June 19, 2021 (Kansas City Star)
Born into slavery in Kentucky in 1859 and emancipated by the Civil War, Junius Groves around 1880 walked 500 miles to Kansas with other freed slaves as part of what became known as the Exodus of Blacks from the South. He arrived carrying 90 cents and later became known as the “Potato King of the World.”
Decades later, Joe Louis became the heavyweight boxing king of the world, defending his title 25 times and striking a momentous symbolic blow against Nazi propaganda by swamping Germany’s Max Schmeling in their 1938 rematch.
Thomas Hunton Swope was a local real estate mogul and philanthropist who died under suspicious circumstances in 1909.
And then there were Kansas Citians Reuben Benton, George Johnson, Leroy Doty and Sylvester “Pat” Johnson, who would become entwined in local history as “The Foursome” with their vital but perhaps underappreciated action in 1950.
On the surface, anyway, there’s no obvious connection among these distant and disparate forces.
But they’re all fundamental parts of a vast and fascinating tapestry of the history of Black golf and Kansas City and American culture, the subject of a documentary being orchestrated by the Black Archives of Mid-America and to be produced by W. Stinson McClendon and Rodney Thompson of Reel Images.
“We want to talk about the good, the bad, the happy and the sad,” said James Watts, ombudsman for the Black Archives. “That’s what life is.”
In this case, as a view through the lens of sports often provides, Watts believes the production will both mirror and illuminate broader truths of the ongoing impact of repression, bigotry, access denied and systemic issues that are “no different than any other story in the pursuit of happiness by Black folks.”
This article originally appeared in the Kansas City Star on June 4, 2021 and updated on June 7, 2021. Read the entire article at https://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/vahe-gregorian/article251866538.html
