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First Class Citizenship: The Civil Rights Letters of Jackie Robinson - Hardcover

Robinson, Jackie

 
9780805087109: First Class Citizenship: The Civil Rights Letters of Jackie Robinson
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0805087109 ISBN 13: 9780805087109
Verlag: Holt, N.Y., 2007

Inhaltsangabe

A selection of never-before-published letters offers an intimate portrait of the legendary baseball star and his role as an advocate for racial justice and equality at the highest levels of American power, featuring his correspondence with--and replies from--Dwight Eisenhower et al.

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Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Michael G. Long is an assistant professor of religious studies at Elizabethtown College and is the author of several books on religion and politics in mid-century America, including Against Us, but for Us: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the State and Billy Graham and the Beloved Community: America’s Evangelist and the Dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. He lives in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.


Michael G. Long is an assistant professor of religious studies at Elizabethtown College and is the author of several books on religion and politics in mid-century America, including Against Us, but for Us: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the State and Billy Graham and the Beloved Community: America's Evangelist and the Dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. He lives in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.

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First Class Citizenship
1
FAITH IN DEMOCRACY
1946-1956
ROBINSON TO RALPH NORTON
Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier on August 28, 1945, when he signed a letter of agreement that bound him to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Two months later, on October 23, Branch Rickey, general manager of the Dodgers, offered Robinson a formal contract to play for the Montreal Royals, the Dodgers' top farm team. In this handwritten letter to Ralph Norton, an acquaintance from his days at Pasadena Junior College, Robinson writes of his tryout in Florida the following spring.
 
March 12, 1946
 
Hello Ralph,
 
I too remember the good old days at P.J.C. and I remember you from the Chronicle. It was nice hearing from you and I do appreciate your well wishes. It would be really nice hearing from the fellows you mentioned, and I am sure that if we get encouraging letters such as yours it is going to be tough keeping us off the club. I would appreciate hearing more from you and I will keep you informed as to our progress. So far it has been a real pleasure playing here with the fellows. Everyone has been so nice and they have given us help along the way. I did not expect any trouble but I also did not expect to be welcomed as I have. It reminds me of the days at P.J.C. when all the fellows used to block and clear the way so I could run with the ball. We have met a couple that have resented us, but only a sharp eye could tell. All I can say is if we make the club, it will be on our own merit. If not it will be due to the fact that the many ballplayers Montreal has are better than we are. Our manager Clay Hopper has been very helpful and is giving us every chance possible. If you hear from Glick, Vanderweer or Shatford give them my regards.
 
Sincerely, Jackie
 
Robinson made his major-league debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947, and among his ardent supporters that year was Bernice Franklin, the owner of a general store near Tyronza, Arkansas. "I live in a small all-Negro town," she wrote Robinson. "We go to Memphis for all our amusements, but there is no greater thrill than a broadcast of the Dodgers baseball game ... right now the farmers are gathering [at the store] for your game this afternoon." Another fan was Norman Thomas, leader of the Socialist Party of America, six-time candidate for the presidency, and advocate for racial justice and world peace. Throughout 1947 Robinson agreed to follow Rickey's biblical admonition to "turn the other cheek," and Thomas was pleased with this nonviolent strategy.
 
September 23, 1947
 
Dear Mr. Robinson:
 
Now that the Dodgers have won the pennant, it is very appropriate, I think, to thank you not only for what you did in the pennant race but for what you have done for the colored race and for the fraternity which ought to characterize our mutual relations. You have performed a real service to our country and in general to a world which must learn to honor men for what they are and do regardless of race.
I am writing on the letterhead of an organization interested in the kind of world relations that will bring peace, and I rather think its members would share my feeling about your contribution to the kind of attitude on which peace depends.
 
Sincerely yours, Norman Thomas
ROBINSON TO ADMIRER
Not all fan mail was as high-minded as Norman Thomas's, and the following is Robinson's reply to a troubled young woman who had written of her love for him. The letter reveals Robinson's quick and easy appeal to moral principles--an appeal that would become characteristic of his civil rights letters.
 
October 15, 1947
 
Dear Miss [editor's deletion]:
 
Ordinarily I wouldn't even consider answering a letter like yours, but I believe you need to get straightened out on a few things. A girl as attractive and intelligent as you sound certainly should have no difficulty in finding the right man and creating a sound, honest life together in marriage. You are suffering from some kind of mental delusion that can bring you nothing but trouble and unhappiness and my advice is to get interested in some kind of work outside your daily routine in the office.
When I married Mrs. Robinson, I exchanged vows to love, honor and cherish her for the rest of my life. "Honor" means just that to me, and any sneaking, skulking escapade would destroy the very thing that enables me to hold my head up high.
Just in case you might want to write me again, I must inform you that all my mail is opened at the Brooklyn baseball club offices and then forwarded to me.
 
Yours in reproof, Jackie Robinson
LESTER GRANGER TO ROBINSON
By now a celebrity athlete, Robinson appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) on July 18, 1949, as it held hearings on African American loyalty to the United States. Of special concern to the committee was a remark reportedly made by Paul Robeson, the internationally renowned singer and actor, about the possibility of a war between the United States and the Soviet Union. "It is unthinkable," Robeson allegedly stated, "that American Negroes would go to war on behalf of those who have oppressed us for generations against a country which in one generation has raised our people to the full dignity of mankind." In his widely publicized testimony, Robinson characterized Robeson's remark as "very silly," adding that African Americans would "do their best to help their country stay out of war; if unsuccessful, they'd do their best to help their country win the war--against Russia or any other enemy that threatened us." Lester Granger, executive director of the National Urban League, praise Robinson in the following letter. Near the end of his life, however Robinson expressed regret for appearing before HUAC.
July 19, 1949
 
Dear Robbie:
 
Together with hundreds of thousands of other Americans in New York City and throughout the country, I was inordinately proud when I picked up the papers last night and this morning and read the reports of your appearance before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. I don't need to tell you what impression you made on the public generally.
One report stressed the dignity and sincerity with which you made your statement. In nutshell form, you have stated the case for the American Negro in such a way as to send it around the world in quarters where no other such expression would have received any notice at all. This should be a matter of great pride to you and your wife, even while you realize that there will be sharp criticism and some underhand attacks coming from left-wing or uninformed sources.
I am now an old hand at the business of receiving public criticism as well as approbations. I have learned that praise never lasts as long as I would like, but also that criticism is never important when it is delivered by dishonest or uninformed people.
The Communist group is exceptionally skilled at kicking up a row that seems to be out of all proportion to their actual numbers among our population. They can fill Madison Square Garden for a rally. They can recruit a hundred people to send a thousand telegrams and letters. They can magnify the squeak of a mouse to the point where it seems like the roar of a lion.
I hope that you will expect this kind of result and not be at all disturbed when it occurs. For your...

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Verlag
Holt, N.Y.
Erscheinungsdatum
2007
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0805087109
ISBN 13 
9780805087109
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
359
Herausgeber
Long Michael G.
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