Ticonderoga, NY – The Ticonderoga Historical Society (THS) has opened for the 2022 season and will present a free public program entitled “Black Baseball in the North Country” on Friday, June 10, at 7 p.m. at the Hancock House located at 6 Moses Circle in Ticonderoga, N.Y.

Presenter Maury Thompson will discuss how teams such as the Cuban Giants, the first black professional baseball team, barnstormed in Washington and Clinton counties in 1890 and 1892, playing, in some cases, against local white teams.

Thompson speaks about black baseball in the region in the 19th century, including summer teams made up of black employees at summer hotels, and local black athletes who played on integrated teams. Maury Thompson was a reporter for The Post-Star of Glens Falls for 21 years.

He retired in 2017 to move on to an encore career as a freelance writer and documentary film maker specializing on the history of politics, labor organizing, and media in New York’s North Country. He is co-producer, co-director and writer of the new documentary “My Native Air: Charles Evans Hughes and the Adirondacks,” which aired on Mountain Lakes PBS earlier this year.

The program will be held outdoors under a tent, and attendees are asked to bring their own lawn chairs. Current CDC and New York State guidelines regarding COVID-19 protocols will be followed.

While the program is free, reservations are suggested.

Additional information is available and reservations may be made by calling the Hancock House at 518-585-7868 or via e-mail to: tihistory@bridgepoint1.com.

Photo at top provided by Diane O’Connor.