Jackie Robinson: A Spiritual Biography
Page 19
He hoped his reticence on nonviolence as a principle would make his
argument more convincing to the youths. “I would say that there is a better way and, frankly, I don’t happen to be one of the turn-the-other-cheek advocates, despite my deep admiration for Dr. King,” Robinson
explained. “Personally, I am afraid I have not learned to return hatred with love.”30
It was yet another public confession that Robinson was not altogether enamored of teachings in the New Testament, both Jesus’ admonition
to turn the other cheek and the apostle Paul’s counsel about responding to evil with nobility and goodness. Nevertheless, however wary of Jesus’
and Paul’s teachings Robinson personally was at times, he remained
firmly convinced that nonviolent direct action was the most practical and effective strategy for gaining civil rights in the United States.
This conviction was challenged yet again when Robinson was guest
of honor at a banquet held during the NAACP’s 55th annual conven-
tion. The relaxing dinner was well under way when a crazed white man, waving a swastika, jumped onto the dais and shouted words about
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“sending all the niggers back to Africa.” Robinson’s response to the threatening spectacle was predictable, given his earlier comments. “I will be very honest with you,” he stated when reflecting on the event.
“I am not nonviolent in such circumstances.”31
As he watched the racist, Robinson felt himself growing angry. “Not
only was my anger rising,” he recalled, “but I found that I was rising with every intention of letting this unexpected visitor have a good swift jab in the head.”32
But the younger attendees got to the racist before Robinson did, and they were forcefully nonviolent in their handling of the racist. “They didn’t hit him,” Robinson recalled. “They didn’t maul him. They surrounded him, they took hold of him and hustled him out of the room.”33
At the same time Robinson renounced nonviolence as a viable
option for himself, he still refused to give any quarter to Malcolm X, even after he left the Nation of Islam, converted to Sunni Islam, and went on a pilgrimage to Mecca, where he recounted his moving experience in a letter that detailed a shift in religious perspective. Malcolm founded and led the Organization of Afro-American Unity, with hopes
of entering the political arena and even cooperating with other civil rights leaders, something that Elijah Muhammad had never allowed
him to do.
But Robinson would have none of Malcolm’s conversion. “Yester-
day, he owed ‘all in my life’ to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad,”
Robinson stated. “Today the Honorable Elijah is not so honorable in
Malcolm’s book. Yesterday, he vigorously denied that Muslims teach
hatred. Today, he tells the white press that he became disenchanted
with the Muslims because ‘they teach hate.’ Yesterday, to Malcolm, all white folks were devils. Today, after seeing some startling vision during his travels, Mr. X has decided that some white folks are all right.
What does this man really think?” He even dared to call Malcolm “the fair-haired boy of the white press” and ridiculed his new organization as likely to amount to nothing.34
But Robinson was not opposed to all converts. One who captured
his close attention in 1964 was the fast-talking boxer Cassius Clay, who, after defeating Sonny Liston in February for the title of heavyweight champion, announced that, with encouragement and help from
Malcolm X, he had converted to the Nation of Islam and that his new
name was Muhammad Ali.
In explaining his religion to the media, Ali observed that “Islam”
means “peace,” and that while people often branded the Nation of
“do you know wHat God dId?”
137
Islam as a hate group, that was simply untrue. “All they want to do
is live in peace with the world,” Ali said. “They don’t hate anybody.”
Ali also stated that Islam had given him “inner peace” and that it was responsible for his defeat of Liston. “God was with me—I couldn’t
have done it without God.”35
Robinson, a huge boxing fan, responded to Ali’s conversion to Islam.
“Clay has just as much a right to ally himself with the Muslim religion as anyone else has to be a Protestant or a Catholic,” he argued. He also took on those who denied that the Nation of Islam was a real religion, saying that “one of the basic American principles involves the right of each individual to embrace a philosophy and call it his religion.”36
He added another significant point about Ali, one that reached
way back to the spiritual lessons of self-worth he had learned from his mother, Mallie, and his minister, the Rev. Karl Downs: “[Clay] has
spread the message that more of us need to know: ‘I am the greatest,’
he says. I am not advocating that Negroes think they are greater than anyone else. But I want them to know that they are just as great as other human beings. If we can learn to believe in ourselves one iota of the way Clay does, we’ll be in great shape.”37
Robinson was also accepting of another dramatic conversion in
1964. While he had earlier derided Lyndon Baines Johnson as a segre-
gationist, by the summer of 1964 he depicted the new president as bold and courageous in advancing civil rights.
But Jackie did not offer the same openness and generosity to Sena-
tor Barry Goldwater of Arizona, comparing the Republican nominee
for the presidency with the much-reviled segregationist governor of
Alabama, George Wallace. “In my opinion he is a bigot, an advocate of white supremacy and more dangerous than Governor Wallace,” Robinson said.38
Robinson had publicly detailed his disaffection for the changing
flavor of the GOP during the summer of 1963, drawing connections
between the Nation of Islam and the Republican Party in an article
he wrote for the Saturday Evening Post. “It seems to me that there is a striking parallel between the thinking of the Black Muslims and of the growing number of conservative Republicans who support Sen. Barry
Goldwater,” he had argued. “Both groups feel they can reach their goals by traveling the road of racial separation.”39
To back his point, Robinson referred to Southern business leaders
and politicians who had begun to make progressive statements on civil rights. He also offered churches as evidence. “The leading religious
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denominations are making statements and raising funds and executing
policy designed to expose the hypocrisy of acknowledging the fatherhood of God on Sunday and denying the brotherhood of man on Monday.”40
Robinson ended up fleeing the Republicans during the summer of
1964. Hubert Humphrey, the Democratic candidate for vice president,
assured Robinson that Johnson was indeed sincere in his conversion to racial justice and civil rights, and Jackie, after lauding Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York as the best presidential candidate and traveling with him to the Republican National Convention, threw his final
support to the Johnson-Humphrey ticket, even helping to chair the
Republicans for Johnson committee.
In the early fall of 1964, Robinson traveled to Philadelphia to speak to a cause near and dear to his heart: economic advancement for African Americans.
Robinson took great delight when he learned of black clergy mem-
bers in Philadelphia who were establishing the Organization of Industrialization Center (OIC), a systematic and cooperative effort to train African Americans for jobs in skilled and semiskilled jobs in industry.
The Rev. Leon Sullivan, a graduate
of Union Theological Seminary
in New York City and pastor of Zion Baptist Church in Philadelphia,
was the driving force behind the emerging organization. Sullivan was the dynamic embodiment of Robinson’s vision of the good minister:
socially conscious, focused on community needs, and intent on build-
ing economic programs designed to help blacks help themselves.
With donations from community members and others, Sullivan
converted a dilapidated jail into the first OIC training center and
schooled its students in job and life skills. Undergirded by a theology of personal responsibility, the OIC quickly became a success, training and placing thousands of African Americans in local companies.
Robinson could not have been more pleased than he was to offer
his support to OIC, and he delivered an inspiring speech to hundreds of its students in October. Reflecting later on what he called “one of the most wholesome evenings I have spent in some time,” he stated:
“I don’t know whether I inspired any of the hundreds of trainees who were present. I do know that I was inspired by the eagerness of these people, inspired by their recognition of the fact that it is one thing to cry out, to picket, to demonstrate for equality and it is equally important to qualify for the ‘breaks’ when they come to us.”41
But Sullivan, “a minister’s minister,” was the one who most inspired Jackie that evening because of his theology of self-help, his concern
“do you know wHat God dId?”
139
for economic justice, his community focus, his hope-filled action, his sensitivity to injustice. For Robinson, Sullivan was “a mover and shaker of men who gets things going not for personal greed, gain or glory—but to fulfill his mission as a man of God and the one who points the way.”42
The fall brought other good news to Robinson: the defeat of Barry
Goldwater and the election of Lyndon Johnson as president of the
United States. Robinson had campaigned vigorously for the Texan
convert to racial justice, and he breathed a sigh of relief when Johnson handily beat the Arizona senator. After the election, Robinson shrewdly claimed that the Republican Party should have learned from the results that racism would not grant them access to the White House.
But, as 1964 came to a close, Robinson’s prophetic wrath erupted
when FBI director J. Edgar Hoover publicly condemned Martin Luther
King Jr. as “the most notorious liar in the country.”43 Hoover did not give the public any evidence to back his claim, but he no doubt had in mind evidence he had gathered from FBI wiretaps, authorized by Attorney General Robert Kennedy, in King’s home, office, and hotel rooms.
Robinson launched a counterattack against Hoover.
“Mr. Hoover’s absurd accusation that Dr. King is a ‘notorious liar’
is evidence that the boss of the FBI is a much disturbed man,” Robinson said. Rather than assaulting King’s integrity, Hoover “ought to go down on his knees to bless Martin King.” Had it not been for King’s
insistence on nonviolence in the civil rights movement, “we might have had a most terrible holocaust of racial violence.”44
The year ended with the happy return of Jackie Jr. Home on leave
from the army, he left his parents with the impression that he had
matured. “Jackie has grown a great deal,” Jack wrote in a letter to
David and Caroline Wallerstein. “He seems to be developing into a
real man and I am certain his Army stint will be a blessing.”45 But the army, and the coming year, would prove to be far different for Jackie Jr. and his family.
9
“The Good Lord Has Showered Blessings
on Me and This Country”
From Freedom National Bank to Vietnam
January 4, 1965, was a festive day in Harlem. It marked the official dedication of Freedom National Bank on 125th Street, and Alex
Quaison-Sackey, the first black president of the United Nations Gen-
eral Assembly, cut the ceremonial ribbon stretching across the bank’s front doors. Colorful flags decorated the renovated facade, and among the many notables in attendance was the bank’s smartly dressed chairman of the board: Jackie Robinson.
Robinson’s leadership of the bank reflected his long-held belief that African Americans would not achieve first-class citizenship until they entered the mainstream of economic society and enjoyed the material
advantages that capitalism had long been reserved for whites. He was a capitalist at heart and believed that the material fruits of hard work, the type he enjoyed in his own life, were evidence of God’s blessings.
In describing Freedom National, Robinson stated, “It is the only
bank in Harlem which is interracially owned and operated. It is also the only bank in Harlem which is controlled mainly by Negroes.”1
An early proposal and rationale for the bank had noted that Harlem
suffered from a deficiency of banking options, and that its residents were “underrepresented in the formation of policies that prominently affect the economic life of the community.”2 It was thus easy for
white-controlled banks in Harlem to discriminate against African
Americans seeking affordable loans and reasonable mortgage rates,
among other things. Underrepresented in local financial institutions, 141
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JACKIE ROBINSON
Harlem residents were financially stuck, barely on the fringes of the US economy.
Robinson hoped that Freedom National Bank would change that,
and that African Americans across the country would follow Harlem’s
lead. His dream of economic integration, as it came to expression in Freedom National, was part and parcel of his spiritual conviction that God helps those who help themselves.
Although the bank demanded countless hours of Robinson’s time,
he remained active in politics and continued to strengthen his ties to Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York.
In early 1965 Robinson traveled to Phoenix, Arizona, to address
the closing session of a Republican conference on poverty. He took the occasion to sketch progressive goals for the Republican Party and cheer for the governor of New York. In a later letter to Rockefeller, Jackie wrote that his time in Phoenix reinforced his belief that liberal Republicans needed to rally around Rockefeller’s desire to widen the base of the party. “We must let minority people in America know that they are needed in order that the two party system—and therefore the political health of our nation—may be preserved,” Robinson said.
A day later, Jackie and Rachel went to Washington for a lavish
White House dinner honoring Vice President Hubert Humphrey and
others. President Johnson had not yet warmed up to Robinson, but
that did not stop the president from dancing with Rachel. Two days
later, Robinson sent the president a letter of deep appreciation. “Words cannot express the gratitude my wife and I felt for one of the most
enjoyable evenings of our lives,” he wrote. “My wife is still floating on cloud nine because she had the honor of dancing with the President of the United States.”
As always, Robinson also felt the need to send along his own assess-
ment of the president. “Your inspired leadership more than justifies the confidence we all have in you,” he stated. “May God give you continued good health and wisdom—in my humble opinion, no American in
public office has grown as you have. No President could have affected the progress in our drive for human dignity as you have.”
The conversion of the Texan had apparently held, especially given
his leadership in passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Robinson was supportive, at least until Bloody Sunday.
Violence exploded in Selma, Alabama, on Sunday, March 7, 1965,
<
br /> when John Lewis, chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Com-
mittee, and Hosea Williams, a staff member of the Southern Christian
“Good lord Has sHowered BlessInGs on Me and tHIs country” 143
Leadership Conference, led six hundred marchers in a protest for voting rights. The march also commemorated the February 26 murder of
Jimmie Lee Jackson, who had been shot while helping to protect his
family at a civil rights rally.
With Lewis and Williams at the front, the Selma marchers were able
to advance only six blocks before state and local law officers, positioned at the Edmund Pettus Bridge on US Route 80, used billy clubs and tear gas to force them, now bloodied, screaming, and gasping for air, back into downtown Selma.
Robinson grew livid as he watched the carnage on television at his
home in Stamford, and he wired Johnson a telegram on March 9.
“Important you take immediate action in Alabama,” he wrote. “One
more day of savage treatment by legalized hatchet men could lead to
open warfare by aroused Negroes. America cannot afford this in 1965.”
Six hundred marchers showed up at the White House that day to
demand that the Johnson administration send federal troops to Selma to protect the activists from further violence and to arrest the perpetrators of Bloody Sunday. Vice President Hubert Humphrey met with the marchers, and although he was sympathetic, he did not satisfy their urgent demands. When Robinson learned of this failure, he fired off a letter to the vice president, beginning with an uncustomary greeting of “Sir.”
Johnson, too, was concerned about the potential for more violence,
and he ordered federal troops to protect the marchers as they finally made the fifty-four-mile trek from Selma to Montgomery, where Martin Luther King Jr., buoyed by the swelling interracial crowd of thousands, gave a riveting speech on voting rights. “Our God is marching on!” he declared in front of the state capitol.3
Johnson, appearing before a joint session of Congress on March 15,
proposed voting legislation, saying, “But even if we pass this bill, the battle will not be over. What happened in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and State of America. It
is the effort of Negroes to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life. Their cause must be our cause too. Because it’s not just Negroes, but really it’s all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome.”4