And all three involve Jackie Robinson. That’s why many historians regard the Baseball Hall of Famer as one of the most important people in African-American history.
Jackie Robinson (1919-1972) was the first African-American to play Major League Baseball. He debuted in 1947, when baseball was, by far, the USA’s most popular sport. During the month of February, Robinson’s contribution to African-American History Month will be communicated to people all over the nation in a variety of public events. Schoolchildren, in particular, need to know about Robinson’s courage while he was taunted and harassed by racists.
This blog is the first of two about Jackie Robinson that I will post on Storeboard.com. The blogs are being posted in commemoration of African-American History Month. The U.S. government began recognizing February as Black History Month (it’s been widely known as African-American History Month in recent years) in 1976 during the celebration of the nation’s bicentennial (its 200th birthday).
Canada also celebrates February as Black History Month, while Great Britain celebrates the month in October.
Jackie Robinson is a favorite topic of mine. I made a speech about him in college that argued he was the greatest athlete ever, partly because of the historic nature of his athletic achievements and partly because he excelled in several sports, including basketball, football, tennis, and track and field. He might have won Olympics gold medals if the 1940 and 1944 Olympics hadn’t been cancelled because of World War II. I also wrote an article about Robinson for a client recently. I gathered the information for this two-part series while writing that article.
Here are three important events about Robinson that I wrote about in that article.
Event No. 1: Dodgers’ GM Chooses Rookie Over Stars In the spring of 1947, Brooklyn Dodgers’ Bobby Bragan, Hugh Casey, Carl Furillo, Kirby Higbe, Pee Wee Reese and Dixie Walker told Dodgers’ General Manager Branch Rickey that they were organizing a petition campaign against Jackie Robinson because they didn’t want him to become the first person whose skin color was black to play Major League Baseball.
Bragan, Higbe and Walker went further. They demanded that Rickey trade them if Robinson became a Dodger. They thought that Rickey would pick them over the minor leaguer, but Rickey made it clear that he would choose Robinson, although Walker finished second in the 1946 MVP voting.
Manager Leo Durocher cursed the six players out, and Rickey decided on April 10, 1947, that Robinson was a Brooklyn Dodger. Robinson made his debut five days later. He didn’t get a hit in his four at bats, but he had six hits in his second through fourth games, and was the 1947 Rookie of the Year.
Higbe -- an all-star in 1946 -- never accepted Robinson and was traded, but the rest of the Dodgers showed what happens when you get to know a person as an individual rather than as a member of a particular race.
Event No. 2: Dodgers' Racists Choose Robinson Over Phillies' Racists On April 22, 1947, Philadelphia manager Ben Chapman and a few Phillies’ players shouted racial epithets at Robinson during a game. They used the N word repeatedly.
Rickey had asked Robinson when he signed him if he would be willing to not fight back when racists harassed him. Rickey was concerned because Robinson had protested racist treatment while he was in the U.S. Army, but the general manager also thought that Robinson, who went to college in an era when most baseball players didn’t, was smart enough to understand the ramifications of a black player cursing and fighting.
Robinson promised Rickey he wouldn’t fight back and his grace under pressure while the Phillies harassed him united the Dodgers, wrote Arnold Rampersad in his 1997 book "Jackie Robinson: A Biography."
Walker, who had said that he was afraid that his Alabama neighbors would destroy his store and spit on him if he played with Robinson, denounced Chapman -- a fellow Alabaman and close friend.
Event No. 3: A Statue Commemorates This Event In 1948, fans in Cincinnati shouted racial epithets at Robinson, who was playing second base. Reese, who was playing shortstop and was now Robinson’s best friend, walked over to Robinson and put his left arm around Robinson’s right shoulder.
"The hecklers fell silent," wrote Rampersad.
The event has been commemorated by a statue at Brooklyn’s MCU Park since 2005.
The picture with this story shows Robinson and Reese with their arms around each other. I don’t think there’s a photo of them together during the game in Cincinnati. There are plenty of photos of the statue online, but the above photo looked better in the space allotted for a photo.
The second blog in this series will discuss the significance of Robinson’s breaking the color barrier and his own civil rights activities.
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