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Jackie Robinson
There are a lot of “firsts” in the long history of
African Americans in this country. And with each
one, a new plateau of equality and acceptance was
achieved. But it can also be said without exception
that each one came at a price for the brave people
who fought hard to improve the lives of their people
and achieve that great breakthrough in their chosen
field.
These principles are certainly true in the arena of
sports and especially baseball. Baseball has long
been considered the great American pastime. So on
April 15th, 1947 when Jackie Robinson walked out
onto the field to be the first black to shatter
the color barrier in professional baseball in a
game between his team, the Brooklyn Dodgers and
the Boston Braves, he was making a dramatic statement.
But this was no day of parades and celebration for
Robinson. As is the case in so many great events in
black history, that was time of tremendous racism,
prejudice and discrimination against African Americans.
Jackie Robinson was an extraordinary baseball player.
In his first year alone he played 151 games, led the
league in his base stealing ability and was awarded
with the first rookie of the year award ever given.
While Jackie played with the Dodgers, they went to
the World Series six times and he played in six all
star games as well. He was a solid performer and a
tremendous benefit to his team for which he won the
most valuable player award in 1949 and helped the
Dodgers win the World Series in 1955.
As is often the case, it took some brave leadership
from supporters outside of the African American
community to see to it that prejudice would not
keep a brilliant career such as Jackie Robinsons
from reaching its true potential. When some of
the Brooklyn Dodger players refused to sit next
to Jackie Robinson and showed other hostile attitudes
towards him because of his race, management stood
firm that if they could not become a team with all
members of the club, they were welcome to go play
baseball elsewhere.
But one of the most emotional and heart warming
moments that has become a shining example of the
fall of racial bigotry in this country came in a
game in Cincinnati Ohio in Robinson’s rookie year.
As the fans at the game began to heckle and shout
racial slurs at Robinson, one of his fellow
Dodger’s, Pee Wee Reese, took a stand to bring this
kind of behavior to a stop. His statement that
racism would no longer rule in baseball was simple
and elegant. As fans shouted their hateful remarks,
Reese walked out on the field and put his arm around
Jackie Robinson clearly communicating that this
man was a teammate and a valued ball player on
that team. The taunts ended abruptly and Reese
and Robinson went on to do what they came to
that game to do, play outstanding baseball.
Jackie himself never made his baseball career
about race. He chose to demonstrate dramatically
what Dr. Martin Luther King later described when
he said that the day must come when we judge a
man not by the color of his skin but by the content
of his character. Jackie Robinson made his stand
for equality by showing that at the heart of his
character was a superior baseball player and a
valued member of the baseball community.
Even when Robinson spoke of his days pioneering
baseball for other African Americans, his words
demonstrated that he only wanted the chance to be
tested fairly along side all other athletes, no
more and no less. His simple statements really
summarized so much of what the civil rights
movement was all about when he said, "You can
hate a man for many reasons, color is not one
of them.” And later in his career he stated
it again beautifully when he said, "I'm not
concerned with your liking or disliking me...
all I ask is that you respect me as a human
being."
This emphasis on the individual, on the quality
of all men and all Americans and their right
to be judged for who they are as people, not
subjected to prejudice as African Americans
is a perfect summation of the struggle of
African Americans everywhere.
To your continued Success
Terry Ritschard
24/7 MultiMedia
602-510-2830
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