The Kansas City Monarchs were the longest-running franchise in the history of baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

's Negro Leagues

Negro league baseball

The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams predominantly made up of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relatively successful leagues beginning in...

. Operating in Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

 and owned by J.L. Wilkinson, they were charter members of the Negro National League

Negro National League (the first)

The Negro National League was one of the several Negro leagues which were established during the period in the United States in which organized baseball was segregated. Led by Rube Foster, owner and manager of the Chicago American Giants, the NNL was established on February 13, 1920 by a...

 from 1920

1920 in sports

-American football:NFL championship* 17 September — the National Football League is founded as the American Professional Football Association at Canton, Ohio; it is a coalition of teams primarily from the Ohio League, New York Pro Football League, the Chicago football circuit, and other teams in...

 to 1930

1930 in sports

-American football:NFL championship* Green Bay Packers win the National Football League title with a record of 10–3–1College championship* College football national championship – Alabama Crimson Tide and Notre Dame Fighting Irish...

. J.L. Wilkinson was the first Caucasian owner at the time of the establishment of the team . In 1930, the Monarchs became the first professional baseball team to use a portable lighting system which was transported from game to game in trucks to play games at night, five years before any major league team did.