The City of Orlando will unveil a special new monument at Lake Lorna Doone Park at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, March 24, that commemorates the first interracial Little League Game in the South.

Players from both 1955 teams, the Orlando Kiwanis and Pensacola Jaycees, will be in attendance, and Mayor Dyer and Commissioner Hill are scheduled to speak, as well as Dr. Richard Lapchick on behalf of the Institute for Sport and Social Justice, who will be offering the keynote address. Shawn Welcome, Orlando’s Poet Laureate, will be the Master of Ceremonies.

The “Barrier Breakers Monument,” was paid in part by the Edward E. Haddock Jr. Family Foundation and will feature the likeness of two 12-year old boys, one Black and one white, in baseball uniforms representing each team, standing shoulder to shoulder, approximately 4.5-feet by three feet wide, in bronze.

Haddock also recently funded a documentary that was featured on Netflix called “A Long Time Coming” which told the story of both teams. Check out the trailer below.

Brendan O'Connor

Editor in Chief of Bungalower.com

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