First published by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Nov. 3, 2020, by Jason Mackey
As executive director of the Josh Gibson Foundation, Sean Gibson strives to promote and celebrate his great grandfather’s legacy while also working with a group of people to provide educational support and spur positive change in the Pittsburgh community.
Even though he loves his job, Sean Gibson’s latest passion project isn’t solely about Josh Gibson, a Negro Leagues legend and one of the best baseball players ever regardless of skin color.
It’s more about what Josh Gibson and others were denied and “a redemption or poetic justice-type story” that Sean Gibson would like to see unfold over the coming months.
After learning that the Baseball Writers’ Association of American was going to remove the name of Major League Baseball’s first commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, from its Most Valuable Player plaques — the organization distancing itself from someone routinely linked to racism and complicit in keeping the game segregated until 1947 — Sean Gibson began a feverish push to have them named after his great grandfather.
