about
where history touches home

Paying Rightful Tribute

The privately funded, 501 c3, not-for-profit organization was established in 1990 and is in the heart of Kansas City, Missouri’s Historic 18th & Vine Jazz District. The NLBM operates two blocks from the Paseo YMCA where Andrew “Rube” Foster established the Negro National League in 1920.

The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum opened its doors to the public in a tiny, one-room office space in 1991 with a dream of building a permanent facility that would pay rightful tribute to America’s unsung baseball heroes. In November of 1997, under the leadership of its late chairman John “Buck” O’Neil, that dream became a reality when the NLBM moved into its new 10,000 square-foot home inside a cultural complex known as the Museums at 18th & Vine.

Since that time, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum has welcomed more than 2-million visitors and has become one of the most important cultural institutions in the world for its work to give voice to a once forgotten chapter of baseball and American history. In July of 2006, the NLBM gained National Designation from the United States Congress earning the distinction of being “America’s National Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.”

Current Facility Exhibition Credits: 

Exhibit Design: ESA Design, H&H Communications
Facade Design: Murphy & Orr
Exhibit Fabrication: Display Studios
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum Field of Legends Bronze Sculptures: Professor Kwan Wu & Veritas Bronze (formerly Oxbow Foundry) team–John Forsythe, Terra Brunton, Kelly Miller and Rob Ojeda.