Early black players paid little, but played much
Phil Dixon outlined what it was like to be black and a professional baseball player before the major leagues were integrated at the start of the 1947 season. Dixon was the featured speaker at the spring meeting of the Allen County Historical Society Tuesday evening.
He dwelt on the Monarchs, a highly regarded Kansas City team that twice won the Negro Leagues world series and often played in small towns in what was called barnstorming. The Monarchs played in Iola twice in 1922, in Humboldt in 1923 and Chanute in 1937.