Historical Figure
Jackie Robinson
1919–1972
American baseball player (1919–1972)
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"On Opposing Goldwater's Nomination" — 1964
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Biography
Jack Roosevelt Robinson was an American professional baseball player who was the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the color line when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. The Dodgers signing Robinson heralded the end of racial segregation in professional baseball, which had relegated black players to the Negro leagues since the 1880s.
Timeline
The story of Jackie Robinson, told in moments.
Court-martialed for refusing to move to the back of a military bus at Fort Hood, Texas. Nine years before Rosa Parks. He's a second lieutenant. The charges are dropped after a public outcry.
Signs with the Montreal Royals, the Brooklyn Dodgers' minor league team. Branch Rickey has been scouting him for months. Rickey tells him: 'I need a player with the guts not to fight back.' Robinson says he can do it.
Starts at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Number 42. He goes 0-for-3 but reaches on an error and scores. Fans scream slurs. Opposing pitchers throw at his head. The Phillies' manager yells things so vile that the Dodgers' own southern players tell him to shut up.
Wins the National League MVP, batting .342 with 37 stolen bases. He's not just surviving anymore. He's dominating. Branch Rickey lifts the agreement to stay silent. Robinson starts speaking out on civil rights and never stops.
Dies of a heart attack in Stamford, Connecticut, at 53. Diabetes had taken most of his sight. His hair was white at 50. Nine days before he died, he threw the first pitch at the World Series and told the crowd he wished he could look into the dugout and see a Black manager.
In Their Own Words (4)
A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.
I Never Had It Made (1972) by Robinson, as told to Alfred Duckett; excerpted in "Why 'I Never Had It Made': Jackie Robinson's Own Story," Newsday (November 5, 1972), 1972
The role of the manager is overrated, anyhow. Look at Stengel. When he was with the Yankees, loaded with material, he was a winner. When he moved over to the Mets, he finished last. They voted Casey the greatest living manager. That's a lot of bull—a joke. The only thing a manager has to do is relate to the players. Who did Casey ever relate to? Nobody but himself.
As quoted in "Jackie Robinson Calls Stengel Overrated Pilot: Attacks Managerial Color Line On Clinic Faculty Discrimination Alleged" by the Associated Press, in The Washington Post (October 25, 1969), 1969
I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me. All I ask is that you respect me as a human being. I am not ashamed of my dark skin. You and every other white American should understand that we believe our color is an asset. Your dislike of my aggressiveness has no effect on me. I'm after something much more important than your favor or disfavor. You should at least respect me as a man who stands up for what he believes in. I am not an . I am in this fight to stay.
Responding, circa 1954, to an umpire who had known him 8 years before, and, somewhat taken aback at finding his old acquaintance much less ready to turn the other cheek, said "I liked you much better when you were less aggressive"; as quoted in Baseball Has Done It (1964) by Robinson, pp. 9-10, 1964
The kid was great. He was the difference. The Yankees certainly didn't miss Joe DiMaggio out there in center field today—and won't as long as that guy's around.
On Mickey Mantle's role in the then just-concluded , as quoted in "Mantle Follows Ruth, DiMaggio; Dodgers Agree—Mickey Beat Them" by Oscar Fraley (UP), The Pittsburgh Press (October 8, 1952), 1952
Artifacts (15)
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