Jackie Robinson: A Spiritual Biography
Page 26
50. Lowenfish, Branch Rickey, 397.
51. Jules Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 122.
52. Ibid., 129.
53. Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 154.
54. Ibid., 155.
55. Pittsburgh Courier, undated article, Wendell Smith Papers, Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, NY (hereafter cited as WSP).
56. Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 156.
57. Ibid., 157.
58. Pittsburgh Courier, October 12, 1947. Quoted in Lamb, Blackout, 173.
59. Pittsburgh Courier, March 15, 1947, WSP.
60. George Mitrovich, “Without Montreal, There Would Have Been No
Brooklyn,” Montreal Gazette, January 30, 2015, montrealgazette.com/sports
188
notes
/baseball/opinion-without-montreal-there-would-have-been-no-brooklyn-for
-jackie-robinson.
61. Lamb, Blackout, 66.
62. “33 Brooklyn Leaders Here Aided Jackie,” New York Amsterdam News, October 25, 1947.
63. Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 161; Robinson and Duckett, I Never Had It Made, 56; Jonathan Eig, Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Season (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2007), 36, 37.
64. Eig, Opening Day, 36.
65. Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 161.
66. Robinson and Duckett, I Never Had it Made, 56.
67. Eig, Opening Day, 37.
68. Ibid., 36–38.
69. Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 162.
70. Ibid.
71. Ibid., 164.
72. Ibid., 166.
73. Jackie Robinson, “Batting It Out,” Pittsburgh Courier, March 22, 1947.
74. Pittsburgh Courier, April 5, 1947, WSP.
75. Eig, Opening Day, 47.
76. Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 168.
chapter 6: “I Get down on My knees and Pray”
1. Jonathan Eig, Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Spring Training (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2007), 48.
2. Ralph Branca, “The Strength to Turn the Other Cheek,” Guideposts, n.d., www.guideposts.org/positive-living/inspiring-entertainment/sports/the-strength
-to-turn-the-other-cheek?nopaging=1.
3. Ibid.
4. Eig, Opening Day, 61.
5. Ibid., 73.
6. Jackie Robinson and Alfred Duckett, I Never Had It Made (Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press, 1995), 59.
7. Ibid., 60.
8. Arnold Rampersad, Jackie Robinson: A Biography (New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, 1997), 173.
9. Eig, Opening Day, 77.
10. Gil Jonas, Freedom’s Sword: The NAACP and the Struggle against Racism in America, 1909–1969 (New York: Routledge, 2004).
11. Eig, Opening Day, 87.
12. Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 179.
13. Eig, Opening Day, 217.
notes
189
14. Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 174–75.
15. Wendell Smith, Pittsburgh Courier, undated article, Wendell Smith Papers (hereafter cited as WSP), Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, NY.
16. Ibid.
17. Eig, Opening Day, 86.
18. Ibid., 97.
19. John Sexton, Baseball as a Road to God: Seeing Beyond the Game (New York: Gotham Books, 2013), 189.
20. Eig, Opening Day, 4–5.
21. Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 179.
22. Ibid., 175.
23. E-mail interview with Lee Lowenfish, April 4, 2016.
24. Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 175–76.
25. Ibid., 172.
26. Branca, “Turn the Other Cheek.”
27. Carl Erskine and Burton Rocks, What I Learned from Jackie Robinson: A Teammate’s Reflections On and Off the Field (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005), 29.
28. Rachel Robinson with Lee Daniels, Jackie Robinson: An Intimate Portrait (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996), 72.
29. Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 176.
30. Robert C. Cottrell, Two Pioneers: How Hank Greenberg and Jackie Robinson Transformed Baseball—and America (Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2012), 39.
31. Wendell Smith, “The Sports Beat,” Pittsburgh Courier, May 24, 1947.
32. Rachel Robinson, Intimate Portrait, 72.
33. Wendell Smith, Pittsburgh Courier, undated article, WSP.
34. Eig, Opening Day, 3.
35. Erskine and Rocks, What I Learned, 87.
36. Eig, Opening Day, 223–24.
37. Ibid., 5.
38. Chris Lamb, presentation (Parkland Library, Parkland, FL, March 20, 2006).
39. Robinson and Duckett, I Never Had It Made, 70; Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 193.
40. Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 186–87.
41. Dan Burley, “Jockeying Worse Than Phillies; Fails to Affect His Playing,”
Pittsburgh Courier, October 4, 1947.
42. Ibid.
43. The Rev. John Curren to Jackie Robinson, October 7, 1947, Jackie Robinson Papers (hereafter cited as JRP), box 12, folder 11, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
44. Robinson and Duckett, I Never Had It Made, 70, 71.
45. Wendell Smith, “Sports Beat,” Pittsburgh Courier, February 28, 1948.
190
notes
46. Jackie Robinson, untitled manuscript on faith, n.d., JRP, box 12, folder 11.
47. Jules Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 323.
48. See Martin Bauml Duberman, Paul Robeson (London: Pan Books, 1989), 358.
49. Robinson and Duckett, I Never Had It Made, 86.
50. Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 212–16.
51. Ibid., 219.
52. Ibid., 220.
53. Ibid., 230.
54. “Jackie Robinson Featured in Go-To-Church Advertising,” Los Angeles Sentinel, November 2, 1950.
55. “Jackie Robinson in Liberty Group,” New York Amsterdam News, June 30, 1951.
56. Jackie Robinson, “This I Believe,” n.d., JRP.
57. “Jackie among Donors Aiding New School,” New York Amsterdam News, November 3, 1951.
58. “Brooklyn Pastors United to Aid Concord Efforts,” New York Amsterdam News, February 14, 1953.
59. “Jackie Robinson to Lead Parade at Methodist Meeting,” Chicago Defender, March 31, 1956.
60. Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 204.
61. Ibid., 220.
62. E. J. Cadou, “Jackie Robinson Writes Little Boy Who Wishes He Was White,” Pittsburgh Courier, March 13, 1954.
63. Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 261–62.
64. Louis A. Radelet to Rachel Robinson, February 16, 1954, JRP, box 7, folder 19.
65. “Harmful Critic,” Indianapolis Recorder, August 11, 1956.
66. “Bill Keefe Says We’re Ape-like,” Pittsburgh Courier, August 25, 1956.
67. Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 297.
68. Samuel Haynes, “ ‘High Point of My Career’—Jackie of Spingarn Award,”
Afro-American, December 8, 1956.
69. Ibid.
chapter 7: “Hoeing with God”
1. Jackie Robinson, untitled manuscript on faith, n.d., Jackie Robinson Papers, box 12, folder 11, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
2. Arnold Rampersad, Jackie Robinson: A Biography (New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, 1997), 322. This chapter’s narrative is indebted to Rampersad’s book.
3. Robinson, untitled manuscript on faith.
4. Michael G. Long, ed., First Class Citizenship: The Civil Rights Letters of Jackie Robinson (New York: Times Books, 2007), 11. All the letters quoted in
notes
191
the present book can be found in First Class Citizenship, which documents the location of each letter cited. For instance, the book notes that the November 25, 1953, letter from Robinson to Eisenhower is in the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, President’s Personal File, box
798, folder 47. The present book will cite only Long’s edited collection.
5. Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 287.
6. The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. , ed. Clayborne Carson (New York: Warner Books, 1998), swap.stanford.edu/20141218230026/http://mlk
-kpp01.stanford.edu/kingweb/publications/autobiography/chp_8.htm.
7. Jackie Robinson and Alfred Duckett, I Never Had It Made (Hopewell, NJ: The Ecco Press, 1995), 224–25.
8. Long, First Class Citizenship, 28.
9. Ibid., 40.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid., 41.
12. Felix Belair Jr., “Eisenhower Bids Negroes Be Patient about Rights,” New York Times, May 13, 1958.
13. Rachel Robinson with Lee Daniels, Jackie Robinson: An Intimate Portrait (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996), 161.
14. Alison Leigh Cowan, “Archive Shows Robinson as Moderator on Morality,” New York Times, December 24, 2010.
15. “Eisenhower Cites Integration Goal,” New York Times, April 18, 1959.
16. James Wechsler, “A New Column on All Subjects: Jackie Robinson to Write for the Post,” New York Post, April 24, 1959. Robinson’s column for the Post was titled “Jackie Robinson” (hereafter cited as JR). Some of the most important Robinson columns are collected in Beyond Home Plate: Jackie Robinson on Life after Baseball, ed. Michael G. Long (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2013).
17. JR, May 29, 1959.
18. JR, June 12, 1959.
19. JR, July 6, 1959.
20. JR, July 6, 1959.
21. JR, July 15, 1959.
22. JR, July 27, 1959.
23. JR, July 27, 1959.
24. JR, October 28, 1959.
25. JR, October 28, 1959.
26. JR, December 28, 1959.
27. JR, January 6, 1960.
28. JR, February 20, 1960.
29. JR, March 11, 1960.
30. “Truman Says He’d Oust Disrupters in His Shop,” New York Times,
March 20, 1960.
192
notes
31. JR, March 25, 1960.
32. JR, April 25, 1960.
33. See Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 351.
34. Long, First Class Citizenship, 125.
35. Ibid., 127.
36. Robinson’s first column for the New York Amsterdam News appeared on January 6, 1962. The column was first titled “Jackie Robinson Says” but quickly changed to “Home Plate” (hereafter cited as HP).
37. “ ‘I Won’t Crawl to the Hall of Fame’—Jackie Robinson,” New York Amsterdam News, January 12, 1962.
38. “Hall of Fame ‘My Greatest Thrill’—Jackie Robinson,” New York Amsterdam News, February 3, 1962.
39. “Ex-Dodger Happy: Robinson Recalls Humble Beginning,” Spokane Daily Chronicle, January 24, 1962.
40. Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 364.
41. HP, July 14, 1962.
42. Jackie Robinson, untitled manuscript on faith.
43. Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 365.
44. HP, August 11, 1962.
45. HP, August 18, 1962.
46. HP, August 18, 1962.
47. Martin Luther King Jr., “Hall of Famer,” New York Amsterdam News,
August 4, 1962.
48. Ibid.
49. Ibid.
50. Ibid.
51. HP, September 22, 1962.
52. HP, February 2, 1963.
53. HP, February 2, 1963.
54. HP, February 2, 1963.
55. HP, February 9, 1962.
56. HP, February 9, 1962.
chapter 8: “do you know what God did?”
1. Jackie Robinson, “Home Plate,” New York Amsterdam News, March 30, 1963 (hereafter cited as HP).
2. HP, April 30, 1963.
3. Michael G. Long, ed., First Class Citizenship: The Civil Rights Letters of Jackie Robinson (New York: Times Books, 2007), 168–69.
4. Arnold Rampersad, Jackie Robinson: A Biography (New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, 1997), 374.
5. HP, June 22, 1963.
notes
193
6. HP, June 22, 1963.
7. Long, First Class Citizenship, 173.
8. HP, July 13, 1963.
9. United Church of Christ, “Minutes, Fourth General Synod, Denver, Colorado, July 4–11, 1963,” ed. Fred S. Buschmeyer, 86–87. Reproduction provided from the General Synod Collection of the United Church of Christ Archives, Cleveland, Ohio.
10. Jackie Robinson, “Address by Mr. Jackie Robinson, Fourth General Synod of the United Church of Christ, Wednesday, July 10, 1963, Denver, Colorado,” Jackie Robinson Papers, box 13, folder 3, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. United Church of Christ, “Minutes, Fourth General Synod.”
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. HP, July 27, 1963.
17. HP, July 27, 1963.
18. HP, July 27, 1963.
19. HP, September 7, 1963.
20. HP, September 7, 1963.
21. HP, September 7, 1963.
22. “Six Dead after Church Bombing,” Washington Post, September 16, 1963.
23. Jackie Robinson, “America’s Blowin’ in the Wind,” New York Amsterdam News, September 28, 1963.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid.
27. HP, November 30, 1963.
28. “Muslims Reject ‘Hundreds’ of White Applicants,” Jet, November 21, 1963, 51.
29. Rachel Robinson with Lee Daniels, Jackie Robinson: An Intimate Portrait (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996), 194.
30. HP, June 13, 1964.
31. HP, July 11, 1964.
32. HP, July 11, 1964.
33. HP, July 11, 1964.
34. HP, July 18, 1964.
35. “Clay Says He Has Adopted Islam Religion and Regards It as Way to Peace,” New York Times, February 27, 1964.
36. HP, March 14, 1964.
37. HP, March 14, 1964.
38. HP, July 4, 1964.
194
notes
39. Jackie Robinson, “The G.O.P.: For White Men Only?,” Saturday Evening Post, August 10–17, 1963, 10.
40. Ibid., 14.
41. HP , October 31, 1964.
42. HP , October 31, 1964.
43. John Herbers, ‘‘Dr. King Rebuts Hoover Charges,’’ New York Times, November 20, 1964.
44. HP, December 5, 1964.
45. Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 400.
chapter 9: “the Good lord has showered Blessings on Me
and this country”
1. Jackie Robinson, “Home Plate,” New York Amsterdam News, January 2, 1965 (hereafter cited as HP).
2. See Michael G. Long, ed., First Class Citizenship: The Civil Rights Letters of Jackie Robinson (New York: Times Books, 2007). Long’s edited collection is the source for all letters quoted in the part of chap. 9 from this note to “he fired off a letter to the vice president, beginning with an uncustomary greeting of ‘Sir,’ ”
(see pp. 207, 212–16).
3. Martin Luther King Jr., “Our God Is Marching On” (speech, Montgomery, AL, March 25, 1965), Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University, kinginstitute.stanford.edu/our-god-marching.
4. “Transcript of the Johnson Address on Voting Rights to Joint Session of Congress,” New York Times, March 16, 1965.
5. Long, First Class Citizenship, 129.
6. Arnold Rampersad, Jackie Robinson: A Biography (New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, 1997), 398. This chapter’s narrative is indebted to Rampersad’s book.
7. Long, First Class Citizenship, 221.
8. Ibid., 222.
9. Tom Wicker, “Johnson Pledges to Help Negroes to Full Equality,” New York Times, June 5, 1965.
10. Rachel Robinson with Lee Daniels, Jackie Robinson: An Intimate Portrait (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996), 194.
11. Victor Free, “Man of Parables,
” Pittsburgh Press, February 18, 1968.
12. Mike Recht, “Branch Rickey Laid to Rest,” Nashua (NH) Telegraph,
December 14, 1965.
13. Jackie Robinson, “It’s Like Losing a Father,” New York Amsterdam News,
December 18, 1965.
14. Ibid.
15. “Branch Rickey Calls for End to Racial Bias,” Pittsburgh Courier, August 30, 1952.
notes
195
16. “Son Hurt in Vietnam; Jackie Urges D.C. Home Rule Now,” Washington Afro-American, December 7, 1965.
17. Ibid.
18. HP, February 5, 1966.
19. HP, February 19, 1966.
20. HP, February 19, 1966.
21. HP, May 28, 1966.
22. HP, May 28, 1966.
23. Rachel Robinson, Intimate Portrait, 147.
24. HP, June 6, 1966.
25. HP, April 16, 1966.
26. HP, April 16, 1966.
27. HP, July 30, 1966.
28. Adam Clayton Powell, Keep the Faith, Baby! (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967). Powell is the source for all quotes in the part of chap. 9 from this note to “must demand and have a proportionate share of the responsibilities of running the communities, the cities and the states in which they live” (see pp.
9–11, 16–17).
29. HP, October 22, 1966.
30. HP, October 22, 1966.
31. HP, October 22, 1966.
32. HP, March 11, 1967.
33. Robert Lipsyte, “Clay Refuses Army Oath; Stripped of Boxing Crown,”
New York Times, April 29, 1967.
34. See Howard Bingham and Max Wallace, Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight: Cassius Clay vs. the United States of America (Lanham, MD: M. Evans, 2000), 149–50.
35. Ibid.
36. HP, October 14, 1967.
37. HP, October 14, 1967.
38. HP, March 25, 1967.
39. Martin Luther King Jr., “Beyond Vietnam” (speech, New York City, April 4, 1967), Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University, kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/documentsentry/
doc_beyond_vietnam/.
40. Ibid.
41. Ibid.
42. HP, May 13, 1967.
43. HP, May 13, 1967.
44. HP, May 13, 1967.
45. Long, First Class Citizenship, 252.
46. HP, July 1, 1967.
196
notes
47. HP, July 1, 1967.
48. HP, July 1, 1967.
49. HP, October 21, 1967.
50. HP, October 21, 1967.
51. HP, August 12, 1967.
52. Jackie Robinson, “Cast the First Stone,” October 15, 1967, Jackie Robinson Papers, box 8, folder 3, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.