Beckum-Stapleton Little League

News Detail

20

Mar, 2025

A Visual History of the Beckum-Stapleton Little League

April 11 – May 25, 2025 - Going to Work for the Community: A Visual History of the Beckum-Stapleton Little League

Gallery Night Opening—April 11, 5-9 p.m., featuring a Gallery Talk with the Curators at 6 p.m.

Since former Negro League baseball player James W. Beckum founded the Beckum-Stapleton Little League (BSLL) in 1964, over 25,000 Milwaukee youth have participated in the League’s organized baseball and softball programs. Operating as the oldest Black-led Little League outside the South, the BSLL’s dedicated and diverse community of volunteers, supporters, and players have worked to maintain the League as a vital Milwaukee institution for over half a century. With the recent passing of founder James Beckum on November 11, 2024, and the League currently commemorating its 60th anniversary, celebrating and sharing the history of the BSLL is more important than ever to ensure that this essential part of Milwaukee’s Bronzeville neighborhood continues to fill the City of Milwaukee with pride, joy, and a love of baseball for decades to come.

This exhibition will feature photographs and ephemera from BSLL history and is curated by Dr. Michael Carriere, MSOE HSC Professor, along with Kenneth Jon-Edward Bartelt and Rodney Bourrage, Sr. of the Team Beckum Public History Project.