(upbeat music) (crowd cheering) ♪ It's you and me against the world ♪ - [Speaker 1] Wherever you had successful Black baseball, you typically had thriving Black economies.

(energetic music) - You have vendors and you have advertising.

You know, people were making money from it.

♪ 'Cause we're runnin', runnin', runnin' away ♪ - But integration was going to kill their businesses.

- It was good morally, but that progress came at a cost.

(energetic music) ♪ Runnin', runnin' ♪ - [Speaker 2] White fans saw a kind of baseball they had never seen before.

- [Speaker 3] The great ball players of the Leagues.

- [Speaker 4] Jackie Robinson- - [Speaker 3] Buck Leonard- - [Speaker 6] Satchel Paige- - [Speaker 7] Willie Mays- - [Speaker 3] Cool Papa Bell- - [Speaker 7] Hank Aaron- - [Speaker 3] Oscar Charleston- - [Speaker 8] Joshua Gibson.

- [Speaker 3] We transformed the game.

(energetic music) ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah - They are a part of a movement before we coined the term, "Civil Rights Movement".

- Man, they didn't care about making no history.

They just wanted to play ball.

But the pride, the passion, the courage, in the face of adversity, that's the real story.

(energetic music) - Hi, everyone, Steve Adubato at the New Jersey Education Association Convention in AC, Atlantic City.

We're with Byron Motley, who is a tremendous musician, photographer, filmmaker, and producer, and that's why he is here.

Filmmaker and producer of a great film called "The League."

Good to see you.

- Great to be here.

- Tell everyone what "The League" is.

- "The League" is a documentary about the old Negro Baseball Leagues, and it also tells a story about my father, who was the last living umpire from the Negro Leagues.

- Hold on, your dad was the last living umpire in the Negro Leagues?

- In the Negro leagues, yes.

- You grew up around this?

- I grew up around that.

- Where'd you grow up?

- Actually, in Kansas City, but- - That was a big... Kansas City was a huge place for Negro League Baseball.

- Yeah.

So I grew up there.

Unfortunately, the Negro Leagues were disbanded by the time I was born, but I grew up hearing those stories from my father from the time I was a kid.

And it was amazing hearing those stories.

Being a child, you're like "Oh, that's the old people, "that old stuff," but as I got older and realized God, the importance of those stories.

And then I saw the Ken Burns documentary- - [Steve] On baseball.

- Baseball.

- Well, back in '94, I think that was, not sure.

- In '94, yeah.

- So you're watching it.

Does it speak to you?

- It does.

And what it spoke to me was like "This is great, "and I love this, "but these are not the stories I heard "as a child growing up.

"So there's a lot more to this story "than what I'm hearing in this documentary."

- That's how "The League" starts?

- That's- - In your head.

- In my head.

But I'd never made a film before, and it took 24 years to- - Go on back.

I think it you misspoke.

Did you just say it took 24- - 24 years, 'cause I had no idea what I was doing when I first started.

And I went to a friend of mine who had done a lot of movies and everything.

I tried to talk to him about doing this project for me, and I told my father's stories.

He was laughing.

He got it, he got it.

I thought "Perfect."

And I finished, I said, "What do you think?"

He says "I'm not the person to do this story, you are."

And I laughed so hard.

I thought "This man has lost his mind.

"I'm a singer, I'm a songwriter.

"I don't do films."

And it took 24 years to actually get it done.

But I started doing the work 24 years ago, almost here in Atlantic City.

- Well, yeah, hold on one second.

Byron was telling us something.

Stand up for a second, could we get the Dalton on camera?

Bacharach.

- [Byron] Bacharach.

- [Steve] That's not just any name, it's a real name of a team.

- Yes, the Bacharach Giants.

- From?

- From- - Don't say Atlantic City.

- From Atlantic City.

Atlantic City.

The name of the owner, the mayor of Atlantic City at that time, the team was named after him.

- What does Burt Bacharach have to do with this?

- Burt Bacharach was his nephew.

Burt Bacharach was related to the owner.

- The Burt Bach- - The Burt Bach... And Burt did not know that until I met him.

And I said, I said your grandfather... First I said "Your grandfather was..." and I said the man's name.

He says "No, that was my uncle."

I said "Did you know he owned "the Negro League Baseball team?"

He says "I had no idea."

- He didn't know this?

- Did not know this.

Burt Bacharach did not know.

- You interviewed Burt Bach... By the way, we're at the NJEA Convention, you can hear things are going on.

There's a lot of activity here.

But let me ask you something.

You interviewed Burt Bacharach, but you also interviewed some other great Negro League stars.

- Sure.

Monte Irvin.

Oh my gosh, so many.

- I got some names, ready?

- Satchel Paige.

- The Satchel Paige.

The great Satchel Paige.

Buck O'Neil.

- Buck O'Neil.

- How about Willie Mays and Hank Aaron in the Negro Leagues?

- I interviewed both of those guys, yep.

- When you're talking to them, especially Willie Mays and Hank Aaron who became two of the greatest all time Major League Baseball players, their recollection of the Negro Leagues, talk about that.

- Well it was amazing to hear their stories, and to see how humble they were about what they had done, and what they had...

They didn't realize they were creating history, they were just playing a baseball game, like my father.

He was umpiring a baseball game to make a little money, and have some fun.

So, like him, Hank and Willie were just ballplayers.

- [Steve] Right.

- And when they talked about it they were in awe of what that league meant to them.

And they realize the importance of being a part of the Negro Leagues, and what it did for their careers.

'Cause they would not have had a career in Major League Baseball without being a part of the Negro Leagues.

- Jackie Robinson was in the Negro Leagues.

- Absolutely.

- How long?

- One year.

- I was just gonna say one year.

- With the Kansas City Monarchs.

- And Larry Doby.

- Larry Doby for about three or four years with the Newark Eagles.

- [Steve] The Newark Eagles were a big deal.

- [Byron] Huge.

Effa Manley's team.

- Could you do this, because I'm remember them, our sister series, we did a great... Jackie Tricarico and I did a great special on Effa Manley.

Who was Effa Manley, and why does she matter?

'Cause I think your next film is gonna be about Effa Manley.

Talk about her.

- Effa Manley was, oh my God, an incredible woman.

A woman far ahead of her time.

She was a half Black woman, we think.

(laughs) 'Cause she never really revealed.

She said she was white, but she actually was probably a little mulatto.

And if you see a picture of her mother, you know she's definitely mulatto.

But she was the first woman to really co-own a Negro League Baseball team with her husband Abe.

And made stars- - And that was the Newark- - Newark Eagles.

- Eagles.

Now she ran the team.

- Ran the team.

- Made the deals, the sponsorship, advertising deals.

- Did it all.

A woman in a man's space, doing all of that.

- And talk about the baseball Hall of Fame and Effa Manley.

- She's the first woman, only woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, the only woman ever, and will probably be the only woman ever in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

She was way ahead of her time.

- Let me ask you something.

You're here at the convention.

By the way, we're talking to Byron Motley, he's a singer, songwriter, photographer, musician, but producer and filmmaker of "The League."

The money part, because those of us who are involved in broadcasting, particularly affiliated with public broadcasting, we're raising money all the time, where'd the money come from for this?

- Mark Cuban's company.

(laughs) - Mag- - Mark Cuban.

- What company put up the money?

- [Byron] Magnolia.

- Magnolia, that's what I thought.

- Yeah.

- That's Mark Cuban's company?

- [Byron] Mark Cuban.

- I should have known that.

But what were you...

Were you self financing before that?

- Yes, for the most part, yeah.

Also, the owner of the Kansas City Royals, when he passed away, his daughter-in-law was friends with my mother, and my mother was telling her about what I was working on.

She said "How can I help him?"

She had gotten all this money from Ewing Kauffman.

And mother told her what I was doing, and I talked to her on the phone.

She says "Would this amount of money be okay?"

I'm like "Yes."

(both laugh) "Yes."

So that got me going.

- How great a feeling when you knew that Mark Cuban's company Magnolia Productions, they were all in?

- Amazing.

I mean what do you say to that?

No?

(laughs) yeah.

- I gotta ask you something.

As someone who's worked so hard, 24 years on this film, and it's part of the, there's a film series going on here, film festival at the New Jersey Education Association Convention.

What's it gonna be like to have so many people not just watch the film, but be moved by it, for you?

- Well that means the world to me.

I mean the fact that people are gonna learn about this history.

And I always tell people don't stop watching the film.

There is so much more information we can learn.

Read a book.

Just do research, and learn more about this incredible history 'cause it's not only American history, not only Black history, but this to me is world history.

There's so many great stories, and people that created this league of really of nothingness.

Of a baseball game that became so important to our culture.

- Before I let you go, I gotta ask you this.

Byron, when baseball was integrated with Jackie Robinson first and then the great Larry Doby from New Jersey after that, it hurt the Negro Leagues.

- Yeah.

- Did it kill the Negro Leagues?

- Pretty much.

- So Major League Baseball, after banning African Americans, they're taking the best players from the Negro Leagues, and so therefore the league- - And they knew that it was gonna kill the league.

That's why Effa Manley fought them so hard because she was like "No, this is what we created."

- [Steve] This is our thing.

- This is our thing.

But you couldn't fight, you couldn't fight the- - Money.

Can't fight money like that.

- [Byron] Yeah, not like that.

- It's a great story.

And it's called "The League."

And Byron Motley is the producer and filmmaker.

You honor us by joining us, my friend.

- Oh, thank you, it's an honor.

- All the best.

- Thank you so much.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Celebrating 30 years in public broadcasting.

Funding has been provided by The New Jersey Education Association.

NJ Best, New Jersey’s five-two-nine college savings plan.

Atlantic Health System.

Rowan University.

Citizens Philanthropic Foundation.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

PSEG Foundation.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

And by NJM Insurance Group.

Promotional support provided by NJ.Com.

And by ROI-NJ.

- (Narrator) New Jersey is home to the best public schools in the nation, and that didn't happen by accident.

It's the result of parents, educators and communities working together year after year to give our students a world class education.

No matter the challenge, because parents and educators know that with a shared commitment to our public schools, our children can learn, grow and thrive.

And together, we can keep New Jersey's public schools the best in the nation.