§§ Jackie Robinson §§

QueEx · Feb 1, 2006

Jackie Robinson at spring training in 1952

Some Latinos: are pushing to get Roberto Clemente's number retired - meaning his number, 21, would never be available again and no player could were No. 21. Roberto Clemente died in a plane crash on Dec. 31, 1972, while trying to deliver relief supplies following an earthquake in Nicaragua.

Jackie Robinson: broke major league baseball's color barrier in 1947, and his No. 42 was retired for all teams on April 15, 1997 - the 50th anniversary of his big league debut.

Sharon Robinson, Jackie Robinson's dauther: baseball shouldn't retire Clemente's number for all teams. "To my understanding, the purpose of retiring my father's number is that what he did changed all of baseball, not only for African-Americans but also for Latinos, so I think that purpose has been met," she said. "When you start retiring numbers across the board, for all different groups, you're kind of diluting the original purpose."

Luis Clemente, one of Roberto Clemente's sons: says the request that baseball retire his father's No. 21 is being misunderstood, his family was "100 percent with Sharon" but also spoke of his father's contributions. "My father was 87th Latino to be in the major leagues but he was the first one ... to be able to speak up and become an activist against prejudice, not only in baseball but also in society, and that took a lot to be able to do that,"

Frank Robinson, manager Washington Nationals: made similar comments as Sharon Robinson: , saying baseball should find another way to honor Clemente. "Jackie Robinson was a very unique situation and historical," Robinson said. Clemente did an awful lot of good things and was a terrific ballplayer, but I don't think it's the same type of situation as Jackie Robinson. And if you do it for him, where do you go? Where do you stop? Then you neglect someone and create some big controversy."

Major League Baseball: has taken the effort to retire the late Clemente's number under consideration.

Fact: Jackie Robinson was the first and only player whose uniform number (42) was retired by Major League Baseball (April 15, 1997) making it unwearable on every team present & in the future.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/baseball/13698998.htm
http://sports.iwon.com/news/01302006/v5978.html

thoughtone · Jan 17, 2008

Re: ****MLK Was A Black Republican?****

I question the description of this article, because the author uses terms such as liberal, a non objective give away.

source: The U.S. National Archives

Teaching With Documents:
Beyond the Playing Field -
Jackie Robinson, Civil Rights Advocate
DRAFT LETTER
RICHARD M. NIXON TO JACKIE ROBINSON
NOVEMBER 4, 1960

Presidential candidate Richard Nixon wrote this letter 4 days before the 1960 Presidential election. The annotations in black ink are Nixon's. Robinson was pressured into taking an unpaid leave of absence and ending his triweekly column with the liberal New York Post when he publicly endorsed Nixon. Originally the ex-player worked on behalf of liberal Minnesota senator Hubert Humphrey but when Humphrey was eliminated early in the primaries, Robinson's support was up for grabs. Robinson viewed Nixon's civil rights record as more promising than Kennedy's, especially after meeting with both candidates.

QueEx · May 6, 2010

Re: Political Sports ???

<center>

Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in
professional baseball when he debuted
with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947
was a collision of sports and politics.

</center>

thoughtone · Jul 8, 2010

source: Huffington Post

RNC: Jackie Robinson Was A Republican

The Republican National Committee released a new website on Tuesday that goes to great lengths to depict the party as open to minority interests.

The most obvious example comes on the "Heroes" page where the RNC pinpoints 16 figures who were "Patriots: American Heroes & Famous Republicans." The list includes seven African-Americans, one Hispanic-American, and four women. Only four white men are included, three of whom had direct ties to the advancement of civil rights in America. Former President Abraham Lincoln made the list, as did former Justice Frank Johnson, who was instrumental in court decisions that helped end segregation in the South. Finally, there was former Sen. Everett Dirksen of Illinois, who helped write and pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

But the GOP may have muddled is message by including individuals who would scoff at today's Republican Party.

As pointed out by a Democratic source, the inclusion of baseball star Jackie Robinson on the list seems particularly egregious. The former Dodger, who broke baseball's color barrier, was far from a dyed-in-the-wool conservative. Robinson's ties to the GOP seemed more driven by a personal admiration for Nelson Rockefeller -- the New Yorker who would end up being vice president under Gerald Ford -- than it was core ideological convictions. In his biography, Robinson said that as the Republican Party leadership tilted towards Barry Goldwater conservatives, he began to have "a better understanding of how it must have felt to be a Jew in Hitler's Germany."

Writing on page 340 of the autobiography, he campaigned for Hubert Humphrey.

"I was not as sold on the Republican party as I was on the governor," Robinson wrote of Rockefeller. "Every chance I got, while I was campaigning, I said plainly what I thought of the right-wing Republicans and the harm they were doing. I felt the GOP was a minority party in term of numbers of registered voters and could not win unless they updated their social philosophy and sponsored candidates and principles to attract the young, the black, and the independent voter. I said this often from public, and frequently Republican, platforms. By and large Republicans had ignored blacks and sometimes handpicked a few servile leaders in the black community to be their token "******s." How would I sound trying to go all out to sell Republicans to black people? They're not buying. They know better."
"I admit freely that I think, live, and breathe black first and foremost. That is one of the reasons I was so committed to the governor and so opposed to Senator Barry Goldwater. Early in 1964 I wrote a Speaking Out piece for The Saturday Evening Post. A Barry Goldwater victory would insure that the GOP would be completely the white man's party. What happened at San Francisco when Senator Goldwater became the Republican standard-bearer confirmed my prediction."

"I wasn't altogether caught of guard by the victory of the reactionary forces in the Republican party, but I was appalled by the tactics they used to stifle their liberal opposition," Robinson wrote of that 1964 convention. "I was a special delegate to the convention through an arrangement made by the Rockefeller office. That convention was one of the most unforgettable and frightening experiences of my life. The hatred I saw was unique to me because it was hatred directed against a white man. It embodied a revulsion for all he stood for, including his enlightened attitude toward black people."

QueEx · Apr 8, 2013

QueEx · Apr 8, 2013

Jackie Robinson: 10 Things You Didn't Know

§§ Jackie Robinson §§

QueEx

Rising Star

thoughtone

Rising Star

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Rising Star

thoughtone

Rising Star

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Rising Star

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Rising Star