Kansas City Monarchs Uniform

1922 - 1944

Newton (Newt) Allen wore this red and white wool uniform while playing ball for the Kansas City Monarchs in the 1930s. Allen’s uniform embodies the team’s significance to the Negro Leagues and African American baseball players in Missouri. Excluded from the Major Leagues, Black players faced few options to continue their baseball careers. In February 1920, Andrew “Rube” Foster and other baseball team owners met in Kansas City where they established the Negro National League (NNL). Although segregated, the NNL provided Black athletes an avenue to play baseball professionally. As a founding team of the NNL, the Monarchs were vital in legitimizing the League. In their forty years together, the Monarchs produced more players than any other team in the NNL. Allen’s uniform survives as a reminder of the Monarchs, a team that offered African American men an opportunity to play at a time when racial segregation prevented them from joining teams in Major League Baseball.