Jackie Robinson: The Story of an American Hero

GM Branch Rickey and Grandson
Photo Credit: George Silk
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In the 1940s, baseball was America's Pastime. Not basketball. Not football. Not golf. It represented America, democracy and apple pie. Many more people followed baseball. It was linked to American pride-- and being white.

Blacks were playing baseball too, but they were in the Negro Leagues, followed and loved by blacks, ignored or mocked by almost everyone else. There were some fine players on those teams, and players like Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron had their start in them.

Baseball Commissioner Landis opposed integration, but he died in 1944. At that time, Branch Rickey, owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, launched his Great Experiment. He was committed to breaking the color barrier. He was also no fool -- he knew there was amazing talent in the Negro Leagues waiting to be tapped. So he looked for a skilled African-American ballplayer who would also be able to handle the prejudice, pressure, and hype.

Jack Roosevelt Robinson was his man. At UCLA, he'd been the first student ever to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football and track. Then he'd signed with the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues. Now, Branch Rickey gave him a challenge even greater than succeeding as a pro athlete: he must subject himself to nationwide hatred on and off the field, and he mustn't fight back.

J. Robinson wearing AAA uniform
of Dodgers affiliate, Montreal Royals
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If a player punched him or spiked him with cleats, or pitched a baseball at his head that might kill him, he couldn't respond. If an ump made an unfair call, he couldn't respond. If hotels refused to house him with his team, if teams protested his presence on the field or cancelled games to avoid him, he couldn't respond. If the papers vilified him, he couldn't respond. If spectators cursed him or ordered him to shine their shoes or threw black cats onto the field, he couldn't respond. If he got death threats pinned inside his locker, or if his wife was harassed in the stands, he couldn't respond.

All those things happened.

Nevertheless, Jackie Robinson won the first-ever Rookie of the Year award, and began a ten-year Hall of Fame career that brought the Dodgers their first World Series championship. He won respect by proving he was a skilled professional, shaming those who attacked him. His dignity was a weapon. So was his talent.

He showed America why racism was idiotic and unjust.

Special Link: Internet archive of one-hour movie dramatization,
The Jackie Robinson Story, starring Jackie Robinson as himself.

After three years, as per his agreement with Branch Rickey, Jackie stopped turning the other cheek. He was finally allowed to defend himself when players or spectators vented their hate on him. He taught America something then, too: it was right and proper for a black (or any target of discrimination) to be angry and speak out.

Special Link: Letter from Jackie Robinson to President Eisenhower

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In a saner world, his skin color wouldn't be the first thing we'd know about him; we'd just remember him as a famous athlete. His original Hall of Fame plaque gives a snapshot of his achievements: NL Rookie of the Year, NL Batting Champion, 6-time All-star with a .311 lifetime batting average. By all accounts, those bare statistics don't do justice to his speed, his agility, his maddening ability to wear out the defense with his cat-and-mouse baserunning. Several teammates have remarked that when the abuse on the field started to bother him, Jackie would make opponents pay by kicking it up a notch, stealing a base, or making some phenomenal play.

His uniform number, 42, was retired by the Dodgers in 1972. You can see the 42 sign from anywhere in Dodger Stadium, distinguished from the numbers of other Dodger greats by its color. I'm not sure whether that's ironic or appropriate.

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After retiring, Jackie became CEO of a company, Chock Full o' Nuts, whose products were well-known to frequenters of baseball stadiums. He continued to promote his nine core values: courage, determination, teamwork, persistence, integrity, citizenship, justice, commitment, and excellence. He funded and ran several businesses and encouraged black entrepreneurs, he spoke out and wrote articles on civil rights, and he defended men targeted by the so-called House Un-American Activities Committee that was in retrospect a most un-American activity. Tragically, Jackie Robinson died in 1972, only 53 years old. In the following year his widow, Rachel Robinson, a professional nurse and Yale professor, founded the Jackie Robinson Foundation to provide college scholarships, mentorships and professional internships for minority youth.

Photo Credit: Nina Leen
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All proceeds for this page are donated to
The Jackie Robinson Foundation,
funding college scholarships and a special
Education and Leadership Development Program

Dodgers announcer Vin Scully, a hall of famer for his silver voice who is celebrating his 61st year broadcasting all the Dodgers' home games, told stories during tonight's game about his own memories of "Jack" or "Jackie."

Vin talked about Jackie's fire, determination, and anger, how it didn't come naturally for him to turn the other cheek. Vin said that when he got irked by things said or done to him, he'd steal second, then third, then home. After a while, other players who didn't approve of him were nonetheless warning each other not to harass him, because he'd make their team pay.

Vin told a story about a winter outing with Jackie and Rachel. The Robinsons had moved to Brooklyn from Pasadena, and had never been ice skating before. Jackie was "walking on his ankles," as Scully put it. Immediately Jackie challenged him to a race. Paraphrasing Scully from memory:

And I said to him, "But, Jack, you're from California. You don't know how to skate."
Then he got that look in his eye. "I know," Jack said. "But that's how I'll learn."
Jackie lost that race, but that's the kind of man he was.

Vin talked about a game in Cincinnati where Jackie had received death threats, saying he'd be shot if he stepped onto the field. FBI sharpshooters were brought in to monitor the game from the roofttops. There was an anxious team meeting before the game. Finally one player jumped up and said, "I've got it! I know what to do!" Everyone waited for his brilliant plan. "We'll all wear 42; then they won't know which one's Jackie!" The tense moment was broken up with laughter.

As VIn said, "Little did we know, someday it would come true."

Based on photo of Jackie Robinson by Rob Sandberg of LOOK Magazine, 1954. Source: Library of Congress. See Rights and Restrictions.

Photo Credit: Nat Fein
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