In ARCHIVES by author Michael S. Harper asks what is remembered in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Where especially are the great African American players: Rube Roster, Josh Gibson, Frank Robinson, Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson, and, evoked by these famous names, others? In an interview with Michael Antonucci, Harper spoke of his reason for writing this poem, asking, “How long would it take the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, to acknowledge these black players?”[1] When asked about “history and memory” in his work, Harper deferred, making readers, especially archivists, trust him even more by telling of the weight of what “I know and what I need to discover” as intention.
An aside: The Hall of Fame announced (2023) a forthcoming exhibition on such players.
Perhaps they will include Harper’s poem. Harper died in 2016.
This poem can be found in Honorable Amendments: Poems (University of Illinois Press, 1996).
[1] Antonucci, Michael, and Michael S. Harper. “The Map and the Territory: An Interview with Michael S. Harper.” African American Review 34, no. 3 (2000): 501–508.
Keeping (and Telling) the Past 