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Jackie Robinson

1919–1972 · 53 years Tier I

Court-martialed for refusing the back of an Army bus

Portrait of Jackie Robinson
Harry Warnecke / Frank Livia / Robert F. Cranston / William Klein — 1949 — CC0 via Wikimedia Commons

His middle name was Roosevelt, for the president who had died 25 days before he was born to sharecroppers in Cairo, Georgia. His father left in 1920 and his mother took five children to a plot on Pepper Street in Pasadena, poor in a rich town, shut out of the pools and playgrounds. He was arrested at 18 for arguing loudly with police who had detained a Black friend, and got a suspended sentence and a reputation for combativeness. At UCLA he became the first athlete there to letter in four sports, then left before graduating. The Army commissioned him only after Joe Louis intervened, and in July 1944 court-martialed him for refusing a bus driver's order to move to the back. He was acquitted, and discharged that November.

He signed with the Kansas City Monarchs for 400 dollars a month, hit .387 in 47 games, and sat through a sham tryout at Fenway Park staged to placate a Boston city councilman. Then Montreal, then Brooklyn, and ten seasons: six pennants, the 1955 championship, 197 stolen bases including 19 steals of home, and Cooperstown on the first ballot in 1962. BriefHistory has 1947 and what it took to get through it. This page is the man on either side of it.

In July 1949 the House Committee on Un-American Activities called him to answer statements by Paul Robeson. He did not want to go and went anyway, judging that refusing might cost him his career. His politics stayed hard to place afterward. He backed Nixon against Kennedy in 1960, then praised Kennedy on civil rights, broke with the Republicans over Goldwater in 1964 and worked for Nelson Rockefeller, wrote to Martin Luther King Jr. defending the Johnson administration's war, and left Nixon for Humphrey in 1968. The body went first. Diabetes was diagnosed in 1957, the year he retired, then a heart attack in 1968, and he was nearly blind before he was 50. His son Jackie Jr. came home wounded from Vietnam, got clean, became a drug counselor, and was killed in a car crash in 1971 at 24.

Nine days before he died he stood at Riverfront Stadium to take a plaque for the 25th anniversary of his debut and said he would be prouder when he looked at the third-base coaching line and saw a Black man managing. That took until after the 1974 season, when Cleveland hired Frank Robinson, no relation. He died at 53 in October 1972, Jesse Jackson gave the eulogy, Bill Russell carried the coffin, and tens of thousands lined the route to Cypress Hills, where he was buried beside his son. In 1997 baseball retired his number across every team. The share of Black American players in the major leagues has fallen since the 1970s.

Lifespan

15401700180019002030

Jackie Robinson's life against the full span of the corpus.

Notable works

  • Jackie Robinson: My Own Story book
    Written with Wendell Smith of the Pittsburgh Courier     1948
  • The Jackie Robinson Story film
    He played himself, after the producers refused a studio demand for scenes of a white man teaching him baseball     1950
  • Freedom National Bank company
    A Black-owned bank in Harlem he helped establish in the 1960s and chaired     —
  • Jackie Robinson Construction Company company
    Built housing for low-income families     1970

Life in brief

with age at each point
  • 1920 aged ~1 His father leaves and his mother moves five children to Pasadena
  • 1936 aged ~17 His brother Mack takes silver behind Jesse Owens at Berlin Mack and their brother Frank pushed him into sport.
  • 1940 aged ~21 Wins the NCAA long jump title at 24 feet 10 and a quarter inches Baseball was his worst sport at UCLA. He hit .097 in his only season.
  • July 6, 1944 aged 25 Refuses to move to the back of an Army bus and is charged His own commander would not authorize it, so the Army transferred him to one who would.
  • April 16, 1945 aged 26 Endures a sham tryout at Fenway Park Staged to satisfy a Boston city councilman. He left humiliated.
  • July 1949 aged 30 Testifies before the House Committee on Un-American Activities He was reluctant, and feared that refusing would end his career.
  • January 5, 1957 aged 37 Retires at 37 and is diagnosed with diabetes that year
  • June 17, 1971 aged 52 His son Jackie Jr. is killed in a car crash at 24 He had come home wounded from Vietnam, beaten a heroin addiction, and become a drug counselor.
  • October 15, 1972 aged 53 Makes his last public appearance and asks for a Black manager Nine days later he was dead.

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