History Conversations REWIND: In Search of the Ballfields of Montgomery’s Black Communities

Rev. Tim Warner says that for many of Montgomery County’s Black communities, “History is buried with the people.” Along with churches and schools, baseball was the center of civic life for many of the county’s small towns for much of the first half of the 20th century. Nearly every Black area had a town team with the community’s name on the jersey such as Clarksburg, Emory Grove, Germantown, Poolesville, Rockville, Scotland, Stewartown, and Sandy Spring. On Saturdays and Sundays after church, hundreds would turn out to support their teams. On Memorial Day, a thousand fans would descend on Emory Grove for a picnic and ballgames at the county’s finest ballfield, Johnson Park. This talk will explore the story of these town teams and the meaning to their communities during the decades when Negro League baseball was thriving across the country from the 1920s through the early 1960s.

 

Originally aired at the 2021 Montgomery County History Conference.