Henry Kimbro was one of Negro League's best on the baseball field, and one of the so-called worst off the field. During his career, he was described as the bad boy of the Negro League, evil, a loner, and was even dubbed the Black Ty Cobb of the League. These perceptions followed him to his death. Afterwards, his daughter was given a tattered sixty-year-old scrapbook that he kept during his life and directed by her mother to do something with it. She did, she wrote Daddy's Scrapbook, Henry Kimbro of the Negro Baseball League, A Daughter's Perspective. This book is a journey through Henry Kimbro's life as a baseball player, a successful African-American businessman, and a father who sent four of his five children through college. Stories are shared about how cruel discrimination during his youth influenced the temperament he was known for as an adult, and how playing in the Cuban League changed his life when he met his Cuban-born wife of 48 years. It also details his post-League years as a father, grandfather, and an inductee into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame. This book travels full circle to give insight to who Henry Kimbro was as seen by his daughter who loved and respected him.
About the Author: Dr. Harriet Kimbro-Hamilton is currently an Associate Professor at Tennessee State University. She received her B.S. from Fisk University, M.S. from Florida State University, and her doctorate degree from Temple University. She began her career at Bethune-Cookman College as an instructor and coach. Dr. Kimbro-Hamilton also spent 10 years in Nashville Public Schools as a physical education teacher and coach. At Fisk University, she spent 13 years as a Head Coach, Associate Athletic Director, and an Athletic Director. She has received three national awards from prestigious organizations like the Women's Sports Foundation, the National Association of Girls and Women in Sport when given the Dr. Nell C. Jackson Award, and inducted into the Temple University League for Entrepreneurial Women Hall of Fame. In print, Dr. Kimbro-Hamilton was called a "game changer," and a "barrier breaker." She has often reflected the story of an old left handed glove and her father as the beginning of her empowerment as a person. Her perspective of her father is a full circle view of a man who was a history changer himself from Negro League Baseball. In her opinion, she was the only person who could tell her father's complete story.