What Did Jackie Do That Changed The United States

Jackie Robinson's legacy in a changing America

Some names overshadow only a slice of our lives, but Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson penetrated our collective psyche first in 1947, and every spring every bit baseball remembers him on the anniversary of his breaking the color barrier in baseball game. And now comes an outstanding picture treatment of his life.

Jackie Robinson made and then many things possible for athletes – and

FILE - In this July 20, 1962 file photograph, baseball role player Jackie Robinson embraces Branch Rickey in New York. Rickey was full general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers when Robinson was hired. The habitation area of the tardily baseball executive Rickey expects increased interest in his southern Ohio roots from his depiction in the movie "42," in which Harrison Ford plays the man who signed Jackie Robinson to challenge baseball game's color line. (AP Photo/File) (Uncredited/AP)

especially the dreams of African American athletes – but he likewise was a giant figure for those of us who wanted to research, teach and frame the steps to equality in America.

As a child in 1950s New Bailiwick of jersey, I heard the feats and statistics of Robinson praised and shouted about at family picnics. I had an uncle who said that Jackie "helped us believe that many things we could not imagine were now possible." They knew virtually the racial taunts, the expiry threats and the hostility of even his own teammates; overcoming all that added to his achievements on the field and made them flare-up with pride. Their cheers were my indoctrination.

Meeting people over the years, I learned the manner of the human. His older brother Mack Robinson, who won a Silverish Medal in the 1936 Olympics, 0.iv seconds behind Jesse Owens, told me about that special upbringing and competition unique to Southern California. Hank Aaron, a modern baseball hero who listened to the crack of Jackie'southward bat on his radio, spoke of the doors Jackie opened.

When Jackie was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers, he had to prove that he was non merely a proficient baseball player but a sterling human and citizen. He was well-prepared, coming out of a conservative environs in Pasadena, Calif. His family unit is another chapter in the Great Migration, moving from Georgia to the West Coast. In Southern California race mattered only without the overt violence of the Due south, and with the opportunity for an integrated education, Jackie had the centre class foundation that would entreatment to the scouts from the white baseball leagues. Above all, he was an outstanding athlete, playing iv sports at the University of California, Los Angeles. He further developed his outlook on life among white contemporaries in the U.S. Army and the black baseball players with the Kansas City Monarchs.

When the 28-year-former stepped onto Ebbets Field in Brooklyn on April 15, 1947, Jackie had an unshakeable philosophy, saying "I'thou not concerned with your liking or disliking me … All I ask is that y'all respect me as a man." Baseball had been segregated for more than l years. He was chosen by Branch Rickey, the president and full general manager of the Dodgers, because he was mature and educated but also because he was a very settled married man who spoke well and without a regional accent. Jackie was ready to nigh single handedly call into question the conditions and pointlessness of a segregated America, likewise as the notion of black inferiority.

Before Jackie, many people – many of them unknown – had worked difficult to over turn America'due south inequality but Jackie brought a central modify in baseball and accelerated a modify in American apartheid that couldn't be ignored.

I was immensely pleased, as a historian, as a baseball fan, as a Jackie admirer, that and then many of these traits are captured in "42," the dramatic film of Jackie's rookie season. It shows how one human being could shoulder the burden of being the starting time and gracefully win even some of the skeptics of his talent and manhood. It shows an ugly America in 1947, before the Armed services were officially integrated, before the media-covered protests in the Southward. The mean solar day to day pain was unbelievable, with thousands of fans jeering, every bit well as cheering. He stood up, he hit, he stole all the bases. And he didn't practise information technology alone. The film also presents a rare portrayal of black love, with Rachel Robinson'south strength beautifully displayed.

The role of racism in Jackie'south first flavour is a powerful character in the movie. The best films have a large thought or issue and reduce them to a human calibration and then that the viewer is not dazzled only engaged and cares. Ane scene haunts me. I had seen other depictions of the run across with Ben Chapman, the racist manager of the Philadelphia Phillies, but the manner the encounter is shot you saw how close and intimate the 2 were so that the racial epithets had existent power. It reminded me just how much the n-give-and-take hurt me growing up in New Jersey.

The motion picture does not go across that maiden season, just the National Museum of African American History and Culture volition nowadays Jackie Robinson non only as the pioneering sportsman merely as a civil rights fighter who was praised and criticized. We accept a letter Robinson wrote President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1958, objecting to the stated position that black people should be patient. "I respectfully suggest that you unwittingly shell the spirit of freedom in Negroes by constantly urging forbearance and requite hope to those pro-segregation leaders similar Governor Faubus who would have from us even those freedoms we now savor."

That leadership does non rest unused in the rearview mirror from a man who lifted the land 66 years ago. It remains a stance for courage.

Agglomeration is the founding manager of the Smithsonian'due south National Museum of African American History and Culture

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/therootdc/post/jackie-robinsons-legacy-in-a-changing-america/2013/04/19/863693ac-a92f-11e2-b029-8fb7e977ef71_blog.html

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