The Kings of Casino Park: Black Baseball in the Lost Season of 1932

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments my friend and advisor Dr. David l. Chappell provided invaluable advice and editing , without which this book would be a rambling epic that probably confused more than it clarified. Dr. neil lanctot and Dr. robert mcmath also provided criticism and commentary that vastly improved the work. even more helpful were four others. Carol fuller and David flickinger were integral to the early development of this project. They drove me around monroe and convincingly feigned interest. Pete aiello met me in nashville and made hunting for the remnants of long-dead negro leagues officials far more fun than any reasonable assumption would allow. Throughout the bulk of this project, Katherine Winsett acted as a chauffeur and de facto research assistant. Without her these pages would probably be blank. Paul J. letlow, former sports editor of the Monroe News-Star and fellow monarchs historian, provided valuable research help and contact information. much of what follows stems from his interviews and research. Jeff newman and scott Greer of the monroe monarchs historical association also provided research and interested, critical ears. ollie burns, Tracy C. DeWitt, vivian hester, Carolyn Kennedy, Jean stovall lee, margaret newman, Clara Poe, Demorris smith, and roosevelt Wright were all very generous with their time. so too were bijan C. bayne, Philip lowery, Deborah Tuggle, mary Quaid of the house legislative services Department of the louisiana house of representatives, Debbie Pendleton of the alabama Department of archives and history, sharon hull smith of the Tennessee state University archives, Tom Kanon of the Tennessee state library and archives, benetta Waller and barbara Grissom of meharry medical College, angela Clark of Campbell University, blake Wintory of the mosaic Templars research Center, rhonda stewart of the butler Center of the little rock Public library, Clara x / acknowledgments freeland of the ouachita County historical society, and Ty blackburn and sheila lewis of morris brown College. The special Collections Department and reference Desk of the ouachita Parish Public library, larry foreman in particular, the microfilm librarians and Cyndy robertson and Glenn Jordan of the special Collections Department of the University of louisiana at monroe, the interlibrary loan department of the mullins library at the University of arkansas, the sheriff’s Department of ouachita Parish, the ouachita Parish Clerk of Court, the librarians of the multimedia collection of the earl K. long library at the University of new orleans, the librarians of the multimedia department of the noel memorial library at louisiana state University at shreveport, the special collections librarians of the hill memorial library at louisiana state University in baton rouge, the athletic departments of southern University and Grambling state University, the negro leagues baseball museum in Kansas City, missouri, the librarians of the a. bartlett Giamatti research Center at the national baseball hall of fame in Cooperstown, new york, the librarians of the Kenneth spencer research library at the University of Kansas, and the librarians of the Division of rare and manuscript Collections in Kroch library at Cornell University were each very kind and helpful. i would also like to thank the editors and peer reviewers of NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture, the Baseball Research Journal, The hall institute of Public Policy, the Arkansas Historical Quarterly, the Ozark Historical Review, the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, North Louisiana History, and Louisiana History, all of whom provided valuable editorial advice. Portions of this book (in vastly modified forms) can be found in each of these publications. similarly, the commentators and questioners at the various conferences where i discussed this work all contributed to the final project and are greatly appreciated . in the final stages of this project, lady vowell smith proved a conscientious and dedicated editor. This book would be far more muddled and confused without her. much of the research that constitutes the appendices of this book was made possible by a generous yoseloff baseball research Grant from the society for american baseball research (sabr). Their support, combined with the interest of sabr’s membership, made this project far easier than it should have been. There were myriad others who made this project possible. larry lester, robert Weems, leslie heaphy, ray Doswell, and John Crowley all helped with photographs , as did Pat Kelly at the national baseball hall of fame, and Gil Pietrzak at the Carnegie library of Pittsburgh. The graduate students and faculty of the acknowledgments / xi Department of history at the University of arkansas provided immeasurable support and kindness during this process, in particular brent riffel...