EmailIn the new Jackie Robinson biopic, “42,” out today, one thing is clear: Transforming the American pastime of baseball took nearly superhuman courage for him and his wife, Rachel.
In 1940, at the University of California-Los Angeles, she finished her education rather than drop out of college to marry the handsome, star varsity athlete she’d fallen in love with at first sight.
“Jack and I were engaged for five years,” she said. “And we had decided we would not get married until I graduated from college and he had a job. And the j-o-b was very important.”
Image credit: Bettmann/Corbis
Of course, Jackie Robinson’s job was really the start of the Civil Rights movement. Almost 66 years ago, he broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier.
CLICK: The First African-Americans in Major Pro Sports
But from the moment he and Rachel Robinson arrived for spring training in the Jim Crow South, it was a test of grace under pressure for both of them.
Despite the prejudice, she said she loved going to the ballpark.
“Oh, I loved it,” she told ABC News’ David Wright. “You couldn’t keep me away!”
She said they had a rule though. On their way home from the ballpark, they would talk about the job and its enormous challenges. But at their front door in Brooklyn, N.Y. — he played for the Brooklyn Dodgers — they left all of that outside.
“Our marriage and our love for each other were so important to us that we were not going to let it get destroyed by the tensions of the world,” Rachel Robinson said. “When we entered the house, we didn’t have to act out that anger and we wanted our home to be a haven, a place where we could recover, where we could enjoy each other. … No baseball.”
She said that surviving the abuse — with dignity — was tough for the couple but she said she had faith things could change.
WATCH: Harrison Ford on Filming Jackie Robinson Biopic
Forty years after her husband’s death, Rachel Robinson, 90, is not just the guardian of his memory, but she has also helped many others follow in his footsteps.
At a White House screening of the movie this week, first lady Michelle Obama said Rachel Robinson had paved the way for millions of Americans in the U.S.
“She’s a woman of strength, of courage, conviction,” Obama said.
A scholarship program was founded by Rachel Robinson over 40 years ago in his name for the next generation of young minority men and women.
“We have graduated 1,400 students. … We have almost 200 in school now and they’re in 96 universities,” she said. “We use a quote of Jack’s: that a life’s not important except in the impact it has on the lives of others.”
ABC News’ David Wright contributed to this article.
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
My son is going to see that movie,i hope he learns something positive,like i did when i was his age.
Posted by: red line | April 12, 2013, 10:24 pm 10:24 pm
All the racial hatred Jackie Robinson went through on the baseball field, many who look like him had to endure on an almost daily basis. I’ve contemplated going to see the movie, then I get cold feet. I’m not ready yet. For the first 10 to twelve years of my life it was sometimes like walking on eggshell when the law was you’d better not break them. Any wrong word spoken could not only bring harm to the individual speaking them, but also his her family members. The law couldn’t and would protect you from harm, because the law was a a part of it all. Just excerpts from the movie brought old memories flooding back like a tidal wave.
Remember, Robinson died of a heart attack at the young tender age of 52 or 53. Surely all that racial hatred he went through just to play on a white baseball team played a significant role in his death. Integrating white baseball league with blacks, wasn’t about America having grown a conscious on how they’d treated blacks for centuries. It was an economic move. As professional white baseball was loosing ground and interest with its fans, the Ne*gro baseball league was growing and taking flight.
Maybe one day, but not today. I find very little solace or comfort the movie is being held up as a positive, progressive change of moving forward on race in America when racial hatred primarily against blacks has been on a strong comeback for over 2 decades now, and especially after America’s election of a black president.
Posted by: MaybeONEday | April 13, 2013, 9:30 am 9:30 am
What is wrong if the decision to integrate was economic? That’s really the bottom line with everything…the money. Affect their wallet and change will come, until then you cant rely on good nature n stuff…no way.
Posted by: Tommy | April 16, 2013, 11:00 pm 11:00 pm