WICHITA MONROVIANS VS. THE KANSAS KLAN LODGE 6. Digital Design Reimagine by Aaron Kleiber

This 4-card series by Aaron Kleiber honors the centennial of one of the most powerful and complex games in American sports history on June 21st, 1925 in Wichita, Kansas.

Founded as part of the Coloured Western League, the Wichita Monrovians, formerly known as the Black Wonders, club president J. M. Booker, an attorney in Wichita, and partners, name inspired by Monrovia, the capital of African nation, Liberia, symbolizing Black self-determination. First incorporated as The Monrovian Corporation, later the Monrovian Park Association, with a stock value of $10,000. A value of roughly $150,000 today. “One of the first colored corporations in the West” to own and maintain both a team and a ballpark. 

The team was entirely run by Black professionals and used ticket sales to support social causes such as Phyllis Wheatley Children’s Home, which also sponsored one of the first organized women’s baseball teams. In 1923, the Monrovians reportedly finished with an incredible 52–8 record, playing not only Black leagues but also white industrial and amateur clubs. The Monrovians vanished by the early 1930s, but their legacy as a cultural powerhouse in 1920's Wichita remains. ​

JUNE 21ST,1925. ISLAND PARK STADIUM. WICHITA, KANSAS.

The 'Wichita Klan Lodge 6' played a baseball game against the former Western Coloured League powerhouse, the Wichita Monrovians. After being ousted by Kansas legislature that year, no longer able to hold charter status, the Kansas Klan looked for last ditch 'publicity stunts to appease lawmakers. Prior to this game, the Monrovians had been touring for six days through western Oklahoma, barnstorming thru six games. The Wichita Beacon news story leading up to the game cited some bizarre ground rules; "Strangle holds, razors, horsewhips, and other violent implements of argument will be barred at the baseball game at Island Park this afternoon when the baseball club of Wichita Klan Number 6 goes up against the Wichita Monrovians, Wichita’s crack colored team." A fair game was called by "non-bias Irish Cathollic umpires." “Played in front of a “good-sized crowd” on a scorching Sunday, with “searing winds” pushing the temperature to 102 degrees.” Brian Carroll wrote in “Beating the Klan” (The Baseball Research Journal, 2008) that the match began as a low-scoring pitching duel but turned into “a see-saw battle” that “ended with a blizzard of scoring.” Proceeds were donated to charity.

MONROVIANS WIN 10-8

This digital art series reimagines the Monrovians and that game through vintage-inspired baseball card design from the 1960s, decades that defined American baseball card art but largely excluded the legends of the Negro Leagues.

The info and photos I’m sharing are mostly what exists of that game and the Monrovians team. It’s also not conclusive WHAT players may have comprised the roster that day. But.. I did a ton of research. Every player ‘barnstormed’ for money then and we can only speculate an educated guess of WHO might have played for the Monrovians on June 21st, 1925.
Which is why I’ve included NEWT ALLEN & THOMAS ‘T-BABY’ YOUNG.

AK

** I created this digital art using Adobe Photoshop, Stock, Fonts, Creative;  this is NOT AI, I also researched and wrote the copy. **