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Mural Arts celebrated Jackie Robinson Day Wednesday by unveiling the design for its new Philadelphia Stars Negro League Baseball mural in West Parkside.
The new mural will go up across the street from where its previous version stood since 2005, until it was taken down earlier this year.
In its new position once a new wall is built and cured, it will serve as a backdrop to a 7-foot bronze statue of a baseball player — created by Phil Stumpter — in the Philadelphia Stars Negro Leagues Memorial Park, on the corner of Parkside and Belmont avenues.
The unveiling in front of students from local charter schools included West Parkside community leaders, former players from the Philadelphia Phillies and one player who played for the Stars.
“It’s lovely to have anything to represent baseball — and especially Black baseball — in Philadelphia,” said Arlington “Ollie” Henderson, who was with the team in 1955. “Because when I was playing in the midget leagues, we couldn’t play in the majors. But we changed that. Jackie Robinson changed that.”
Former Phillies player and World Series champion coach Milt Thompson said the new mural and the day always resonated with him and his own baseball career. His grandfather, father and uncle all barnstormed in the Negro Leagues and growing up he idolized Jackie Robinson, to the point of training up his right arm so he could play second base up until high school, despite being left-handed.
“[Robinson] inspired me to be the best person you want to be, and anything you want is not going to come easy. You got to grind and find a way to make it happen,” Thompson said.
David McShane created the first iteration of the mural 21 years ago as an emerging artist. Today, as Mural Art’s senior mural production advisor, he was asked to design the new version.
Many artists — or this one Billy Penn reporter, at least — may often dream of a second chance at a canvas after a piece is finished. McShane is getting that chance on a lower, but wider wall which he said offered the opportunity to “tell a longer, more rich story.”
“I feel honored that I was asked to sort of re-envision it and think about it again,” he said. “And with that opportunity I thought, ‘Oh, this is a great chance to be able to actually expand on the story that we told.’”
To draw inspiration on the compositions of the original mural, McShane met with Miller Parker and Marjorie Ogilvie of the Philadelphia Business and Technology Center, researched the almanacs, photos and records that were available, and interviewed four local players who at the time were still living: Mahlon Duckett, Stanley “Doc” Glenn, Bill “Ready” Cash and Harold Gould.
McShane aimed to represent the vibrant stories he was told: The crowd scenes showing people in their “Sunday bests,” the long grass and well-worn baseballs that the players had to play with, and the flair and showmanship of players like Satchel Paige, Harold Bould and Roy “Red” Parnell.
“Hearing those stories made me want to put some of that in there to really emphasize the struggles and the inequities,” he said “Here are some of the most talented athletes in America and they’re sort of barred because of their skin color from what was framed as the national pastime.”
The original mural faced several rounds of restorations and repairs until the building was eventually torn down in January. Despite Mural Art’s assurances that it will soon be replaced, many on the internet were not happy — and McShane said he was looped in on all the angry emails sent to the group.
With the new mural, McShane saw a chance to bring back many of those elements, and expand on the story that the previous mural told. To do that, he’s adding several more of the Stars’ greatest players, as well as team owner and founder Ed Bolden. He also had room to incorporate other Negro League teams, stadiums and other African American baseball teams from the Philadelphia region.
Along with McShane’s mural design, artist Miguel Antonio Horn will be adding a perimeter fence art screen to the park, which will pay further homage to the community that came to see the Stars play, and came to see the mural be unveiled.
“I think it’s also important to memorialize that community,” he said. “This is an African American neighborhood and this is a moment where there is a lot of change. So I thought it would be really relevant to honor the people who are living here, honor this community, but also memorialize that in a way that that will live on permanently.”
The Philadelphia Stars were founded in 1933 and disbanded in 1952. The team won one Negro National League pennant in 1934 and mainly played at the 44th and Parkside location where the new mural will stand.
“This is an American story that needs to be told, particularly in Philadelphia,” McShane said.
Construction on the wall will begin as early as Thursday, and McShane said the mural could be up on the wall and ready for its dedication by late summer or early fall.
“What would be great is if the Phillies win the World Series,” he said. “Then we could have an extra celebration, as far as that goes.”
