Robinson, Jackie 1919-1972

ROBINSON, JACKIE 1919-1972

First black in major league baseball

Childhood

Jackie Robinson was born in Georgia, the youngest of five children of Mallie and Jerry Robinson. His father deserted the family when Jackie was six months old, and his mother moved the family to Pasadena, California, in search of opportunity. Mallie Robinson, a domestic, purchased a home in a white Pasadena neighborhood with the help of a welfare agency. The neighbors petitioned unsuccessfully to have the Robinsons removed and then offered to buy the family out. Mrs. Robinson refused. Jackie Robinson remembered that "Pasadena regarded us as intruders. My brothers and I were in many a fight that started with a racial slur on the very street we lived on. We saw movies from segregated balconies, swam in the municipal pool only on Tuesdays, and were permitted in the YMCA only one night a week."

Youth

Athletics became a passion for the two Robinson boys, Jackie and his older brother Mack, who won a silver medal in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, finishing second to Jesse Owens in the 200-meter dash. Jackie Robinson attended UCLA, and in his senior year he was not named to either of the top all-division teams, despite leading the conference in scoring for two seasons. As one observer commented, "It's purely the case of a coach refusing to recognize a player's ability…out of prejudice." Robinson was a remarkable all-around athlete. He was UCLA's first four-letter man, excelling in football, basketball, track, and baseball. One coach called him "the best basketball player in the United States." In football in his junior year he averaged eleven yards a carry. He was the NCAA broad jump champion in 1940. Robinson dropped out of UCLA in his senior year to help support his mother and worked as a coach for the National Youth Administration, supplementing his income by playing baseball.

Army

Jackie Robinson was drafted into the army in 1942, where he fought segregation from the beginning. When he was barred from officer's training school, he fought to have the decision reversed, and he continued to oppose segregation in sports recreation and at his base PX. In 1944 his insistence on equal treatment landed him in military court facing court-martial for insubordination. He had refused a southern bus driver's order to sit in the back of a military bus, knowing that the army had just ordered the desegregation of base transportation. When the police and the provost of the base took the bus driver's side at the trial, the judges ruled that Robinson had acted within his rights, and he received an honorable discharge in November 1944.

First Meeting with Rickey

When Brooklyn Dodger general manager Branch Rickey searched in 1945 for a player to cross the color line and integrate professional baseball, Jackie Robinson was identified as the man for the experiment. In their first meeting Rickey grilled Robinson on the insults and indignities he would face as the first black major league ballplayer. In a role-playing exercise, Rickey confronted Robinson as the abusive teammate, the hostile opponent, and the insulting fan. Robinson remembered that "[Rickey's] acting was so convincing that I found myself chain-gripping my fingers behind my back." Finally, Robinson responded, "Mr. Rickey, do you want a ballplayer who's afraid to fight back?" Rickey replied, "I want a player with guts enough not to fight back." At that meeting Branch Rickey impressed upon Robinson the importance of passive resistance and told him it was essential that he avoid all confrontation until he was established in the major leagues. Robinson agreed. He signed a contract for a monthly salary of $600 plus a bonus of $3,500 to play for the Montreal Royals, the Dodgers' best farm club, in preparation for his introduction into the major leagues. Robinson was sworn to secrecy, with the exception of his fiancée and his mother. Robinson married his college sweetheart, Rachel Isum, on 10 February 1946.

The Great Experiment

The news was made public at a signing ceremony on 23 October 1945 in Montreal. When Robinson addressed the crowd at the signing he expressed delight at being chosen as the first black man in the major leagues. He pointed out that most of his playing was on integrated teams, and, anticipating the problems that lay ahead, Robinson affirmed, "I'm ready to take the chance. Maybe I'm doing something for my race." For two years with the Royals, Robinson encountered what his wife described as the worst name-calling she and her husband had ever endured, and she feared for his life. But they did endure, and Robinson began the 1947 season as a Brooklyn Dodger.

On the Field

Robinson's performance surpassed expectations in his 1947 season: he batted .297 and led the Dodgers with 29 stolen bases and 125 runs scored. In 1948 he was moved to the position of second baseman, and from 1953 until he stopped playing in 1957 Robinson shifted between the outfield and the infield. Jackie Robinson's best year was 1949. He won the National League's Most Valuable Player award, with a .342 batting average, 37 stolen bases, 122 runs scored, and 124 RBIs. Robinson's triumph engendered a winning team spirit, and the Dodgers won six pennants in the late 1940s. He was traded to the New York Giants in 1956, and within a month of the trade he announced his retirement to become an executive with the Chock Full O'Nuts restaurant chain. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, in 1962, the first year he was eligible.

Later Years

Breaking the color barrier took a personal toll on Jackie Robinson. After he retired from the team in 1957, he became a vociferous critic of organized baseball's treatment of blacks. Robinson's 1964 memoir, Baseball Has Done It, is a litany of complaints about the inequity in salary and opportunity for black players. Robinson, who personified the rags-to-riches myth, believed in a liberal dream of integration for blacks. He advocated black capitalism and participated in black-owned business ventures in Harlem. Independent in his political positions, Robinson supported Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon in 1960 and resigned from the NAACP in 1967 because he objected to the organization's failure to include younger, progressive blacks. Jackie Robinson died of a heart attack in 1972 at the age of fifty-three.

Sources:

David Falkner, Great Time Coining: The Life of Jackie Robinson, From Baseball to Birmingham (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995);

Elliott J. Gorn and Warren Goldstein, A Brief History of American Sports (New York; Hill & Wang, 1993);

Jules Tygiel, Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983).