Three Days Ago in History

Whoops! I can't believe i missed the date, but April 15th marked the 64th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's first game in the Major Leagues, marking the first African-American baseball player to play in the League. However, his influence went far beyond the baseball diamond.

Teammate Leo Durocher once said, "Ya want a guy that comes to play. This guy didn't just come to play. He come to beat ya. He come to stuff the goddamn bat right up your ass."

William B. Gould IV once wrote for the Hall of Fame Magazine:

But the Hall of Famer's greatest impact was beyond the game itself. His 1947 success fostered a more hospitable environment for President's Truman's 1948 Armed Forces' desegregation (against the opposition of then General Dwight D.Eisenhower) and the Democratic Party's strong civil rights platform of that year. Similarly, Jackie Robinson's story antedated the 1954 Supreme Court decision authored by Chief Justice Earl Warren, which condemned "separate but equal" in public education as unconstitutional.

This, in turn set the groundwork for the civil rights revolution in the late 1950s and 1960s, beginning with the Freedom Riders, the "sit-ins" in the South which both attacked racial segregation in public places, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott leading to the rise of Martin Luther King.

Robinson was outspoken and supportive throughout, as the movement realized its first sweeping successes with the anti-discrimination legislation of '64, '65, and '68, which soon followed. He was the beginning of the post World War II breakthroughs against the vestigial remnants of slavery in the United States.

It is always tempting to speculate about this question: If Robinson were with us today, what would he say about the state of race relations in 2007, 60 years after his baseball debut and 35 years subsequent to his untimely death? I think that he would express dismay about the dwindling number of black American players on the field and the almost complete absence of blacks from front office positions of responsibility. But he would be amazed at the advances made by the expanding black middle class and, simultaneously be at the forefront to dispel ongoing racism in our society.

Robinson would have our attention in 2007 as he did in 1947. His name and voice carry with them the authority and respect that still flows from his once in a lifetime accomplishment.

(Source: http://www.hofmag.com/content/view/737/30/)