{"id":729773,"date":"2026-04-15T13:24:57","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T13:24:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/729773\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T13:24:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T13:24:57","slug":"philadelphia-stars-negro-league-mural-design-to-be-unveiled-on-jackie-robinson-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/729773\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia Stars Negro League mural design to be unveiled on Jackie Robinson Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends. Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mural Arts<\/a> is celebrating Jackie Robinson Day by unveiling the design for its new Philadelphia Stars Negro League Baseball mural in West Parkside.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The new mural will go up across the street from where its previous version stood since 2005, until it was taken down earlier this year<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In its new position once a new wall is built and cured, it will serve as a backdrop to a 7-foot bronze statue of a baseball player \u2014 created by Phil Stumpter<\/a> \u2014 in the Philadelphia Stars Negro Leagues Memorial Park, on the corner of Parkside and Belmont avenues.<\/p>\n

\"\"A section of the new Philadelphia Stars Negro League Baseball mural design that will be in West Parkside\u2019s Philadelphia Stars Negro Leagues Memorial Park. (Courtesy of David McShane and Mural Arts)<\/p>\n

David McShane<\/a> created the first iteration of the mural 20 years ago<\/a> as an emerging artist. Today, as Mural Art\u2019s senior mural production advisor, he was asked to design the new version.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many artists \u2014 or this one Billy Penn reporter, at least \u2014 may often dream of a second chance at a canvas after a piece is finished. McShane is getting that chance on a lower, but wider wall which he said offered the opportunity to \u201ctell a longer, more rich story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel honored that I was asked to sort of re-envision it and think about it again,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd with that opportunity I thought, \u2018Oh, this is a great chance to be able to actually expand on the story that we told.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

To draw inspiration on the compositions of the original mural, McShane met with Miller Parker and Marjorie Ogilvie of the Philadelphia Business and Technology Center, researched the almanacs, photos and records that were available, and interviewed four local players who at the time were still living: Mahlon Duckett<\/a>, Stanley \u201cDoc\u201d Glenn<\/a>, Bill \u201cReady\u201d Cash<\/a> and Harold Gould<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

McShane aimed to represent the vibrant stories he was told: The crowd scenes showing people in their \u201cSunday bests,\u201d the long grass and well-worn baseballs that the players had to play with, and the flair and showmanship of players like Satchel Paige, Harold Bould and Roy \u201cRed\u201d Parnell.<\/p>\n

\u201cHearing those stories made me want to put some of that in there to really emphasize the struggles and the inequities,\u201d he said \u201cHere are some of the most talented athletes in America and they\u2019re sort of barred because of their skin color from what was framed as the national pastime.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"A section of the new Philadelphia Stars Negro League Baseball mural design that will be in West Parkside\u2019s Philadelphia Stars Negro Leagues Memorial Park. (Courtesy of David McShane and Mural Arts)<\/p>\n

The original mural faced several rounds of restorations and repairs until the building was eventually torn down in January. Despite Mural Art\u2019s assurances that it will soon be replaced, many on the internet were not happy \u2014 and McShane said he was looped in on all the angry emails sent to the group.<\/p>\n

With the new mural, McShane saw a chance to bring back many of those elements, and expand on the story that the previous mural told. To do that, he\u2019s adding several more of the Stars\u2019 greatest players, as well as team owner and founder Ed Bolden. He also had room to incorporate other Negro League teams, stadiums and other African American baseball teams from the Philadelphia region.<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia Stars were founded in 1933 and disbanded in 1952. The team won one Negro National League pennant in 1934 and mainly played at the 44th and Parkside location where the new mural will stand.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an American story that needs to be told, particularly in Philadelphia,\u201d McShane said.<\/p>\n

\"\"A section of the new Philadelphia Stars Negro League Baseball mural design that will be in West Parkside\u2019s Philadelphia Stars Negro Leagues Memorial Park. (Courtesy of David McShane and Mural Arts)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends. Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today. Mural Arts…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":729774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,591,1322,53850,301996,1448,286535,2830,1311,34841,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,45998],"class_list":["post-729773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-baseball","tag-featured","tag-mural-arts","tag-negro-league","tag-pa","tag-parkside","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-stars","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-west-philly"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116408951801020480","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=729773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/729774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=729773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=729773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=729773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}