Jackie: Perspectives on 42

Jackie

Perspectives on 42

Edited by Bill Nowlin and Glen Sparks

Associate editors: Len Levin and Carl Riechers

Society for American Baseball Research, Inc.

Phoenix, AZ

Note on usage: In April 1947, when Jackie Robinson took the field with the Brooklyn Dodgers, his debut in the National League was considered by the newspapers of the day, by those in the game, and by Robinson himself as breaking the color line in what was then defined as major-league baseball. In the year 2020, the definition of what constitutes a major league was expanded by today’s Major League Baseball to include a number of leagues that operated as what have been known as the Negro Leagues. Racial discrimination prevented many of the Negro Leagues’ players from joining the National and American Leagues on the basis of their merit. In the various articles in this book, the words major league or major leagues often appear. The usage will almost always reflect the understanding of Robinson’s day. As we read through these articles, we are confident that all will appreciate the significance of Robinson’s role in desegregation.

ISBN 978-1-970159-50-9 ebook

ISBN 978-1-970159-51-6 paperback

Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN): 2021902531

Copyright © 2021 Society for American Baseball Research, Inc.

All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

Book design: Rachael E. Sullivan

Society for American Baseball Research

Cronkite School at ASU

555 N. Central Ave. #416

Phoenix, AZ 85004

Phone: (602) 496-1460

Web: www.sabr.org

Facebook: Society for American Baseball Research

Twitter: @SABR

CONTENTS

1.INTRODUCTION

2.JACKIE ROBINSON

By Rick Swaine

3.MY HERO - JACKIE ROBINSON

by Larry Lester

4.RACHEL ROBINSON

by Ralph Carhart

5.BEFORE JACKIE ROBINSON: BASEBALL’S CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

by Peter Dreier

6.JACKIE ROBINSON: THE BEST ATHLETE ON THE WEST COAST

by Vince Guerrieri

7.PACIFIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL TITLE GAME

DECEMBER 9, 1939: UCLA 0, USC 0, AT THE LOS ANGELES COLISEUM

by Bryan Steverson

8.A DISCIPLINARIAN COACH: JACKIE ROBINSON’S LITTLE-KNOWN STINT COACHING COLLEGE BASKETBALL

by Eric Enders

9.THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD

by Bryan Steverson

10.LIEUTENANT JACKIE ROBINSON, MORALE OFFICER, UNITED STATES ARMY

by J.M. Casper

11.JACKIE ROBINSON IN 1945: FROM BOSTON TRYOUT TO A NEGRO LEAGUES STAR

by Bob LeMoine

12.HAPPY HELPING? INSIDE COMMISSIONER CHANDLER’S ROLE IN JACKIE ROBINSON’S GREAT QUEST

by Joe Cox

13.JACKIE ROBINSON, JERSEY CITY, AND HIS FIRST GAME IN ORGANIZED BASEBALL

by John Burbridge

14.A GREAT LEAP FORWARD: THE VIEW FROM MONTREAL OF JACKIE ROBINSON AND THE MONTREAL ROYALS

by Jack Anderson

15.JACKIE ROBINSON - HISTORY MADE IN 1946 AT THE JUNIOR WORLD SERIES

by Marc J. Steiner

16.THE JACKIE ROBINSON BARNSTORMING TOUR OF 1946

by Alan Cohen

17.JACKIE ROBINSON’S 1947 BREAKTHROUGH BEGAN IN HAVANA

by César Brioso

18.I MET JACKIE ROBINSON’S FIRST MAJOR-LEAGUE MANAGER

by Wayne Soini

19.THE STRIKE AGAINST JACKIE ROBINSON: TRUTH OR MYTH?

by Warren Corbett

20.JACKIE ROBINSON AND THE KANSAS CITY CALL

by William A. Young

21.FORD FRICK AND JACKIE ROBINSON: THE ENABLER

by Dave Bohmer

22.JACKIE ROBINSON PLAYS HIS FIRST EXHIBITION GAME FOR THE MONTREAL ROYALS

MARCH 17, 1946: BROOKLYN DODGERS 7, MONTREAL ROYALS 2, AT CITY ISLAND BALLPARK, DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA

by Bob Webster

23.ROBINSON LEADS ROYALS ROMP IN 1946 REGULAR-SEASON DEBUT

APRIL 18, 1946: MONTREAL ROYALS 14, JERSEY CITY GIANTS 1, AT ROOSEVELT STADIUM, JERSEY CITY

by Frederick C. Bush

24.JACKIE ROBINSON LEADS MONTREAL TO THRILLING 10-INNING VICTORY OVER LOUISVILLE

OCTOBER 2, 1946: MONTREAL ROYALS 6, LOUISVILLE COLONELS 5, AT DE LORIMIER STADIUM, MONTREAL

by Gary Belleville

25.ROBINSON’S HEROICS PUT MONTREAL ON VERGE OF FIRST JUNIOR WORLD SERIES TITLE

OCTOBER 3, 1946: MONTREAL ROYALS 5, LOUISVILLE COLONELS 3, AT DE LORIMIER STADIUM, MONTREAL

by Gary Belleville

26.JACKIE ROBINSON, ROYAL AT EBBETS FIELD

APRIL 10, 1947: MONTREAL ROYALS 4, BROOKLYN DODGERS 3, AT EBBETS FIELD, BROOKLYN, NEW YORK

by Steven C. Weiner

27.JACKIE ROBINSON DEBUTS FOR DODGERS AT EBBETS FIELD

APRIL 11, 1947: BROOKLYN DODGERS 14, NEW YORK YANKEES 6, AT EBBETS FIELD, BROOKLYN

by Steven C. Weiner

28.JACKIE ROBINSON’S MAJOR-LEAGUE DEBUT

APRIL 15, 1947: BROOKLYN DODGERS 5, BOSTON BRAVES 3, AT EBBETS FIELD, BROOKLYN

by Lyle Spatz

29.THE FIRST OF 1,518: JACKIE ROBINSON GETS HIS FIRST MAJOR-LEAGUE HIT

APRIL 17, 1947: BROOKLYN DODGERS 12, BOSTON BRAVES 6, AT EBBETS FIELD, BROOKLYN

By Kevin Larkin

30.ROBINSON TALLIES FIRST CAREER HOMER AND FIRST RBI AGAINST RIVAL GIANTS

APRIL 18, 1947: NEW YORK GIANTS 10, BROOKLYN DODGERS 4, AT THE POLO GROUNDS, NEW YORK

by Brian Wright

31.JACKIE ROBINSON’S FIRST MEETING WITH BEN CHAPMAN

APRIL 22, 1947: BROOKLYN DODGERS 1, PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES 0, AT EBBETS FIELD, BROOKLYN

by Alan Cohen

32.RACIAL SLURS WON’T STOP JACKIE ROBINSON

MAY 9, 1947: PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES 6, BROOKLYN DODGERS 5 (11 INNINGS), AT SHIBE PARK, PHILADELPHIA

by Alan Cohen

33.ROBINSON’S BASERUNNING AND HODGES’ HOMER LIFT DODGERS

JUNE 18, 1947: BROOKLYN DODGERS 5, CHICAGO CUBS 3, AT WRIGLEY FIELD, CHICAGO

by Paul Hofmann

34.JACKIE ROBINSON STEALS HOME FOR THE FIRST TIME

JUNE 24, 1947: BROOKLYN DODGERS 4, PITTSBURGH PIRATES 2, AT FORBES FIELD, PITTSBURGH

by Steven Kuehl

35.ROOKIE ROBINSON’S HIT STREAK REACHES 20 GAMES

JULY 3, 1947: NEW YORK GIANTS 19, BROOKLYN DODGERS 2, AT EBBETS FIELD, BROOKLYN

by Mike Huber

36.CARDINALS BEAT DODGERS IN EXTRA INNINGS; ENOS SLAUGHTER SPIKES JACKIE ROBINSON

AUGUST 20, 1947: ST. LOUIS CARDINALS 3, BROOKLYN DODGERS 2 (12 INNINGS), AT EBBETS FIELD, BROOKLYN

by Thomas J. Brown Jr.

37.ROBINSON’S FIRST GRAND SLAM WINS IN A WALKOFF

JUNE 24, 1948: BROOKLYN DODGERS 6, PITTSBURGH PIRATES 2, AT EBBETS FIELD, BROOKLYN

by Bill Nowlin

38.JACKIE ROBINSON HITS REVERSE NATURAL CYCLE AS DODGERS BEAT CARDINALS

AUGUST 29, 1948: BROOKLYN DODGERS 12, ST. LOUIS CARDINALS 7, AT SPORTSMAN’S PARK III, ST. LOUIS

by Michael Huber

39.JACKIE ROBINSON HAS THREE HITS WITH A HOME RUN ON OPENING DAY

APRIL 19, 1949: BROOKLYN DODGERS 10, NEW YORK GIANTS 3, AT EBBETS FIELD, BROOKLYN

by Nathan Bierma

40.JACKIE GETS CAREER-HIGH SIX RBIS IN DODGERS’ LAMBASTING OF CARDINALS

MAY 21, 1949: BROOKLYN DODGERS 15, ST. LOUIS CARDINALS 6, AT SPORTSMAN’S PARK, ST. LOUIS

by Richard Cuicchi

41.JACKIE ROBINSON RIPS TWO HOME RUNS VS. PITTSBURGH

MAY 24, 1949: BROOKLYN DODGERS 6, PITTSBURGH PIRATES 1, AT FORBES FIELD, PITTSBURGH

by Blake W. Sherry

42.A WEIRD AFFAIR AND SLUGFEST IN FLATBUSH

JUNE 24, 1950: BROOKLYN DODGERS 21, PITTSBURGH PIRATES 12, AT EBBETS FIELD, BROOKLYN

by Glen Sparks

43.JACKIE’S PERFECT DAY SENDS DODGERS ON WIN STREAK

JULY 21, 1951: BROOKLYN DODGERS 3, ST. LOUIS CARDINALS 2, AT EBBETS FIELD, BROOKLYN

by Richard Cuicchi

44.JACKIE ROBINSON SAVES THE DAY AND THE SEASON

SEPTEMBER 30, 1951: BROOKLYN DODGERS 9, PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES 8 (14 INNINGS), AT SHIBE PARK, PHILADELPHIA

by C. Paul Rogers III PLAYOFF FOR NL PENNANT KNOTTED AT ONE GAME APIECE

OCTOBER 2, 1951: BROOKLYN DODGERS 10, NEW YORK GIANTS 0, AT THE POLO GROUNDS, NEW YORK

by Alan Cohen

45.A WET ALL-STAR GAME AT SHIBE

JULY 8, 1952: NATIONAL LEAGUE 3, AMERICAN LEAGUE 2, AT SHIBE PARK, PHILADELPHIA

by Paul E. Doutrich

46.JACKIE AND DODGERS END SLUMP IN HOME-RUN BARRAGE

47.SEPTEMBER 15, 1952: BROOKLYN DODGERS 11, CINCINNATI REDS 5, AT EBBETS FIELD, BROOKLYN

by Gregory H. Wolf

48.ROBINSON, ERSKINE LEAD DODGERS TO VICTORY

SEPTEMBER 20, 1952: BROOKLYN DODGERS 1, BOSTON BRAVES 0, AT BRAVES FIELD, BOSTON

by Glen Sparks

49.JOE BLACK AND TREMENDOUS DEFENSE BEAT YANKEES IN GAME ONE OF 1952 WORLD SERIES

OCTOBER 1, 1952: BROOKLYN DODGERS 4, NEW YORK YANKEES 2, AT EBBETS FIELD, BROOKLYN

by Brian M. Frank

50.ROBINSON’S BIG DAY HELPS DODGERS COMPLETE HOME SWEEP OF CARDINALS

SEPTEMBER 1, 1953: BROOKLYN DODGERS 12, ST. LOUIS CARDINALS 5, AT EBBETS FIELD, BROOKLYN

by Mark Simon

51.JACKIE ROBINSON STEALS HOME VS PITTSBURGH

APRIL 23, 1954: BROOKLYN DODGERS 6, PITTSBURGH PIRATES 5, AT FORBES FIELD, PITTSBURGH

by Blake W. Sherry

52.JACKIE ROBINSON STEALS HOME: THE CALL, THE MEANING

SEPTEMBER 28, 1955: NEW YORK YANKEES 6, BROOKLYN DODGERS 5, WORLD SERIES GAME ONE, YANKEE STADIUM, NEW YORK

by Steven C. Weiner

53.BROOKLYN DODGERS WIN NL PENNANT ON FINAL DAY OF SEASON

SEPTEMBER 30, 1956: BROOKLYN DODGERS 8, PITTSBURGH PIRATES 6, AT EBBETS FIELD, BROOKLYN

by Thomas J. Brown Jr.

54.LABINE HURLS EXTRA-INNING SHUTOUT TO FORCE GAME SEVEN

OCTOBER 9, 1956: BROOKLYN DODGERS 1, NEW YORK YANKEES 0 (10 INNINGS), AT EBBETS FIELD, BROOKLYN GAME SIX OF THE WORLD SERIES

by Brian M. Frank

55.SAYONARA JACKIE ROBINSON:

HOW AN AMERICAN HERO FINISHED HIS CAREER IN JAPAN

by Robert K. Fitts

56.JACKIE ROBINSON CALLS IT QUITS

by Robert Nash

57.JACKIE ROBINSON, ALL-STAR

by Mark S. Sternman

58.JACKIE ROBINSON AND THE WORLD SERIES

by Steven C. Weiner

59.JACKIE ROBINSON’S STEALS OF HOME

by Bill Nowlin

_________________________________________________

60.ANALYZING JACKIE ROBINSON AS A SECOND BASEMAN

by Mike Huber

61.JACKIE ROBINSON AND OWNERS

by Andy McCue

62.MANAGING HISTORY: JACKIE ROBINSON AND MANAGERS

by Joe Cox

63.JACKIE ROBINSON’S FAITH SUSTAINED HIM DURING UNRELENTING TURMOIL

by Chris Lamb

64.JACKIE ROBINSON AND THE DECLINE OF THE NEGRO LEAGUES

by Nathan Bierma

65.JACKIE ROBINSON AND CIVIL RIGHTS: FROM 1947 UNTIL HIS DEATH

by Leslie Heaphy

66. THE BLACK KNIGHT: A POLITICAL PORTRAIT OF JACKIE ROBINSON

by Steven K. Wisensale

67.JACKIE ROBINSON, REPUBLICAN

by Jeff English

68.JOURNEY TO JUSTICE

THE CONVERGING PATHS OF JACK ROOSEVELT ROBINSON AND DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

by Bryan Steverson

69.JACKIE’S LAST STAND: JACKIE ROBINSON’S LAST PUBLIC APPEARANCE AND HIS APPEAL FOR THE INTEGRATION OF MAJOR-LEAGUE BASEBALL MANAGEMENT

by Richard J. Puerzer

70.THE NECESSITIESAL CAMPANIS’S MOMENT OF TRUTH

by Warren Corbett

71.OF MEMORY AND MYSTERY GUESTS: JACKIE ROBINSON, SOUPY SALES, AND WHAT’S MY LINE?

by David Krell

72.JACKIE ROBINSON AND JOURNAL SQUARE

by David Krell

73.NOT AN EASY TALE TO TELL: JACKIE ROBINSON ON STAGE AND SCREEN

by Ralph Carhart

74.REACHING THE NEXT GENERATION: JACKIE ROBINSON’S STORY IN CHILDREN’S AND YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE

by Mary E. Corey

75.THE JACKIE ROBINSON FOUNDATION:

A Legacy of Excellence and Impactby Mark Harnischfeger

76.CONTRIBUTORS

INTRODUCTION

No one can doubt the immense courage shown by Jackie Robinson when he took his position at first base at Ebbets Field on Tuesday afternoon, April 15, 1947. The first play of the game was a groundball to third base, a throw across the diamond to Robinson at first base, and the first putout of the game.

It wasn’t just the one moment, of course, but the ongoing import of what his presence on the field meant. Robinson was the first Black American to play what was then defined as major-league baseball at a time when baseball was dominant in American culture – truly the national pastime, but an institution that had been segregated by race.

Challenges to racism have always been fraught with peril. A generation later, Rev. Martin Luther King was shot and killed as he stood on a hotel-room balcony in Memphis. He was one among many who have lost their lives in the struggle for civil rights. More than 50 years later, and nearly 75 years after Robinson’s debut, Black citizens of the United States still suffer discrimination and obstacles and still find their very lives more in danger than do many of their fellow Americans.

To be a pioneer in 1947 required bravery. In some respects, baseball led the way to a more integrated society. Even after Jackie Robinson’s debut, however, it took 12 more years before every one of the 16 teams in the American and National Leagues integrated. Robinson had by then completed his 10-year Hall of Fame playing career. The six-time All-Star with a lifetime batting average of .309 and an on-base percentage of .409 has baseball statistics that rightly place him in Cooperstown. He won the first Rookie of the Year Award and, two years later, the National League Most Valuable Player honor. Robinson played on six pennant winners and in the World Series in 1955.

Perhaps it is true that celebrating Jackie Robinson’s courageous role in integration can sometimes reduce him to a symbol, and oversimplify his grappling with the complex racial issues of his day, allowing him to become a convenient and self-congratulatory icon celebrated by Major League Baseball today. But, in fact, he was – and remains – an important symbol, and a very meaningful and inspirational one. Certainly, there are myths related to Jackie Robinson. That comes with legend.

There is no question that there was another side to his breaking the color barrier, to be followed by Larry Doby and others. There was gain, but there was loss as well: the vibrant Negro Leagues lasted only a very few more years after that.

Our thought in assembling this book was not to take a particular tack, or drive any narrative, but simply to collect a number of articles and essays that appreciate various aspects of the life and accomplishments of Jackie Robinson.

Almost all of the articles in this book were written for the book. Some 54 members of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) took time out as SABR begins to turn 50 and contributed their work as authors and editors to bring together a book appreciating the career and the life of this exceptional man.

Jackie Robinson with his Hall of Fame plaque.

JACKIE ROBINSON

By Rick Swaine

Jackie Robinson is perhaps the most historically significant baseball player ever, ranking with Babe Ruth in terms of his impact on the national pastime. Ruth changed the way baseball was played; Jackie Robinson changed the way Americans thought. When Robinson took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947, more than 60 years of racial segregation in major-league baseball came to an end. He was the first acknowledged Black player to perform in the major leagues in the twentieth century and went on to be the first to win a batting title, the first to win the Most Valuable Player award, and the first to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He won major-league baseball’s first official Rookie of the Year award and was the first baseball player, Black or White, to be featured on a United States postage stamp.

The raw statistics only scratch the surface in evaluating Jackie Robinson as a ballplayer. Because of institutionalized racism and World War II, he did not play his first big-league game until he was 28 years old, and therefore his major-league career spanned only 10 seasons. His lifetime batting average was a solid .311, but because of the brevity of his career, his cumulative statistics are relatively unimpressive by Hall of Fame standards.

But in what would be considered his prime years, ages 28 to 34, Robinson hit .319 and averaged more than 110 runs scored per season. He drove in an average of 85 runs, and his average of nearly 15 home runs per season was outstanding for a middle infielder of that era. And he averaged 24 stolen bases a season for a power-laden team that didn’t need him to run very often.

Colorfully described as a tiger in the field and a lion at bat, the right-handed-hitting Robinson crowded the plate and dared opposing hurlers to dust him off — a challenge they frequently accepted. He was an excellent bunter, good at the sacrifice and always a threat to lay one down for a hit. Not known as a home-run hitter, he displayed line-drive power to all fields, had a good eye for the strike zone, and rarely struck out. For his entire big-league career, he drew 740 walks and struck out only 291 times — an extremely impressive ratio.

Second base was Robinson’s best position. In a 1987 Player’s Choice survey, he was voted the greatest second baseman of his era despite having played there regularly for only five seasons. Though not a smooth glove man in the classic sense, he was sure-handed and possessed good range and instincts. He made up for an average arm by standing his ground on double plays and getting rid of the ball quickly. Robinson also displayed his versatility by playing regularly at first base, at third base, and in left field when the needs of the team dictated it.

It was running the bases, however, where Robinson’s star shined brightest. He was a dynamo on the basepaths — fast, clever, daring, and rough. He was the most dangerous base runner since Ty Cobb, embarrassing and intimidating the opposition into beating themselves with mental and physical errors. Former teammate and big-league manager Bobby Bragan, who initially objected to Jackie’s presence on the Dodgers, called him the best he ever saw at getting called safe after being caught in rundown situations. He created havoc by taking impossibly long leads, jockeying back and forth, and threatening to steal on every pitch. His mere presence on base was enough to upset the most steely-nerved veteran hurlers.

Robinson revived the art of stealing home, successfully making it 19 times in his career — tied with Frankie Frisch for the most since World War I. At the age of 35 in 1954, he became the first National Leaguer to steal his way around the bases in 26 years, and a year later he became one of only 12 men to steal home in the World Series.

Throughout his career, Jackie Robinson was a fearless competitor. As Leo Durocher, first his manager and later an archrival, so elegantly phrased it, You want a guy that comes to play. But (Robinson) didn’t just come to play. He came to beat you. He came to stuff the damn bat right up your ass.¹

Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born on January 31, 1919, in Cairo, Georgia, a sleepy Southern town near the Florida border. Jackie was the youngest of five children, four boys and a girl, born to impoverished sharecroppers Jerry and Mallie Robinson. Jerry Robinson deserted the family six months after Jackie was born. Mallie Robinson, a strong, devoutly religious woman, moved the struggling family across the country by rail to Pasadena, California, in 1920 when Jackie was 14 months old. She worked as a domestic to support her family; leftovers from the kitchens of families she worked for often constituted their daily diet.

With the help of a welfare agency, the Robinson family purchased a home in a predominantly White Pasadena neighborhood, where neighbors immediately petitioned to get rid of the newcomers and even offered to buy them out. When those ploys failed the family was harassed for several years. The Robinson boys often had to fight to defend themselves, and young Jackie was involved in his share of scrapes with White youths and had some run-ins with authorities.

Jackie’s athletic talent became evident at an early age. But he wasn’t the only gifted athlete in the family. His older brother Mack became a world-class track star, finishing second in the 200-yard dash to Jesse Owens in the 1936 Olympics. But after Olympic stardom and college, the only job Mack Robinson could find was janitorial work for the City of Pasadena. It was a position he soon lost. As in most of the country at that time, Jim Crow rules prevailed in Pasadena. Black citizens were permitted to use the city’s public swimming pool only one day a week. When a judge ordered full access to the pool for Black citizens, the city fathers responded by firing Black employees, including Mack Robinson.

After starring in baseball, football, basketball, and track at Muir Technical High School and Pasadena Junior College, Jackie declined many other offers to enroll at the University of California at Los Angeles, near his Pasadena home. Robinson gained national fame at UCLA in 1940 and 1941. He became the school’s first four-letter man and was called the Jim Thorpe of his race for his multisport skills.² Sharing rushing duties with Kenny Washington, who later became one of the first Black men to play in the National Football League, Jackie averaged 11-plus yards per carry as a junior. Sports Weekly called him the greatest ball carrier on the gridiron today.³ On the basketball court Jackie led the Pacific Coast Conference in scoring as a junior and as a senior.

Although he wasn’t named to the first, second, or third all-conference teams, one coach called him the best basketball player in the United States.⁴ Already the holder of the national junior college long-jump record, he captured the NCAA long-jump title and probably would have gone to the 1940 Olympics had they not been canceled by the war in Europe. In addition, he won swimming championships, reached the semifinals of the national Negro tennis tournament, and was the UCLA Bruins’ regular shortstop. Baseball was probably Robinson’s weakest sport at the university, although he’d been voted the most valuable player in Southern California junior college baseball.

Financial problems at home forced Robinson to drop out of college in his senior year a few credits short of graduation. He took a job as an athletic coach for the National Youth Administration and played semipro football for the Los Angeles Bulldogs. In the fall of 1941, he signed on to play professional football with the Honolulu Bears. Already a gate attraction and a hero in the Black community, he got top billing as the sensational all-American halfback.

Upon returning home from Hawaii shortly after Pearl Harbor, Robinson was drafted into the Army in 1942. Stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, he was originally denied entry into Officer Candidate School despite his college background. Intervention by a fellow soldier, boxing great Joe Louis, who was also stationed at the base, managed to get the decision reversed. Yet, Jackie was not allowed to play on the segregated camp baseball team, which infuriated him so much that he refused to play on the football team even when superior officers pressured him to do so. After OCS, Robinson was appointed morale officer for the Black troops at Fort Riley and won concessions for them that predictably angered a few higher-ups in command.

Reassigned to Ford Hood, Texas, Jackie continued to be controversial. On July 6, 1944 he defied a White bus driver’s orders to move to the back of the bus where the coloreds belonged. When the base provost marshal and military police supported the driver, Robinson objected vehemently and was subject to court-martial. Facing a dishonorable discharge, Jackie prevailed at the hearing. But the Army had had enough of the controversial young Black lieutenant and quickly mustered him out with an honorable discharge.

It’s ironic that Jackie Robinson’s difficulties with White authority in the military led directly to his rise to the top of Branch Rickey’s list of candidates to break baseball’s color barrier. Rickey, the orchestrator of Organized Baseball’s desegregation, was the president, general manager, and a part-owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Rickey’s scouts had been surreptitiously scouring the Negro Leagues for major-league talent for some time before tapping Robinson to break the unwritten, and diligently enforced, gentlemen’s agreement that banned Blacks from participating in Organized Baseball.

Rickey was looking for a Black pioneer who — in addition to possessing the requisite talent — was educated, sober, and accustomed to competing with and against White athletes. Robinson met those conditions. He grew up in a racially mixed environment, attended school with White classmates, and matriculated at UCLA. He’d been an officer in the military. He was well-spoken, personable, and comfortable in front of crowds. He had experienced the glare of the spotlight and reveled in it. Also extremely important to the pious Rickey was the fact that Robinson was a nonsmoker and nondrinker. Nor was he a womanizer; he was planning to marry his college sweetheart, Rachel Annetta Isum. In addition, Jackie was a Methodist, as was Rickey, and he coincidentally shared a birthday with Branch Rickey Jr. Jackie and Rachel were married in Los Angeles on February 10, 1946.

Certainly there were other Black ballplayers who possessed the qualifications Rickey sought. Monte Irvin and Larry Doby were two obvious candidates. But when Rickey sent his scouts to scour the nation for the best Black player, Irvin and Doby were overseas, still in the armed forces. Robinson, though he was far from being considered the best player in Negro baseball, was available due to the early termination of his own military obligation.

After his discharge, Robinson had joined the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League for the 1945 season. The Monarchs, one of the most successful franchises in the Negro Leagues, had been ravaged by the manpower demands of the war, but their roster still included veteran stars Ted Double Duty Radcliffe, Hilton Smith, and Satchel Paige. Flashy-fielding veteran Jesse Williams moved over to second base to make room for Jackie at shortstop. Though Robinson hit well over .300 and showed speed and power as a rookie, he disliked the nomadic and often boisterous barnstorming life and was incensed by the Jim Crow laws that the Monarchs often encountered on the road.

On October 23, 1945, it was announced to the world that Robinson had signed a contract to play baseball for the Montreal Royals of the International League, the top minor-league team in the Dodgers organization. Robinson had actually signed a few months earlier. In that now-legendary meeting, Rickey extracted a promise that Jackie would hold his sharp tongue and quick fists in exchange for the opportunity to break Organized Baseball’s color barrier.

The integration movement in general had picked up steam during World War II as Black American soldiers fought and died beside Whites. In fact, the decade leading up to Robinson’s signing had been marked by significant progress in efforts to gain equal rights for minorities in all facets of life. Yet the moguls running major-league baseball stubbornly resisted efforts to integrate the sport, refusing to consider Black players even as the talent pool was depleted by the war and one-armed and one-legged players could be found among the old-timers, teenagers, and 4-Fs gracing big-league rosters.

But in November 1944, longtime Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who was generally thought to be against integration, died of a heart attack. Landis’s passing was the break Branch Rickey needed to begin implementing his plan to integrate the Dodgers.

When Robinson’s signing was announced, the news was heralded in Black newspapers and generally received positive reviews in national publications despite objections and attacks from predictable quarters. But Rickey and the Dodgers faced near-unanimous disapproval from the Organized Baseball establishment. After the initial furor died down, a campaign to downplay Robinson’s talent and the import of the event began. The New York Daily News rated Robinson’s chances of making the grade as 1,000 to 1. An editorial in The Sporting News deemed Robinson a player of Class C ability and predicted, The waters of competition in the International League will flood far over his head.⁵ Star pitcher Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians said that Robinson had football shoulders and couldn’t hit an inside pitch to save his neck.⁶

Muscularly built with a thick neck and wide shoulders, Robinson did look more like a halfback than an infielder. He suffered from rickets as a child and walked with a pigeon-toed gait, but on the diamond he moved with amazing quickness. He stood 5-feet-11 and weighed 190 to 195 pounds in his prime, although he thickened noticeably in the latter stages of his career. In the decades prior to Robinson’s entry into Organized Baseball, there were several major leaguers whose skin tone caused doubts about their racial background. There could be no doubt about ebony-skinned Jackie Robinson. Columnist John Crosby called him the blackest black man, as well as one of the handsomest, I ever saw.⁷

Plagued by a sore arm during the Royals’ 1946 spring training camp, Jackie performed poorly, generating numerous I told you so claims. But when Montreal opened the season on April 18, 1946, against the Jersey City Giants at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, Robinson was playing second base and hitting second in the batting order.

The first twentieth-century appearance by an acknowledged Black player in Organized Baseball was a preview of things to come. In front of a packed house, Jackie lashed out four hits and scored four times to lead Montreal to a 14–1 victory. After grounding out in his first at-bat, he blasted a three-run homer over the left-field wall in the third inning. In the fifth inning he bunted for a hit, stole second, and made a daring play to take third on a grounder to the third baseman. From third base he danced far off the bag, darting back and forth and bluffing a steal until the harried pitcher balked him home. Two innings later, he singled sharply to right field and stole second base again before scoring on a triple. In the eighth Jackie again bunted safely. He once again took an extra base, advancing from first to third on an infield single, and again scored by provoking a balk by the Jersey City hurler.

The next day, the headline in the Pittsburgh Courier read: Jackie Stole the Show.⁸ According to Joe Bostic of New York City’s Amsterdam News, He did everything but help the ushers seat the crowd.⁹

Baseball’s defense for keeping the game segregated hinged primarily on two points. The first was the contention that there just weren’t any Black players good enough to merit a shot at the majors at the time. The second centered on financial concerns — the fear that White fans wouldn’t pay to watch Negro players and didn’t want to sit in the stands beside Black fans. There was also much feigned concern about the financial impact on the established Negro Leagues.

But Jackie Robinson’s first year in Organized Baseball emphatically dispelled those tired excuses. He was a sensation on the field, the Royals dominated the International League, and the turnstiles hummed. Thanks to Jackie, the Royals established a new attendance record in Montreal, and his impact on the road was even greater, as attendance at Royals games in other International League cities almost tripled over the previous year. More than a million people came to watch Robinson and the Royals perform that year, an amazing figure for the minor leagues at the time.

For the season Robinson led the International League with a .349 batting average and scored 113 runs in 124 games to pace the circuit in that department as well. His 40 stolen bases were the second highest total in the league and he led the league’s second basemen in fielding. Jackie led the Royals to the International League pennant, by a 19 1/2-game margin, and to victory in the Little World Series. After the Series, ecstatic fans wanted to hoist Jackie on their shoulders in celebration, but Jackie had a plane to catch. They chased him for three blocks, prompting a journalist to observe, It was probably the only day in history that a black man ran from a white mob with love instead of hate on its mind.¹⁰

In preparation for the 1947 campaign the Brooklyn Dodgers and their top farm clubs set up spring training camp in Havana, Cuba. Based on his performance at Montreal it seemed a foregone conclusion that Robinson would get a chance with the parent team, but he was still listed on the Royals’ roster when the workouts started. Rickey chose Havana to avoid the racial attitudes of the spring training sites in the South. His plan was to allow the Dodgers’ veterans to gradually get used to having Jackie around and to see for themselves what an asset he would be to their pennant prospects. Three other Black players, Roy Campanella, Don Newcombe, and Roy Partlow, were also on hand. Rickey scheduled a seven-game exhibition series between the Dodgers and the Royals to showcase Robinson’s skills, and Jackie dominated the contests with a .625 batting average.

One problem that Rickey and Robinson had to overcome was that the Dodgers had Eddie Stanky playing second base. Therefore it was determined that Robinson would make his major-league debut at first base, a strange position for a man who had always been involved in the action in the middle of the diamond.

During training camp, a crisis arose when a core of Southerners on the team began to circulate a petition against Robinson. The dissenters were reportedly led by outfielder Dixie Walker, who initially dismissed the news of Robinson’s signing with the comment, As long as he isn’t with the Dodgers, I’m not worried.¹¹ Rickey and manager Leo Durocher promptly quashed the mini-rebellion. Shortly thereafter, Durocher, an avid Robinson supporter, received a one-year suspension from the commissioner’s office for associating with gamblers and other unsavory characters. Rickey deftly took advantage of the cover provided by the resulting clamor to quietly transfer Robinson to the Brooklyn roster.

Contrary to dire predictions, Robinson’s first season in the major leagues went fairly smoothly as the rookie steadfastly stuck by his promise to Rickey to turn the other cheek. Tension surrounding his first game was defused by a series of preseason exhibition contests against the Yankees in New York, and Jackie’s Opening Day debut against the Braves was actually somewhat anticlimactic.

He received death threats when the club visited Cincinnati, but, in an oft-told but undocumented story, Dodgers shortstop Pee Wee Reese, a native son of Kentucky, draped an arm over the shoulders of the nervous rookie infielder in a courageous public show of support. Later, a threatened strike by the St. Louis Cardinals was short-circuited by a show of force by league president Ford Frick.

Jackie’s worst experience came at the hands of the Philadelphia Phillies. Led by manager Ben Chapman, the Phils baited Robinson so cruelly that he later admitted, It brought me nearer to cracking up than I had ever been.¹² But the Chapman episode actually served to strengthen support for Robinson and even converted some of his detractors. Stanky, who originally had opposed playing with Robinson, challenged the Phillies to pick on someone who could fight back. Public reaction against Chapman was so severe that he had to ask Robinson to pose for a photo with him to save his job. Jackie graciously complied.

For his rookie campaign, Robinson hit .297, led the league with 29 stolen bases, and finished second in the National League with 125 runs scored. In 151 games he lashed out 175 hits, including 12 home runs. Usually hitting second in the batting order, he walked 74 times and led the league in sacrifice hits. On defense, his 16 errors at first base were the second-highest total in the league, but his fielding was generally considered adequate.

With Robinson the biggest addition to the lineup, the Dodgers captured the National League pennant. In the World Series, Jackie and his teammates lost to the powerful Yankees in a thrilling seven-game classic. The 1947 season was the first in which the full membership of the Baseball Writers Association of America selected a Rookie of the Year, and Robinson beat out 21-game winner Larry Jansen of the New York Giants for the award. In the National League Most Valuable Player voting, he finished fifth. At season’s end, Dixie Walker admitted that (Robinson) is everything Branch Rickey said he was when he came up from Montreal.¹³

The integration of major-league baseball proceeded without critical incident. Though Robinson was scorned by some of his teammates, was harassed by enemy bench jockeys, and received a steady diet of fastballs close to his head; he faithfully abided by his promise to Rickey to turn the other cheek. Even when veteran outfielder Enos Country Slaughter of the Cardinals appeared to deliberately try to maim him with his spikes in an August 20 game at Ebbets Field, Jackie didn’t retaliate.

In fact, baseball’s Great Experiment was a huge success. Despite the concerns of the owners, integration proved to be a financial windfall for major-league baseball. Robinson and the Dodgers eclipsed the home attendance record they had set the previous year. They also broke single-game attendance records in every National League ballpark they played in during the 1947 season, with the exception of Cincinnati’s Crosley Field, where the attendance record for the first major-league night game held up. Near the end of the season, Jackie was feted by fans with a day in his honor. At year’s end, he finished runner-up to crooner Bing Crosby in a national popularity poll.

Before the 1948 season, Eddie Stanky was swapped to the Boston Braves to open up the Dodgers’ second-base slot for Robinson. Jackie reported to camp out of shape and got off to a poor start. He was shifted back to first base for 30 games while utilityman Eddie Miksis manned second for the Dodgers. Eventually, Gil Hodges emerged as the club’s regular first baseman, and Robinson returned to second. He finished strong at the plate, ending the year with a .296 batting mark and leading the league’s regular second basemen in fielding percentage. Spending more time in the power spots in the batting order, he drove in 85 runs, tops on the disappointing third-place squad.

In 1949, Robinson enjoyed the best season of his career, establishing career highs in games played, hits, batting average, slugging, runs batted in, and stolen bases as the Dodgers captured the National League pennant by a single game. He won the batting title with a .342 mark and his major-league-leading 37 steals were the highest total in the National League in 19 years. He finished second in the league in runs batted in (124), hits (203), and on-base percentage (.432), and third in slugging average (.528), runs scored (122), doubles (38), and triples (12). His efforts were rewarded with his selection as the National League Most Valuable Player.

Robinson enjoyed two more superb seasons in 1950 and 1951, batting .328 and .338 and finishing second and third respectively in the batting race. Both years the Dodgers lost the pennant on the last day of the season, although Jackie’s heroics kept them in the hunt until the bitter end. In 1951, his spectacular play forced the playoff with the Giants that would be decided by Bobby Thomson’s momentous home run. In the final regular-season contest against the Phillies, Robinson prevented the winning run from scoring in the ninth inning with a sensational diving catch, and blasted a game-winning homer in the 14th inning.

The Dodgers returned to the top of the National League standings in 1952 as Robinson hit .308, scored 104 runs, stole 24 bases, and belted 19 homers. During the 1953 season, Jackie Robinson may have had his finest moment. He had worked hard to develop into a fine defensive second baseman. In 1951 he led National League second sackers in fielding and double plays, and had repeated as the double-play leader in 1952. But the Dodgers had a young Black second baseman in their system, Jim Gilliam, who was ready for the big time.

Jackie graciously agreed to move to another position to make room for the rookie. The 34 -year-old veteran played 76 games in the outfield, and appeared 44 times at third base, nine times at second, and six times at first base during the 1953 campaign. He even filled in at shortstop in one game, the only time he played his original position as a major leaguer. He hit .329, drove in 95 runs, and scored 109 times. Gilliam expertly filled the Dodgers’ leadoff spot and was selected the National League Rookie of the Year.

The 1954 campaign was Robinson’s last good season. Again shuttling between left field and third base, he batted .311, but age and accumulated injuries were starting to catch up with him. He stole only seven bases and missed 30 games.

In 1955, the year the Brooklyn Dodgers captured their first world championship, Robinson had the worst season statistically of his outstanding career. Sharing third base with light-hitting Don Hoak, he appeared in the field in fewer than 100 games and batted only .256. In the Dodgers’ epic World Series victory, Robinson was at third base for six of the seven contests and though he hit poorly, he scored five times, including his shocking Game One steal of home.

Jackie rallied to hit .275 in 1956, his final season, while sharing third base with newly acquired Randy Jackson and occasionally filling in at second. Though a mere shadow of his former self, the 37-year-old veteran was still a force at the plate and on the basepaths. In the Dodgers’ seven-game World Series loss to the Yankees, Jackie drew five walks, scored five times, and blasted a home run. He struck out in his last professional at-bat, but fittingly he went down fighting. Yankees catcher Yogi Berra had to throw him out at first base after dropping the third strike.

Jackie’s last years with the Dodgers had not been harmonious. He disliked both manager Walt Alston and owner Walter O’Malley, whose power play forced Branch Rickey out of the Brooklyn front office in 1950. Though the Dodgers had captured the 1956 pennant, the once dominating nucleus was growing old. Robinson himself was no longer a top performer on the field and had become increasingly outspoken on racial issues both inside and outside of baseball. The Dodgers brass was hoping he’d step down gracefully, but Jackie refused to announce his retirement. Finally the club forced his hand by swapping him to the New York Giants on December 13, 1956, for journeyman hurler Dick Littlefield and $30,000 in cash.

On January 22, 1957 Robinson’s retirement from baseball was announced in an exclusive article in Look magazine, in which he took a few parting shots at the remaining segregated teams in the majors. Jackie had actually decided to retire before he was dealt to the Giants, but couldn’t say anything earlier because of his deal with Look. The Giants reportedly offered him $60,000 to stay, and the prospect of playing alongside Willie Mays definitely had some appeal. But when Brooklyn general manager Buzzie Bavasi publicly implied that Robinson was just trying to use the magazine article to get a better contract, he decided to prove the Dodgers wrong and declined the Giants’ offer.

Though Robinson’s career as a major-league baseball player was over, he wasn’t about to retire from the spotlight. He joined the Chock Full o’Nuts coffee company as a vice president and served as the chairman of the Board of Freedom National Bank, founded to provide loans and banking services for minority members who were largely being ignored by establishment banks. He authored several autobiographical works, wrote a weekly newspaper column, and hosted a radio show. Earlier he even tried his hand at acting, starring in the movie The Jackie Robinson Story.

Robinson remained an unofficial spokesman for African Americans and a relentless crusader for civil rights. He became embroiled in politics. Though a strong supporter of Martin Luther King and the NAACP, he endorsed Richard Nixon over John F. Kennedy for president in 1960 because he felt Kennedy had not made it his business to know colored people. Reportedly it was an action that he later came to regret.

In 1962 Robinson was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He was inducted along with former Cleveland pitching great Bob Feller, who had once predicted that Jackie’s football shoulders would keep him from hitting big-league pitching. A few years after his retirement from baseball, Robinson acknowledged that he suffered from diabetes. His health declined under the ravages of the disease and at the age of 53 he suffered a fatal heart attack at his home in Stamford, Connecticut. He died on October 24, 1972, only months after his number 42 was officially retired by the Dodgers.

Although he always denied it, there’s evidence that Robinson may have been the first insulin-dependent diabetic to play major-league baseball, despite his claim that it hadn’t been diagnosed while he was an active player. But former tennis great Bill Talbert, a close friend of Robinson’s and the first famous athlete known to perform with diabetes, believed that Jackie became insulin-dependent in midcareer. I think Jackie felt it was a weakness. With all the publicity about blacks in baseball, he didn’t want another thing to talk about, Talbert said after Robinson’s death.¹⁴

More than two thousand people packed Riverside Church on Manhattan’s Upper West Side to hear the young Rev. Jesse Jackson deliver Jackie Robinson’s eulogy. Tens of thousands lined the streets of Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant to watch the passage of his mile-long funeral procession. Robinson is buried in Cyprus Hill Cemetery in Brooklyn, along with his mother-in-law Zellee Isum and his son Jack Roosevelt, Jr. He was survived by his wife Rachel, son David and daughter Sharon.

Shortly after his death Robinson’s ordeals and accomplishments were the subject of a Broadway musical, The First. In 1987, on the 40th anniversary of his breaking of color barrier, the Rookie of the Year Award was redesignated as the Jackie Robinson Award in honor of its first recipient. On the 50th anniversary of his debut, his number 42 was permanently retired by all major-league teams, although current major leaguers already wearing the number were allowed to keep it for the remainder of their careers.

Among the adjectives often used to describe Robinson’s personal makeup are fearless, courageous, dynamic, defiant, and proud. But the most frequently used descriptor is probably aggressive. It’s a word that defines his public life as a tireless campaigner against discrimination as well as his history making athletic career. Jackie, who was not known for self-deprecation, made the greatest understatement of his life in 1945 at the announcement of his signing. Maybe I’m doing something for my race, he ventured.¹⁵

Former teammate Joe Black, speaking for generations of Black ballplayers, later said, When I look at my house. I say ‘Thank God for Jackie Robinson.’¹⁶

This biography is an adaptation from The Black Stars Who Made Baseball Whole: The Jackie Robinson Generation in the Major Leagues by Rick Swaine (McFarland, 2006). It also appears in SABR’s The Team That Forever Changed Baseball and America: The 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers (University of Nebraska

Press, 2012), edited by Lyle Spatz.

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also consulted:

Frommer, Harvey. Rickey & Robinson: The Men Who Broke Baseball’s Color Barrier (New York: Macmillan, 1982).

Marshall, William. Baseball’s Pivotal Era 1945-51 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1999).

Moffi, Larry, and Jonathan Kronstadt. Crossing the Line: Black Major Leaguers 1947-1959 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 1994).

Polner, Murray. Branch Rickey: A Biography (New York: Atheneum, 1982).

Rosenthal, Harold. The 10 Best Years of Baseball: An Informal History of the Fifties (Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1979).

Shatzkin, Mike, and Jim Charlton. The Ballplayers: Baseball’s Ultimate Biographical Reference (New York: Arbor House, William Morrow, 1990).

Tygiel, Jules. Extra Bases: Reflections on Jackie Robinson, Race, & Baseball History (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2002).

_____. The Jackie Robinson Reader: Perspectives of an American Hero (New York: Penguin Books, 1997).

Wilber, Cynthia J. For the Love of the Game: Baseball Memories From the Men Who Were There (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1992).

Ardolino, Frank, Jackie Robinson and the 1941 Honolulu Bears, The National Pastime, SABR, 1995.

Jacobs, Bruce, Baseball Stars of 1953 (New York: Timely Comics, 1953).

Kirk, Al and Robert Bradley. Jackie Robinson and the L.A. Red Devils. http:// www.apbr.org/reddevils.html

NOTES

1 Roger Kahn, The Boys of Summer , p. 358.

2 Vincent X. Flaherty - Jackie Robinson Scrapbooks per Jules Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 60.

3 Jackie Robinson Scrapbooks, 60

4 Unattributed - Jackie Robinson Scrapbooks, 60.

5 The Sporting News , November 1, 1945.

6 Pittsburgh Courier , November 3, 1945.

7 John Crosby, Syracuse Herald , November 12, 1972.

8 Pittsburgh Courier , April 27, 1946.

9 Joe Bostic, Amsterdam News , April 27, 1946.

10 Sam Maltin, Pittsburgh Courier , October 12, 1946.

11 Brooklyn Eagle , October 24, 1945.

12 Jackie Robinson and Alfred Duckett. I Never Had It Made (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1972), 64.

13 Peter Golenbock, Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1984), 165.

14 Arnold Schechter, Sports Illustrated , April 22, 1985.

15 The Sporting News , November 1, 1945.

16 New York Daily News , July 20, 1972.

MY HERO - JACKIE ROBINSON

by Larry Lester

The summer of 1960 was a special season for me. As a young lad I got my first glimpse of the legendary Jackie Robinson during a political tour. He was campaigning for Republican presidential candidate Richard Milhous Nixon. As a brash, up-and-coming little league player, I knew everything about this icon and the impact that the now-retired Jackie Robinson had had on breaking baseball’s color barrier back in 1947. I copied his pigeon-toed style of running and tried holding my bat high above my big head, with my potato-chip-flat chest to emulate his batting stance. And now #42 was coming to my town to give a campaign speech on behalf of a presidential candidate.

Lucky for me, Municipal Stadium, home of the Kansas City A’s, was only five blocks from where I sorted and traded baseball cards and stuffed them in my Roi-Tan cigar box, under the bed. I attended a lot of ball games, but I never got to see this great athlete play in person. Unfortunately, teams in the American League, like the A’s, never hosted National League clubs like the Brooklyn Dodgers. To take this opportunity and to see Robinson in the flesh would be the ultimate, ever-lasting thrill for me.

I asked my father to take me downtown to see Mr. Robinson speak on behalf of tricky Dicky. My pleading request was met with a puzzled and concerned look from my father. Years later I discovered that my father was a Democrat. Reluctantly he took me to the Music Hall auditorium, fulfilling my Robinson fantasy. With the exception of Mr. Robinson, my father and I appeared to be the only Black folks in the Hall. We overcame the uninvited stares - nothing would keep me for seeing this man among men, whom I had read so much about.

As my father and I sat in the balcony and it seemed like an eternity, as each speaker strolled to the podium to deliver promises that even a 10-year kid knew they would not keep. Needless to say, each speaker struck out with me.

Finally, the man of the hour appeared. Sitting on the edge of my seat, I took in his high-pitched voice, his salty gray hair, his chubby belly, his eloquent delivery and his professional demeanor, as I stared in awe. I remember little of what Robinson said, but recalled how professional and sincere his presentation seemed.

It took a lot of prodding to get my Democratic father to chauffeur me to the event, but he knew, like many of us, the impact this Barrier Breaker has had towards the socialization of races through the integration of our National Pastime. I knew from that day forth Mr. Jackie Robinson would become my role model for sports and beyond. For these reasons, and many others, I chose to honor number 42, Jackie Robinson, as part of my website, www.LarryLester42.com.

RACHEL ROBINSON

by Ralph Carhart

Rachel Robinson.

It is easy to imagine that at the end of her final day of filming with acclaimed director Ken Burns, Rachel Robinson must have felt some sense of relief. When Jack died, she was only 50 years old. Since then, she had been blessed with a long life and had spent almost as many years shepherding her husband’s story, safeguarding it from those who would twist, misrepresent, or abuse his legacy. The sweeping documentary by Burns, made in 2016 and titled simply Jackie Robinson, would be the most comprehensive, multifaceted look at Jack’s tale – the crown jewel in that important aspect of her life’s work. Yet, her role as guardian was just one of her many accomplishments. Rachel was also a distinguished professor at Yale, a psychiatric nurse, a vocal civil rights activist, a cunning businesswoman, and a generous philanthropist.

Hers is a stunning résumé for anyone, but most especially a Black woman born nearly a century ago.

Rachel Annetta Isum took her first breath on July 19, 1922, in Los Angeles, to parents Zellee and Charles Raymond Isum. Zellee Jones was born in Texas, and after moving to California became a gourmet cook and self-employed caterer with elite clientele in Beverly Hills and Hollywood. Charles was a second-generation Californian, and an Army veteran who’d fought in World War I and was gassed by the German army in France. After the war he got a job as a bookbinder for the Los Angeles Times, though he never fully recovered from the gas attack and was forced to retire while still a relatively young man.¹ Believing in the importance of exposing her children to art and culture, Zellee took Rachel to violin lessons, the museum, and the Exposition Park Rose Garden, not far from the family home at 1588 36th Place.² Rachel attended the acclaimed Manual Arts High School, which counted among its notable alumni filmmaker Frank Capra and California Governor Goodwin Knight. Her parents provided her with opportunities that few Black families could give their children.

When it was time for college, Rachel went to UCLA. She longed to be a doctor, but Zellee convinced her that nursing was a more appropriate career path for a woman who was destined to have a family.³ Rachel lived at home, and drove her old, beat-up Ford V-8 to school. It was a largely isolated existence, living off-campus.⁴ That changed when she met Jack Roosevelt Robinson. Prior to their introduction, she had seen Jack play for Pasadena Junior College, a rival of her own beloved Los Angeles, and had instantly disliked him. She found the popular athlete to be cocky, conceited and self-centered. She even found the way he stood in the backfield during football games, with his hands on his hips, to give off an air of arrogance. In truth, Jack was rather shy around women. When the two, now both attending UCLA, were introduced by Jack’s more outgoing friend Ray Bartlett, she found her earlier prejudices challenged.⁵

There was an instant spark between the two. Jack was attracted to her looks and charm, she found him impressive – a handsome, proud, and serious man with a warm smile and a pigeon-toed walk.⁶ When she brought Jack home to meet her family, her mother and brothers were impressed. Her father was a harsher critic, and Rachel sensed that he harbored some jealousy of the successful athlete who was wooing his daughter. For their first formal date, Jack took her to the Bruins football homecoming dinner, an affair at the Biltmore Hotel. Rachel later remembered her anxiety about stepping out into such glamorous surroundings. The racism she faced in Los Angeles was often unexpected and inexplicable, and an event at a place like the Biltmore was rife for a surprise reminder. There was also an underlying sexual tension that was new to the innocent Rachel. Still, despite the occasional awkwardness, the night went off seamlessly, as she and Jack danced the fox-trot and flirted, two kids in love. The road ahead for Rachel and Jack would not always be so smooth. ⁷

Charles Isum died on March 6, 1941. His death deeply affected Rachel, who thought of herself as her father’s guardian angel. One of the roles assigned to her by Zellee, even when she was a young child, had been to serve as a caretaker to her often-ill father. Her grief brought Rachel and Jack even closer together, as he was a loving salve for her during that difficult time. Just three days before Charles’s death, Jack had dropped out of UCLA, only a few credits shy of graduation. He always claimed that it was financial hardships that forced him to leave school. He had to find work to help his mother, Mallie, with the bills. However, Rachel would note years later that she always believed that the real reason was not a financial one. Rather, by that spring he had used up his athletic eligibility. With no sports, school no longer held his interest.⁸ He found work, first with the National Youth Administration in Atascadero. He was hired as an assistant athletic director, a position he enjoyed, but the approaching war cut the job short in July. After a brief tenure playing for the Los Angeles Bulldogs of the Pacific Coast Professional Football League, he quickly signed with the Honolulu Bears of the Hawaii Senior Football League, a position that came with an attached construction job.⁹ Rachel supported his decision, even though it meant they would be separated. Before he left, Jack gave her a charm bracelet, a symbol that they were committed to one another.¹⁰

They were not separated for long. While he had some success on the gridiron in Hawaii, Jack was often hampered by injuries and he left Honolulu just two days before the attack at Pearl Harbor. Upon his return, he and Rachel immediately began spending as much time together as work and school allowed. Their reunion was short-lived. On March 23, 1942, Jack received notification that he was to report for induction into the US Army.¹¹ Rachel suddenly had three important men in her life serving – her brothers, Chuck and Raymond, both saw active combat. Chuck, a pilot, was even missing in action for a time, after his plane was shot down over Yugoslavia. It was while Jack was on leave from the Army in March 1943 that they formalized their engagement when he presented Rachel with a diamond ring. They promised to wed once she finished school, though in truth she was in no hurry. While she loved Jack, she had come to realize that much of her life had been lived to fulfill the goals her family had for her. She understood that with marriage, she was likely surrendering another piece of her autonomy, a reality she was happy to delay.¹²

Rachel did her part toward the war effort by taking a job as a riveter at Lockheed Aircraft, working nights while she went to school during the day. In September 1943 she transferred to the U.C. San Francisco School of Nursing, where she then worked eight-hour shifts in hospital wards, all while juggling her studies.¹³ Jack wrote Rachel weekly, and arranged for a box of chocolates to appear at her dorm room every Friday. The distance was difficult for them both, especially Rachel, who was now living over six hours away from home. She watched all of her new friends go on adventures with their romantic interests, while Jack was 1,700 miles away at Fort Riley, Kansas. Worse, he and Rachel clashed when she wrote to him and informed him that she had decided to join the Cadet Nurse Corps. Jack mistakenly believed she had actually enlisted in the Army, and wrote her back, insisting she withdraw. He was certain that were she to be surrounded by enlisted men, she would quickly be seduced by them. Rachel, not one to be told what to do, returned the ring and bracelet. She joined the Corps, glad for the extra $20 a month it provided and for the chance to serve her country.¹⁴ The two remained estranged until Jack was discharged from the Army in November 1944. At first, he hesitated to contact Rachel, but after some convincing by his mother, Mallie, he called her. Rachel was eager to rekindle their romance and he rapidly drove to San Francisco. The two reconciled, and reaffirmed their engagement when he gave her back the ring.¹⁵

Jack was again on the road at the beginning of 1945, playing shortstop for the Kansas City Monarchs, while Rachel was completing her studies. She graduated in June, with