September 26, 2025 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first Black player in Major League Baseball since the 1880s, stepping onto the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers and into history. The abuse he endured was relentless, from racial slurs in the stands to resistance in the dugout. Yet Robinson refused to respond in kind. His strength came from something deeper: a faith that guided him through the fight. Historian Dr. Gary Scott Smith shares how Robinson’s courage not only broke baseball’s color barrier but also made him a vital figure in the civil rights movement, inspiring generations far beyond the game.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habibe and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American People.
And to search for the Our American Stories podcast, go
to the iHeartRadio app, to Apple Podcasts, or to wherever
you get your podcasts. In January of nineteen nineteen, a
(00:30):
boy was born in Cairo, Georgia. It would go on
to not only challenge and change American baseball and the
segregation that existed there, but America itself. This man did
this not only by the strength of his swing and
the swiftness of his sprint, but by the firmness of
his faith. Today, Robbie brings us doctor Gary Scott Smith,
(00:55):
Professor Emeritis of History at Grove City College, to tell
us the story of Jackie Robinson.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Before a lot of the events that we remember as
part of the Civil Rights movement, including Rosa Park's refusal
to move to the back of the bus, including the
famous speeches of Martin Luther King Junior, Thurgood Marshall being
appointed a Supreme Court justice, the March on Washington in
(01:26):
nineteen sixty three. Before these and a lot of other events,
you've got Jackie Robinson integrating Major League baseball. Baseball is
at this point the predominant American sport. This is before
(01:47):
the NFL has much cache A. This is before the
creation of the National Basketball Association. No other sport since
that time. Since teen fifties or early sixties, has dominated
the American sports scene. He was born in Georgia, very
(02:11):
close to the Florida state line. He was the youngest
of five children. His mother, essentially during his growing up years,
was a single mother because her husband, Jerry, essentially deserted
the family around the time that Jackie was born, and
soon thereafter, she moves the family to Pasadena, California, which
(02:35):
was a huge move in nineteen twenty, and she moved
out there because of other family members who had gone
there before her. She is a woman of very strong
faith and is going to impress upon Jackie the importance
of faith. Jackie grows up in Pasadena. Pasad is a
(03:01):
city that has very few blacks in it at this point,
and his mother she is forced to rely somewhat on welfare,
but she's very astute in how she manages the family
finances and a couple of years after they moved to Pasadena,
(03:21):
they're able to buy their own house, and they encounter
various troubles in the neighborhood in which they live. A
lot of neighbors don't like having a black family living there.
They try to try to pressure them to leave. They
even burned across in their yard at one point, but
(03:42):
a couple of neighbors stook up for them, and eventually
they were able to be generally accepted in the community
where they lived. He feels badly that his mother has
to work so hard, and that her life is so
(04:02):
difficult and challenging and in every way possible. He wants
to help alleviate the burdens that she's feeling, and so
he engages in a variety of activities as a high
school student to try to bring in some extra money
to help the family, and actually he leaves before graduating
(04:23):
from UCLA several years later because he wants to bring
in more money for the family, and despite the counsel
of a lot of people not to do so. After
the basketball season ends, he ends up leaving UCLA and
takes a job with the government to try to enhance
(04:48):
the income of the family and make matters better for
his mother. So, yes, he had a big heart. He
cared deeply about his family. He's one of the few
people in the history of all college sports to win
(05:10):
letters in four sports, and he leads the Pacific Coast
Conference in scoring. The two years he plays basketball at UCLA,
he wins the long jump competition at the NCAA Men's
Outdoor Track and Field Championship, and in football he put
up numbers that are astonishing twelve point two yards per carry.
(05:35):
He also led the nation in pump return average of
over twenty yards per return, so his numbers are just
off the charts in terms of what he does while
he's there, and with the exception of baseball, where he
hits a measly ninety seven the one season that he plays.
(06:00):
Carl Downs at age twenty six, he comes to be
the pastor of the Scott Methodist Church in Pasadena, and
Jackie's nineteen at the time, so they're only seven years
apart in age. He's established quite a reputation already as
an athlete, and so Downs goes out looking for him.
Tells his friends, tell Jackie, I want to see him
(06:22):
at church. Well, Jackie had grown up in the church,
but he'd gone rather reluctantly. His faith was not yet
personal to him. It was mainly a matter of obligation
and keeping his mother happy. But Downs befriends him. They
establish a cordial and close relationship. They play a lot
(06:43):
of sports together, and Downs is a very good athlete himself,
not of the caliber of Jackie Robinson.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
But and you've been listening to doctor Gary Scott Smith
tell the story of Jackie and the two big influences
on his early life, one his mother clearly, and the other,
as we're about to learn, the Reverend Carl Downs. When
(07:10):
we come back, more of the story of Jackie Robinson
and his faith life here on our American Stories. Folks,
if you love the stories we tell about this great country,
and especially the stories of America's rich past, know that
all of our stories about American history, from war to innovation,
(07:33):
culture and faith are brought to us by the great
folks at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all
the things that are beautiful in life and all the
things that are good in life. And if you can't
cut to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their
free and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu
to learn more. And we're back with our American stories
(08:11):
and Jackie Robinson's story. Doctor Gary Scott Smith was telling
us how Jackie was raised by just his mother, who
instill the importance of faith in her son in the
midst of discrimination and financial hardship. But despite Jackie's work,
ethic and duty, he felt for his family the faith itself,
it wasn't personal, not until a minister called Downs enters
(08:34):
Robinson's life during his college years. Back to doctor Smith
with the story.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Jackie describes it, Downs is able to relate the Bible
to everyday life. He said, it makes Bible stories and
concepts come alive. Doesn't preach down to them, He's with them,
engaging in their activities. He gets Jackie to be involved
in the life of the church, including teaching a Sunday
school class, and he basically helps Jackie come to faith
(09:06):
in Christ, helps that becoming a very significant part of
his life. And Jackie's going to rely upon that trust
and faith in God throughout the rest of his adult life.
Many people have argued, and I would concur that without
Rachel there is no Jackie. Her support, her love, her encouragement,
(09:28):
her backing was absolutely pivotal to his success. That he
could not have done what he did and stood up
to all the abuse, the taunting, the on field assaults
that he faced without her. She's a freshman when he's
a senior. She's from the Los Angeles area, she grew
(09:52):
up in a black church, and she has a strong
faith as well, and may not realize but she still
alive today at age one hundred. Initially she thinks that
he's very cocky and conceded, arrogant, but as she gets
(10:14):
to know him, she realizes, no, it's really just self confidence,
and he really has a racial identity that's been instilled
in him by his mother, by Carl Downs, by others.
He's proud to be a black man, which was a
very difficult thing in this time in American history, with
the amount of prejudice and discrimination that existed in American society.
(10:39):
So they start dating and they hit it off. They're
not going to end up getting married for five years
after they first begin to date. But Jackie's mother, Mally,
really likes Rachel, and Rachel's mother, Zelli, really likes Jackie,
and part of it's the thing that they both have
(11:01):
that impresses their respective mothers. He leaves Usla early takes
a job at the National Youth Administration as an assistant
the athletic director at the California Polytechnic Institute in San
Luis Babismo, and his job there is basically to help
(11:24):
train youth, and he had a background similar to him.
They had grown up in poverty, they had been delinquents. Basically,
this program was trying to teach them a trade and
reorient their lives, and so he engages in this for
several months. He finds the work to be rewarding, but
the fact that World War Two has broken out and
(11:47):
it looks like the United States maybe getting involved in
it leads to a suspension of the program, and so
during the fall of nineteen forty one, he plays semi
professional football with the Honolulu Bears, and while he's in Hawaii,
he also does construction work to make some additional funds.
He does get out of Hawaii just two days before
(12:09):
the Japanese bomb the military base there. Then he comes back.
He plays on an All Star basketball team, works briefly
at the Lockheed Aircraft facility near Los Angeles, and then
he gets drafted into the Army in March of nineteen
forty two. The initial assignment is to Fort Riley, Kansas.
(12:33):
Then he will be transferred to Fort Hood near Waco, Texas.
He first experiences discrimination in that he can't get into
the Officers Candidate school. Boxer Joe Lewis intervenes on his behalf,
and eventually he does get into that program and has
(12:55):
commissioned to second lieutenant. After he completes the training Officers
Candidate School, he's a platoon leader. He's his unit's morale officer,
and he starts his career of speaking out against discrimination
and trying to improve conditions on the base there at
(13:16):
Fort Riley for other black soldiers. He experiences further discrimination
when he can't play on the Camps baseball team because
they don't want a black player. So then in April
forty four, he gets transferred to Fort Hood, and while
(13:39):
he's there, a very significant episode happens that is quite
similar to what happens with Rosa Parks eleven years later. So,
a civilian bus driver orders him to give up his
seat and midld the bus and go to the back.
But Robson knows that there's a federal policy that prohibits
(14:02):
segregation on army buses, and so he refuses to do so,
and then at the next stop he gets into a
heated argument with the Army Military police, and long and
short of it, he is court martialed for disturbing the peace,
for conduct on becoming an officer, for refusing to obey
(14:22):
the orders of a superior officer, and this trial becomes
kind of a celebrated one. He gets help from the NAACP,
from the two California United States Senators, and especially from
the black press, and as faith plays a role in
(14:45):
assuring him that the outcome of this trial will be
is in God's hands and therefore he can be confident
in what happens. So he gets tried, and there's a
jury of nine men, eight white, one black, and basically
he gets good testimony from some of the other officers
(15:07):
who white, officers who know him. He is found to
be he's acquitted, and while he is having his trial,
his unit actually goes to fight in World War two,
has a very high casualty rate in one of the
major battles of the war, the Battle of the Bulge
in December of forty four. In January forty.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Five, and.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Because he doesn't go, he is able to end up
playing for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Legs.
He didn't particularly enjoy playing in the Negro Legs, in
part because the travel schedule was so arduous. The conditions
the players faced were very challenging. They were traveling hundreds
(15:56):
of miles on buses, and because of the discrimination American society,
they often had trouble finding places to stay, the restaurants
that would serve them food, so this was a difficult
experience for him. Their salaries were low, umpiring was, according
to Robinson, very poor. Living conditions were despicable, and he
(16:18):
also didn't like the personal behavior of many of the
other players in the Negro League. A lot of heavy drinking,
a lot of sexual carousing that led him to conflicts,
sometimes being kind of ridiculed by his fellow players. And
without that experience, he undoubtedly wouldn't have been such an
(16:41):
attractive candidate the branch rickey to integrate Major League Baseball.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
And we've been listening to doctor Gary Scott Smith. His
book Strength for the Fight, The Life and Faith of
Jackie Robinson is available wherever you buy your books. And
by the way, the impact of Reverend Downs on young
Jackie Robinson well it's the best way to reach young
people if you're so inclined and a Christian, and that's
(17:10):
to teach the Bible as it applies to everyday life. Rachel, well,
without her, we learn, well, there is no Jackie Without her,
his life wasn't possible. And of course mother mally. That's
why Jackie left UCLA early and decided to help support
the family. And he took a variety of jobs and
ended up in the US military and in a court martial.
(17:34):
But in the end he did it on principle. He
took a stand. With the help of great lawyers and
a code that the military established, Jackie Robinson was able
to be in essence, the military's Rosa Parks. When we
come back, more of the remarkable story of Jackie Robinson
and his faith. Walk here on our American Stories, and
(18:08):
we're back with our American stories and the story of
Jackie Robinson and his journey to integrate Major League Baseball
and the faith that gave him the strength to do it.
When we last left off, doctor Gary Scott Smith, a
professor emeritus of history at Grove City College, was telling
us about Jackie's experience in the Negro leagues where he
(18:29):
constantly faced discrimination from business owners on the road, as
well as abuse from his own teammates for not partaking
in their particular brands of fun, which made him what
one man in the majors was looking for.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
He played great, he hit three eighty seven, he was
selected to the All Star Game. That kind of called
him to the attention of branch Rickey, who is looking
for someone to trick. He's the general manager of the
Brooklyn Dodgers, long time experience in Major League Baseball, previously
(19:07):
with the Saint Louis brown Saint Louis Cardinals as a manager.
General manager had played a couple of years of professional
baseball as a catcher, and branch Rickey had a long
standing desire and calling from God that he felt to
integrate major League Baseball. So he's looking for a candidate,
(19:28):
and he sends his super scout to talk to Robinson
and invite him to come to Brooklyn to meet with him.
And there were certainly a number of other candidates, but
the problem was that they were either quite old like
satral Page is probably at least forty by this point,
(19:49):
or they had never played They had rarely played against
white competition, which Robinson had done as a college student,
and his only concern about Jackie at this point was
did he have the ability to not fight back? In
interviewing him, he trots out a book by an Italian
(20:15):
author about Christ and basically says, the Sermon on Mount
says you should turn the other cheek when you're confronted
with people who want to abuse you. Is this something
that you would be able to do? And Robinson, who
knew the Bible quite well, responded, well, I've got two cheeks.
(20:40):
Branch Rickey becomes convinced, in large part based upon their
shared Methodist faith, that Robinson is the guy. He's the
one who's got the combination of personality and baseball smarts
and ability that he's going to be able to pull
this off better than any other potential candidate out there.
(21:01):
The history of the integration of Major League baseball was
much more complicated than it's usually presented. It's usually presented
pretty much as just a black white issue, but really
there were a number of Native Americans who played in
the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and these Latinos
who were playing, who were generally passed off as Spaniards.
(21:23):
They tended to be the lighter skinned Latinos, and about
thirty of them played between nineteen thirty five and nineteen
forty five, so in essentially the decade before Robinson gets signed,
they're playing a lot of them for the Washington Senators. However,
this still had not opened the door for dark skinned
(21:45):
Latinos or for African Americans, and it's only after Robinson
breaks the color barrier that darker skinned Latinos like Mini
Minoso and others are able to play in Major League Baseball.
And in March nineteen forty five, the Quinn Ives Act
(22:06):
becomes a law at bands discrimination based on race, creed, color,
and national origin. It only applies to New York State,
of course, that's where branch Ricky is in Brooklyn, New York.
And there were a lot of groups that came together
who supported it, who applauded it, including the Federal Council
of Churches, the American Jewish Congress, some leading Catholics, Thurgood Marshall,
(22:30):
who then is an attorney with the NAACP. The passage
of this act also prompts the Mayor of New York
LaGuardia to create a major committee to integrate Baseball, and
Ricky is one of the members who's appointed to that committee.
And also you've got at the same time, the Committee
(22:50):
to n Jim Crow and Baseball, which has been organized
by various forces, and they're demonstrating outside of major league
parks calling for integration of baseball, and a lot of
prominent Americans, including Eleanor Roosevelt, are endorsing this. The variety
of different groups that are agitating for and advocating for
(23:14):
blacks to be able to play. Of those groups, probably
the most important are the black sports writers, including a
guy named Wendell Smith. They're hammering away at the injustice
of blacks not being allowed to play, citing the fact
that a lot of Major League Baseball players say, hey,
we're okay with playing with blacks. They are in a
(23:36):
variety of ways trying to pressure major League Baseball. They're
meeting with Major League Baseball executives, are meeting with the commissioner,
trying to pave the way for Jackie to be able
to play. And without this pressure, it's doubtful that major
League baseball would have been integrated.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
When it was, and it began with Jackie joining the
Dodgers Mogue team the Montreal Royals.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
So in spring training nineteen forty six, Robinson's have just
gotten married. They have a harrowing journey to get there
because of discrimination bumping them off of flights. It's a
very difficult experience for them. But there's a lot of
support from ministers in the Daytona Beach area, and there's
(24:26):
a lot of interest in what's going on. A lot
of fans, bigger crowds than normal show up for the games,
and Robinson has a very interesting relationship with Clay Hopper,
who is the manager of Montreal, who has grown up
in Mississippi and certainly exudes some racial prejudice, but Robinson
(24:48):
grows on him by dentt of both his personality and
his performance, and that helps they end up having a
quite good relationship. Montreal was a very excellent setting for
Robinson to break in. This is one of the greatest
(25:08):
minor league teams in history. They end up winning the
Minor League World Series. They put up astounding numbers, particularly offensively,
and Robinson has a stellar season, beginning with his very
first game when he goes four for five, including a
(25:29):
home run. He wins the Most Valuable Player award, but
He's under a lot of pressure still, and a physician
even warns that he's on the verge of a nervous
breakdown in August of that year, and Rachel to the rescue.
Rachel really helps him deal with all the pressure he's facing.
But he hits three forty nine, he leads the leg
(25:51):
and run scored, he steals forty bases, just a very
very successful season. The team goes one hundred wins and
fifty four losses and bat almost three hundred as a team,
which is almost unheard of. It's a matter of determining
is he baseball ready and is he ready in terms
(26:14):
of his mindset, And at this point I think that
Ricky had concluded that both things had converged and that
Robinson could handle things on the diamond, and he could
handle the abuse to which he was going to be subjected,
and the combination of those things made him decide this
(26:38):
is the moment.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
And you've been listening to doctor Gary Scott Smith tell
the story of Jackie Robinson's journey to desegregate Major League baseball.
And he had a lot of help along the way,
including his bride. She was essential. Also Branch Ricky a
fellow Methodist who himself thought God appointed him to desegregate
(27:02):
the league. And then, of course there was his experience
in the minor leagues. Was he ready? Was he ready
for both the on and off the field challenges? Branch
Rickey finally thinks the answer is yes. When we come
back the rest of the journey, Jackie Robinson's journey to
desegregate baseball here on our American stories, and we're back
(27:38):
with our American stories in our final segment on Jackie
Robinson his faith in the beginning of his career in
the majors. When we last left off, doctor Gary Scott
Smith was telling us about branch Rickey and the general
manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers and his readiness to allow
Jackie Robinson to break the color barrier and once and
(28:02):
for all desegregate Major League Baseball. Back to Robbie the
conclusion of this story.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
But just because Ricky thought Robinson was ready for the
majors in nineteen forty seven didn't mean the majors were
ready for him. And that included his own teammates.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
While they're in Panama, they's playing some exhibition games. We
have kind of a mutiny. A lot of the Dodger
players tell the manager Leo Durocher formulates his petition and
they say, if Robinson plays, we're not going to play. Well. Durocher,
who is quite a character himself, gets the team together
at midnight in an army barracks in Panama and he
(28:43):
says that they could wipe their with this petition, and
he kind of famously said, I play an elephant if
he could win for me, and this Robinson is no elephant.
So anyway, then Ricky meets individually with the leaders of
this rebellion the next day and says, hey, if you
don't want to play with Robinson, will trade you. And
(29:06):
only at this point two of the players opt to
be traded. Neither one actually was during the season, and
they both changed their minds about Jackie. So it really
helped that the team captain Peewee Reese refused to sign
the petition, and essentially after that things began to get
better with his fellow teammates on the Dodgers. The African
(29:30):
American sports writer Wendell Smith said, if Robinson fails to
make the grade, it will be years before Enigro makes
the grade. This is it. The Boston Chronicle said, triumph
of whole race scene in Jackie's debut in Major League Baseball.
Colin Powell later, you know, first black US Secretary of
(29:52):
State who goes to see him play as a ten
year old, and even though he's a New York Giants fan,
our trivals of the Brookly Rodgers, he says, we prayed,
oh Lord, don't let him strike out, because we were
afraid if he didn't succeed, it would be a mark
against all of us. Tremendous weight upon Jackie's shoulders, and
(30:14):
he realizes that this isn't just for him, this is
for the entire African American community. A Time magazine will
go on to say at the end of the season
that this was the toughest first year any ballplayer has
ever faced. Sports Magazine said that he had been the
most savagely booed, intensely criticized, ruthlessly libeled player in Major
(30:38):
League Baseball history. Anytime he was on the field, there
were jeers, there were cat calls, there was name calling.
There would be black cats released onto the field. There
would be watermelon thrown onto the field, rocks, tomatoes, sambo dolls,
and then on the field You've got bean balls being
(30:58):
thrown at him, he being launched into his chin and chin.
They are even death threats against him, so much so
that the police department as signs a couple of detectives
to accompany him from the ballpark to his apartment after
every game. And these threats are against him, they're against Rachel,
they're against their son, Jackie Junior, who was born in
(31:20):
forty six. So it's just an incredible amount of abuse
to which he is subjected. Second week of May in
nineteen forty seven, and I call it the worst day
of Robinson's entire Major League baseball career. So they go
(31:40):
to Philadelphia to play this series against the Phillies. Ben
Chapman is the manager of the Phillies, and he stated
blatantly in advance of the series that they were going
to verbally attack him, and they did. It was a
harsher deluge of abused and Robinson had experienced prior to
this point, a lot of racial slurs, diseases Dodger players
(32:02):
would contract if they touched tiles Robinson had used. Robinson said,
it was the worst garbage I ever heard in my
whole life, including on the streets and in the Army,
and he almost was ready to give up at this point,
but he decided that he would respond not with his fists,
not with his mouth, but with his bat. Chapman defended
(32:24):
his actions basically saying, hey, this is the way we
treat all her opponents, and Robinson was very gracious. He
even agreed, although reluctantly, to pose for a photo with Chapman.
They held a bat together to imply that all was forgiven,
all was copeesthetic. So it was a very ugly incident
that occurred this in Philadelphia during his four game series.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
But not everyone was Ben Chapman.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Hank Greenberg was a Pirates first baseman and he was
a home run slugger, and he was near the end
of his career at this point. It was an accident
that he had run into Robinson because of an errant
throw from the pitcher to first base, and then he
ends up because of the error getting on the second base,
(33:12):
and so he doesn't talk to Robinson. Then it's the
next time around that he asked Robinson if he heard
him and said he hadn't meant to knock him over.
As a jew, Greenberg had also experienced quite a bit
of verbal abuse, so he knew what it was like,
and he reached out in friendship and camaraderie to Robinson,
(33:33):
and this was a very deeply moving experience for Robinson.
There were incidences of Dodger players, but also players from
other teams like this who did reach out positively to
Robinson during his first year. Probably the most famous one
would be with pee Wee Reese, where they were mocking
(33:57):
and ridiculing Robinson. Pee we reached the Dodger shortstop goes
over and puts his arm around Robinson and basically just
affirming his humanity. In mid August, you got Enos Slaughter,
who's a Saint Louis cardinal outfielder who is pretty flamboyant
(34:17):
and known for his rugged play, and he cuts a
seven inch gash in the back of Robinson's leg when
he runs over him when Robinson's stretching for a throw
at first base. And Hugh Casey, who is a relief
pitcher and a Southerner who basically previously hasn't had a
(34:37):
very close relationship with Robinson, runs off the bench and
charges against Slaughter and they have a bit of a bruhaha.
There were a number of incidents like this nineteen forty
seven season that basically helped cement Robinson's place in among
the Dodgers with his teammates, because there's nothing like a
(34:59):
good brawl, I guess, to help you identify with and
feel closer to your fellow teammates.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Nineteen forty seven was not only Robinson's inaugural season, but
the coveted Rookie of the Year awards as well, which
Jackie received due to his outstanding performance.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
He certainly, he hit almost three hundred, he led the
nationally in stolen bases, he scored the second highest number
of runs in the league, ninth highest amount of hits,
and the Dodgers won the Pennant. So and he was
actually fifth in the Most Valuable Player balloting that year.
Statistically and value to the team, he deserved the award.
(35:43):
Then that's just setting aside the incredible circumstances that he
faced in doing what he did. When you add that in,
it's just absolutely mind boggling and incredible what he accomplished.
But in making a case for him to win this
time and Ebony both emphasized his character and they emphasized
(36:07):
what a good family man he was, how committed, he
was to his wife, he was an next Sunday school teacher,
that he was morally upright. He didn't drink, he didn't smoke,
he went to bed early, he avoided tobacco, he drank milk.
You know, all these kinds of things that you would
(36:27):
put forth as particularly in the nineteen forties and fifties,
exemplary moral character. Without his faith, I don't think Robinson
would have been able to succeed. He prayed every night
on his knees before he went to bed. He had
(36:49):
letters from thousands of people who said they were faithfully
praying for him. He said things like I prayed as
I never had before during nineteen forty seven and season.
He did have some fellow Christians on the Dodger squad
that helped him in this regard. His faith was deep
and meaningful. It was a personal He just didn't simply
(37:13):
talk as often or as directly about having a personal
relationship with Jesus and some of these other athletes today,
but it was a very important part of his life
and arguably without it he would not have done what
he did.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
And a terrific job on the production by Robbie Davis
and a special thanks to doctor Gary Scott Smith. His
book Strength for the Fight, The Life and Faith of
Jackie Robinson is available wherever you get your books. And
what a year in nineteen forty seven must have been
for him. The pressure Jackie was playing for every black American,
(37:57):
no pressure. I pray it as I never prayed before.
Jackie said of that year. His faith was deep, it
was personal. The story of Jackie Robinson, his faith and
how it was integral to the desegregation of Major League Baseball.
Here on our American Stories.
This is Lee Habibe and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American People.
And to search for the Our American Stories podcast, go
to the iHeartRadio app, to Apple Podcasts, or to wherever
you get your podcasts. In January of nineteen nineteen, a
(00:30):
boy was born in Cairo, Georgia. It would go on
to not only challenge and change American baseball and the
segregation that existed there, but America itself. This man did
this not only by the strength of his swing and
the swiftness of his sprint, but by the firmness of
his faith. Today, Robbie brings us doctor Gary Scott Smith,
(00:55):
Professor Emeritis of History at Grove City College, to tell
us the story of Jackie Robinson.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Before a lot of the events that we remember as
part of the Civil Rights movement, including Rosa Park's refusal
to move to the back of the bus, including the
famous speeches of Martin Luther King Junior, Thurgood Marshall being
appointed a Supreme Court justice, the March on Washington in
(01:26):
nineteen sixty three. Before these and a lot of other events,
you've got Jackie Robinson integrating Major League baseball. Baseball is
at this point the predominant American sport. This is before
(01:47):
the NFL has much cache A. This is before the
creation of the National Basketball Association. No other sport since
that time. Since teen fifties or early sixties, has dominated
the American sports scene. He was born in Georgia, very
(02:11):
close to the Florida state line. He was the youngest
of five children. His mother, essentially during his growing up years,
was a single mother because her husband, Jerry, essentially deserted
the family around the time that Jackie was born, and
soon thereafter, she moves the family to Pasadena, California, which
(02:35):
was a huge move in nineteen twenty, and she moved
out there because of other family members who had gone
there before her. She is a woman of very strong
faith and is going to impress upon Jackie the importance
of faith. Jackie grows up in Pasadena. Pasad is a
(03:01):
city that has very few blacks in it at this point,
and his mother she is forced to rely somewhat on welfare,
but she's very astute in how she manages the family
finances and a couple of years after they moved to Pasadena,
(03:21):
they're able to buy their own house, and they encounter
various troubles in the neighborhood in which they live. A
lot of neighbors don't like having a black family living there.
They try to try to pressure them to leave. They
even burned across in their yard at one point, but
(03:42):
a couple of neighbors stook up for them, and eventually
they were able to be generally accepted in the community
where they lived. He feels badly that his mother has
to work so hard, and that her life is so
(04:02):
difficult and challenging and in every way possible. He wants
to help alleviate the burdens that she's feeling, and so
he engages in a variety of activities as a high
school student to try to bring in some extra money
to help the family, and actually he leaves before graduating
(04:23):
from UCLA several years later because he wants to bring
in more money for the family, and despite the counsel
of a lot of people not to do so. After
the basketball season ends, he ends up leaving UCLA and
takes a job with the government to try to enhance
(04:48):
the income of the family and make matters better for
his mother. So, yes, he had a big heart. He
cared deeply about his family. He's one of the few
people in the history of all college sports to win
(05:10):
letters in four sports, and he leads the Pacific Coast
Conference in scoring. The two years he plays basketball at UCLA,
he wins the long jump competition at the NCAA Men's
Outdoor Track and Field Championship, and in football he put
up numbers that are astonishing twelve point two yards per carry.
(05:35):
He also led the nation in pump return average of
over twenty yards per return, so his numbers are just
off the charts in terms of what he does while
he's there, and with the exception of baseball, where he
hits a measly ninety seven the one season that he plays.
(06:00):
Carl Downs at age twenty six, he comes to be
the pastor of the Scott Methodist Church in Pasadena, and
Jackie's nineteen at the time, so they're only seven years
apart in age. He's established quite a reputation already as
an athlete, and so Downs goes out looking for him.
Tells his friends, tell Jackie, I want to see him
(06:22):
at church. Well, Jackie had grown up in the church,
but he'd gone rather reluctantly. His faith was not yet
personal to him. It was mainly a matter of obligation
and keeping his mother happy. But Downs befriends him. They
establish a cordial and close relationship. They play a lot
(06:43):
of sports together, and Downs is a very good athlete himself,
not of the caliber of Jackie Robinson.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
But and you've been listening to doctor Gary Scott Smith
tell the story of Jackie and the two big influences
on his early life, one his mother clearly, and the other,
as we're about to learn, the Reverend Carl Downs. When
(07:10):
we come back, more of the story of Jackie Robinson
and his faith life here on our American Stories. Folks,
if you love the stories we tell about this great country,
and especially the stories of America's rich past, know that
all of our stories about American history, from war to innovation,
(07:33):
culture and faith are brought to us by the great
folks at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all
the things that are beautiful in life and all the
things that are good in life. And if you can't
cut to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their
free and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu
to learn more. And we're back with our American stories
(08:11):
and Jackie Robinson's story. Doctor Gary Scott Smith was telling
us how Jackie was raised by just his mother, who
instill the importance of faith in her son in the
midst of discrimination and financial hardship. But despite Jackie's work,
ethic and duty, he felt for his family the faith itself,
it wasn't personal, not until a minister called Downs enters
(08:34):
Robinson's life during his college years. Back to doctor Smith
with the story.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Jackie describes it, Downs is able to relate the Bible
to everyday life. He said, it makes Bible stories and
concepts come alive. Doesn't preach down to them, He's with them,
engaging in their activities. He gets Jackie to be involved
in the life of the church, including teaching a Sunday
school class, and he basically helps Jackie come to faith
(09:06):
in Christ, helps that becoming a very significant part of
his life. And Jackie's going to rely upon that trust
and faith in God throughout the rest of his adult life.
Many people have argued, and I would concur that without
Rachel there is no Jackie. Her support, her love, her encouragement,
(09:28):
her backing was absolutely pivotal to his success. That he
could not have done what he did and stood up
to all the abuse, the taunting, the on field assaults
that he faced without her. She's a freshman when he's
a senior. She's from the Los Angeles area, she grew
(09:52):
up in a black church, and she has a strong
faith as well, and may not realize but she still
alive today at age one hundred. Initially she thinks that
he's very cocky and conceded, arrogant, but as she gets
(10:14):
to know him, she realizes, no, it's really just self confidence,
and he really has a racial identity that's been instilled
in him by his mother, by Carl Downs, by others.
He's proud to be a black man, which was a
very difficult thing in this time in American history, with
the amount of prejudice and discrimination that existed in American society.
(10:39):
So they start dating and they hit it off. They're
not going to end up getting married for five years
after they first begin to date. But Jackie's mother, Mally,
really likes Rachel, and Rachel's mother, Zelli, really likes Jackie,
and part of it's the thing that they both have
(11:01):
that impresses their respective mothers. He leaves Usla early takes
a job at the National Youth Administration as an assistant
the athletic director at the California Polytechnic Institute in San
Luis Babismo, and his job there is basically to help
(11:24):
train youth, and he had a background similar to him.
They had grown up in poverty, they had been delinquents. Basically,
this program was trying to teach them a trade and
reorient their lives, and so he engages in this for
several months. He finds the work to be rewarding, but
the fact that World War Two has broken out and
(11:47):
it looks like the United States maybe getting involved in
it leads to a suspension of the program, and so
during the fall of nineteen forty one, he plays semi
professional football with the Honolulu Bears, and while he's in Hawaii,
he also does construction work to make some additional funds.
He does get out of Hawaii just two days before
(12:09):
the Japanese bomb the military base there. Then he comes back.
He plays on an All Star basketball team, works briefly
at the Lockheed Aircraft facility near Los Angeles, and then
he gets drafted into the Army in March of nineteen
forty two. The initial assignment is to Fort Riley, Kansas.
(12:33):
Then he will be transferred to Fort Hood near Waco, Texas.
He first experiences discrimination in that he can't get into
the Officers Candidate school. Boxer Joe Lewis intervenes on his behalf,
and eventually he does get into that program and has
(12:55):
commissioned to second lieutenant. After he completes the training Officers
Candidate School, he's a platoon leader. He's his unit's morale officer,
and he starts his career of speaking out against discrimination
and trying to improve conditions on the base there at
(13:16):
Fort Riley for other black soldiers. He experiences further discrimination
when he can't play on the Camps baseball team because
they don't want a black player. So then in April
forty four, he gets transferred to Fort Hood, and while
(13:39):
he's there, a very significant episode happens that is quite
similar to what happens with Rosa Parks eleven years later. So,
a civilian bus driver orders him to give up his
seat and midld the bus and go to the back.
But Robson knows that there's a federal policy that prohibits
(14:02):
segregation on army buses, and so he refuses to do so,
and then at the next stop he gets into a
heated argument with the Army Military police, and long and
short of it, he is court martialed for disturbing the peace,
for conduct on becoming an officer, for refusing to obey
(14:22):
the orders of a superior officer, and this trial becomes
kind of a celebrated one. He gets help from the NAACP,
from the two California United States Senators, and especially from
the black press, and as faith plays a role in
(14:45):
assuring him that the outcome of this trial will be
is in God's hands and therefore he can be confident
in what happens. So he gets tried, and there's a
jury of nine men, eight white, one black, and basically
he gets good testimony from some of the other officers
(15:07):
who white, officers who know him. He is found to
be he's acquitted, and while he is having his trial,
his unit actually goes to fight in World War two,
has a very high casualty rate in one of the
major battles of the war, the Battle of the Bulge
in December of forty four. In January forty.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Five, and.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Because he doesn't go, he is able to end up
playing for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Legs.
He didn't particularly enjoy playing in the Negro Legs, in
part because the travel schedule was so arduous. The conditions
the players faced were very challenging. They were traveling hundreds
(15:56):
of miles on buses, and because of the discrimination American society,
they often had trouble finding places to stay, the restaurants
that would serve them food, so this was a difficult
experience for him. Their salaries were low, umpiring was, according
to Robinson, very poor. Living conditions were despicable, and he
(16:18):
also didn't like the personal behavior of many of the
other players in the Negro League. A lot of heavy drinking,
a lot of sexual carousing that led him to conflicts,
sometimes being kind of ridiculed by his fellow players. And
without that experience, he undoubtedly wouldn't have been such an
(16:41):
attractive candidate the branch rickey to integrate Major League Baseball.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
And we've been listening to doctor Gary Scott Smith. His
book Strength for the Fight, The Life and Faith of
Jackie Robinson is available wherever you buy your books. And
by the way, the impact of Reverend Downs on young
Jackie Robinson well it's the best way to reach young
people if you're so inclined and a Christian, and that's
(17:10):
to teach the Bible as it applies to everyday life. Rachel, well,
without her, we learn, well, there is no Jackie Without her,
his life wasn't possible. And of course mother mally. That's
why Jackie left UCLA early and decided to help support
the family. And he took a variety of jobs and
ended up in the US military and in a court martial.
(17:34):
But in the end he did it on principle. He
took a stand. With the help of great lawyers and
a code that the military established, Jackie Robinson was able
to be in essence, the military's Rosa Parks. When we
come back, more of the remarkable story of Jackie Robinson
and his faith. Walk here on our American Stories, and
(18:08):
we're back with our American stories and the story of
Jackie Robinson and his journey to integrate Major League Baseball
and the faith that gave him the strength to do it.
When we last left off, doctor Gary Scott Smith, a
professor emeritus of history at Grove City College, was telling
us about Jackie's experience in the Negro leagues where he
(18:29):
constantly faced discrimination from business owners on the road, as
well as abuse from his own teammates for not partaking
in their particular brands of fun, which made him what
one man in the majors was looking for.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
He played great, he hit three eighty seven, he was
selected to the All Star Game. That kind of called
him to the attention of branch Rickey, who is looking
for someone to trick. He's the general manager of the
Brooklyn Dodgers, long time experience in Major League Baseball, previously
(19:07):
with the Saint Louis brown Saint Louis Cardinals as a manager.
General manager had played a couple of years of professional
baseball as a catcher, and branch Rickey had a long
standing desire and calling from God that he felt to
integrate major League Baseball. So he's looking for a candidate,
(19:28):
and he sends his super scout to talk to Robinson
and invite him to come to Brooklyn to meet with him.
And there were certainly a number of other candidates, but
the problem was that they were either quite old like
satral Page is probably at least forty by this point,
(19:49):
or they had never played They had rarely played against
white competition, which Robinson had done as a college student,
and his only concern about Jackie at this point was
did he have the ability to not fight back? In
interviewing him, he trots out a book by an Italian
(20:15):
author about Christ and basically says, the Sermon on Mount
says you should turn the other cheek when you're confronted
with people who want to abuse you. Is this something
that you would be able to do? And Robinson, who
knew the Bible quite well, responded, well, I've got two cheeks.
(20:40):
Branch Rickey becomes convinced, in large part based upon their
shared Methodist faith, that Robinson is the guy. He's the
one who's got the combination of personality and baseball smarts
and ability that he's going to be able to pull
this off better than any other potential candidate out there.
(21:01):
The history of the integration of Major League baseball was
much more complicated than it's usually presented. It's usually presented
pretty much as just a black white issue, but really
there were a number of Native Americans who played in
the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and these Latinos
who were playing, who were generally passed off as Spaniards.
(21:23):
They tended to be the lighter skinned Latinos, and about
thirty of them played between nineteen thirty five and nineteen
forty five, so in essentially the decade before Robinson gets signed,
they're playing a lot of them for the Washington Senators. However,
this still had not opened the door for dark skinned
(21:45):
Latinos or for African Americans, and it's only after Robinson
breaks the color barrier that darker skinned Latinos like Mini
Minoso and others are able to play in Major League Baseball.
And in March nineteen forty five, the Quinn Ives Act
(22:06):
becomes a law at bands discrimination based on race, creed, color,
and national origin. It only applies to New York State,
of course, that's where branch Ricky is in Brooklyn, New York.
And there were a lot of groups that came together
who supported it, who applauded it, including the Federal Council
of Churches, the American Jewish Congress, some leading Catholics, Thurgood Marshall,
(22:30):
who then is an attorney with the NAACP. The passage
of this act also prompts the Mayor of New York
LaGuardia to create a major committee to integrate Baseball, and
Ricky is one of the members who's appointed to that committee.
And also you've got at the same time, the Committee
(22:50):
to n Jim Crow and Baseball, which has been organized
by various forces, and they're demonstrating outside of major league
parks calling for integration of baseball, and a lot of
prominent Americans, including Eleanor Roosevelt, are endorsing this. The variety
of different groups that are agitating for and advocating for
(23:14):
blacks to be able to play. Of those groups, probably
the most important are the black sports writers, including a
guy named Wendell Smith. They're hammering away at the injustice
of blacks not being allowed to play, citing the fact
that a lot of Major League Baseball players say, hey,
we're okay with playing with blacks. They are in a
(23:36):
variety of ways trying to pressure major League Baseball. They're
meeting with Major League Baseball executives, are meeting with the commissioner,
trying to pave the way for Jackie to be able
to play. And without this pressure, it's doubtful that major
League baseball would have been integrated.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
When it was, and it began with Jackie joining the
Dodgers Mogue team the Montreal Royals.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
So in spring training nineteen forty six, Robinson's have just
gotten married. They have a harrowing journey to get there
because of discrimination bumping them off of flights. It's a
very difficult experience for them. But there's a lot of
support from ministers in the Daytona Beach area, and there's
(24:26):
a lot of interest in what's going on. A lot
of fans, bigger crowds than normal show up for the games,
and Robinson has a very interesting relationship with Clay Hopper,
who is the manager of Montreal, who has grown up
in Mississippi and certainly exudes some racial prejudice, but Robinson
(24:48):
grows on him by dentt of both his personality and
his performance, and that helps they end up having a
quite good relationship. Montreal was a very excellent setting for
Robinson to break in. This is one of the greatest
(25:08):
minor league teams in history. They end up winning the
Minor League World Series. They put up astounding numbers, particularly offensively,
and Robinson has a stellar season, beginning with his very
first game when he goes four for five, including a
(25:29):
home run. He wins the Most Valuable Player award, but
He's under a lot of pressure still, and a physician
even warns that he's on the verge of a nervous
breakdown in August of that year, and Rachel to the rescue.
Rachel really helps him deal with all the pressure he's facing.
But he hits three forty nine, he leads the leg
(25:51):
and run scored, he steals forty bases, just a very
very successful season. The team goes one hundred wins and
fifty four losses and bat almost three hundred as a team,
which is almost unheard of. It's a matter of determining
is he baseball ready and is he ready in terms
(26:14):
of his mindset, And at this point I think that
Ricky had concluded that both things had converged and that
Robinson could handle things on the diamond, and he could
handle the abuse to which he was going to be subjected,
and the combination of those things made him decide this
(26:38):
is the moment.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
And you've been listening to doctor Gary Scott Smith tell
the story of Jackie Robinson's journey to desegregate Major League baseball.
And he had a lot of help along the way,
including his bride. She was essential. Also Branch Ricky a
fellow Methodist who himself thought God appointed him to desegregate
(27:02):
the league. And then, of course there was his experience
in the minor leagues. Was he ready? Was he ready
for both the on and off the field challenges? Branch
Rickey finally thinks the answer is yes. When we come
back the rest of the journey, Jackie Robinson's journey to
desegregate baseball here on our American stories, and we're back
(27:38):
with our American stories in our final segment on Jackie
Robinson his faith in the beginning of his career in
the majors. When we last left off, doctor Gary Scott
Smith was telling us about branch Rickey and the general
manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers and his readiness to allow
Jackie Robinson to break the color barrier and once and
(28:02):
for all desegregate Major League Baseball. Back to Robbie the
conclusion of this story.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
But just because Ricky thought Robinson was ready for the
majors in nineteen forty seven didn't mean the majors were
ready for him. And that included his own teammates.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
While they're in Panama, they's playing some exhibition games. We
have kind of a mutiny. A lot of the Dodger
players tell the manager Leo Durocher formulates his petition and
they say, if Robinson plays, we're not going to play. Well. Durocher,
who is quite a character himself, gets the team together
at midnight in an army barracks in Panama and he
(28:43):
says that they could wipe their with this petition, and
he kind of famously said, I play an elephant if
he could win for me, and this Robinson is no elephant.
So anyway, then Ricky meets individually with the leaders of
this rebellion the next day and says, hey, if you
don't want to play with Robinson, will trade you. And
(29:06):
only at this point two of the players opt to
be traded. Neither one actually was during the season, and
they both changed their minds about Jackie. So it really
helped that the team captain Peewee Reese refused to sign
the petition, and essentially after that things began to get
better with his fellow teammates on the Dodgers. The African
(29:30):
American sports writer Wendell Smith said, if Robinson fails to
make the grade, it will be years before Enigro makes
the grade. This is it. The Boston Chronicle said, triumph
of whole race scene in Jackie's debut in Major League Baseball.
Colin Powell later, you know, first black US Secretary of
(29:52):
State who goes to see him play as a ten
year old, and even though he's a New York Giants fan,
our trivals of the Brookly Rodgers, he says, we prayed,
oh Lord, don't let him strike out, because we were
afraid if he didn't succeed, it would be a mark
against all of us. Tremendous weight upon Jackie's shoulders, and
(30:14):
he realizes that this isn't just for him, this is
for the entire African American community. A Time magazine will
go on to say at the end of the season
that this was the toughest first year any ballplayer has
ever faced. Sports Magazine said that he had been the
most savagely booed, intensely criticized, ruthlessly libeled player in Major
(30:38):
League Baseball history. Anytime he was on the field, there
were jeers, there were cat calls, there was name calling.
There would be black cats released onto the field. There
would be watermelon thrown onto the field, rocks, tomatoes, sambo dolls,
and then on the field You've got bean balls being
(30:58):
thrown at him, he being launched into his chin and chin.
They are even death threats against him, so much so
that the police department as signs a couple of detectives
to accompany him from the ballpark to his apartment after
every game. And these threats are against him, they're against Rachel,
they're against their son, Jackie Junior, who was born in
(31:20):
forty six. So it's just an incredible amount of abuse
to which he is subjected. Second week of May in
nineteen forty seven, and I call it the worst day
of Robinson's entire Major League baseball career. So they go
(31:40):
to Philadelphia to play this series against the Phillies. Ben
Chapman is the manager of the Phillies, and he stated
blatantly in advance of the series that they were going
to verbally attack him, and they did. It was a
harsher deluge of abused and Robinson had experienced prior to
this point, a lot of racial slurs, diseases Dodger players
(32:02):
would contract if they touched tiles Robinson had used. Robinson said,
it was the worst garbage I ever heard in my
whole life, including on the streets and in the Army,
and he almost was ready to give up at this point,
but he decided that he would respond not with his fists,
not with his mouth, but with his bat. Chapman defended
(32:24):
his actions basically saying, hey, this is the way we
treat all her opponents, and Robinson was very gracious. He
even agreed, although reluctantly, to pose for a photo with Chapman.
They held a bat together to imply that all was forgiven,
all was copeesthetic. So it was a very ugly incident
that occurred this in Philadelphia during his four game series.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
But not everyone was Ben Chapman.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Hank Greenberg was a Pirates first baseman and he was
a home run slugger, and he was near the end
of his career at this point. It was an accident
that he had run into Robinson because of an errant
throw from the pitcher to first base, and then he
ends up because of the error getting on the second base,
(33:12):
and so he doesn't talk to Robinson. Then it's the
next time around that he asked Robinson if he heard
him and said he hadn't meant to knock him over.
As a jew, Greenberg had also experienced quite a bit
of verbal abuse, so he knew what it was like,
and he reached out in friendship and camaraderie to Robinson,
(33:33):
and this was a very deeply moving experience for Robinson.
There were incidences of Dodger players, but also players from
other teams like this who did reach out positively to
Robinson during his first year. Probably the most famous one
would be with pee Wee Reese, where they were mocking
(33:57):
and ridiculing Robinson. Pee we reached the Dodger shortstop goes
over and puts his arm around Robinson and basically just
affirming his humanity. In mid August, you got Enos Slaughter,
who's a Saint Louis cardinal outfielder who is pretty flamboyant
(34:17):
and known for his rugged play, and he cuts a
seven inch gash in the back of Robinson's leg when
he runs over him when Robinson's stretching for a throw
at first base. And Hugh Casey, who is a relief
pitcher and a Southerner who basically previously hasn't had a
(34:37):
very close relationship with Robinson, runs off the bench and
charges against Slaughter and they have a bit of a bruhaha.
There were a number of incidents like this nineteen forty
seven season that basically helped cement Robinson's place in among
the Dodgers with his teammates, because there's nothing like a
(34:59):
good brawl, I guess, to help you identify with and
feel closer to your fellow teammates.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Nineteen forty seven was not only Robinson's inaugural season, but
the coveted Rookie of the Year awards as well, which
Jackie received due to his outstanding performance.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
He certainly, he hit almost three hundred, he led the
nationally in stolen bases, he scored the second highest number
of runs in the league, ninth highest amount of hits,
and the Dodgers won the Pennant. So and he was
actually fifth in the Most Valuable Player balloting that year.
Statistically and value to the team, he deserved the award.
(35:43):
Then that's just setting aside the incredible circumstances that he
faced in doing what he did. When you add that in,
it's just absolutely mind boggling and incredible what he accomplished.
But in making a case for him to win this
time and Ebony both emphasized his character and they emphasized
(36:07):
what a good family man he was, how committed, he
was to his wife, he was an next Sunday school teacher,
that he was morally upright. He didn't drink, he didn't smoke,
he went to bed early, he avoided tobacco, he drank milk.
You know, all these kinds of things that you would
(36:27):
put forth as particularly in the nineteen forties and fifties,
exemplary moral character. Without his faith, I don't think Robinson
would have been able to succeed. He prayed every night
on his knees before he went to bed. He had
(36:49):
letters from thousands of people who said they were faithfully
praying for him. He said things like I prayed as
I never had before during nineteen forty seven and season.
He did have some fellow Christians on the Dodger squad
that helped him in this regard. His faith was deep
and meaningful. It was a personal He just didn't simply
(37:13):
talk as often or as directly about having a personal
relationship with Jesus and some of these other athletes today,
but it was a very important part of his life
and arguably without it he would not have done what
he did.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
And a terrific job on the production by Robbie Davis
and a special thanks to doctor Gary Scott Smith. His
book Strength for the Fight, The Life and Faith of
Jackie Robinson is available wherever you get your books. And
what a year in nineteen forty seven must have been
for him. The pressure Jackie was playing for every black American,
(37:57):
no pressure. I pray it as I never prayed before.
Jackie said of that year. His faith was deep, it
was personal. The story of Jackie Robinson, his faith and
how it was integral to the desegregation of Major League Baseball.
Here on our American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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