Source: San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images / Getty
People ain’t s#!t and no time does that become more apparent than Black History Month.
A Jackie Robinson commemorative statue was stolen from McAdams Park, a youth baseball field in Wichita, Kansas, and was desecrated by burning according to a Yahoo! Sports report. On Jan. 24, the statue was cut away at the ankles and taken leaving police and the community at large searching for it. It was finally located this past Tuesday when police and fire department were called to the scene of a fire, the statue was damaged beyond all repair.
To add insult to injury, the art piece was the property of League 42, an organization founded by Bob Lutz in 2013 to help make the game more accessible to children in areas where baseball fields are few and far between. Moreover, the program aims to celebrate Robinson and the groundbreaking work he did as Major League Baseball’s first African-American player.
On Wednesday, Jan. 31, the day before the beginning of Black History Month, Jackie Robinson would have turned 105 years old. Again, people ain’t s#!t.
KMUW reports that Lutz spoke at a press conference to address what can only be described as a hate crime.
“We’re going to move forward here and not look back. Today is a day where we know what’s ahead of us, and we’re going to confront that head on,” Lutz said. “The statue that reappears at McAdams Park will be the work of John Parsons.”
John Parsons is the original sculptor who has since passed away but fortunately, he left a mold of his work so that it can be recreated in its true form.
All that said, there is a silver lining to this KKKloud. According to The Guardian, an online fundraiser amassed more than $160,000 worth of donations to replace the $75,000 statue with the support of the public and all 30 MLB teams.
