- This event has passed.
TN Writers | TN Stories with Keith Wood
April 12 @ 10:30 am - 11:30 am CDT
The Memphis Red Sox: A Negro Leagues History examines Memphis’s symbolic meaning and value as a Negro leagues baseball city during Jim Crow. It locates the main intersections between black professional baseball and the South in the four decades that spanned the modern Negro leagues era and analyzes the racial dynamics in the city through the lens of the Memphis Red Sox, a black-owned and operated organization that stood as a pillar of success. Baseball also provides a way to examine the racial inequalities and issues that pervaded the city in those years. A black-owned stadium served as a forum for political assertion and an arena for real political struggle for blacks in Memphis.
About the Author and Guest
Keith B. Wood, Ph.D. teaches at Christian Brothers High School in Memphis, TN. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Memphis. His research revolves around the intersection of race and sport in Memphis. In addition to the Memphis Red Sox, he is the author of Memphis Hoops: Race, Basketball & the Bluff City, which examines the city through the lens of Memphis State University’s first star black basketball player turned coach Larry Finch following the tragic assassination of MLK Jr in the city.
Image of man with Baseball Hat with Letter N on itSkip Nipper is the author of Baseball in Nashville (2007, Arcadia Publishing) and a board member and past president of the Nashville Old Timers Baseball Association. Regarded for his expertise on the history of the city’s famed Sulphur Dell ballpark, he publishes his research at baseballinnashville.com and broadcasts it on his Nashville Baseball History podcast channel. A member of the Society for American Baseball Research and a contributing writer to SABR’s Biography Project, Nipper was honored with the Achievement Award by the Metro Nashville Historical Commission during the 48th Annual Preservation Awards at the Nashville Public Library on May 6, 2024.
