baltimore and the things going on.”
