Jackie Robinson: A Spiritual Biography
Page 1
“We know Jackie Robinson for his athletic prowess and his courageous breaking of the color barrier in baseball. Little did we know how deep was the bedrock conviction that Jac
the presence of God in his life was strong enough to see him through the darkest nights or the fi ercest storm. How this faith was etched into his spirit and how it helped him kie Robinson
overcome unbelievable odds is told chapter after chapter in such a riveting manner that the reader becomes more sensitive to his or her own spirituality. This book could become a textbook for how our nation can break down the remaining barriers that still divide us.”
—JAMES A. FORBES JR., President and Founder of the Healing of the Nations Foundation and Senior Minister Emeritus of the Riverside Church in New York City
★
“A masterly exploration of the neglected religious side of Jackie Robinson. Required reading about a man who Martin Luther King Jr. lauded as ‘a sit-inner before the sit-ins, a freedom rider before the freedom rides.’”
A Spir
—LEE LOWENFISH, author of the award-winning biography
Branch Rickey: Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman
itual Biog
“Michael G. Long and Chris Lamb provide an illuminating retelling of the Jackie Robinson story with a keen eye to faith dimensions that are often overlooked or de-emphasized in the telling we usually hear. Readers are sure to draw inspiration and encouragement from this book, as well as new insight on how the way of Jesus played out so powerfully in Robinson’s work for civil rights and a just society—and could do so in our society today r
if given the chance.”
aphy
—TOM KRATTENMAKER, author of Onward Christian Athletes and Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower
Jackie Robinson believed in a God who sides with the oppressed and who calls us to see one another as sisters and brothers. This faith was a powerful but quiet engine that drove and sustained him as he shattered racial barriers on and beyond the baseball diamond.
LONG
Jackie Robinson: A Spiritual Biography explores the faith that, Robinson said, carried him through the torment and abuse he suffered for integrating the major leagues and Jackie Robinson
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
drove him to get involved in the civil rights movement. Marked by sacrifi ce and service, AND
A Spiritual Biography ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
inclusiveness and hope, Robinson’s faith shaped not only his character but also baseball and America itself.
THE FAITH OF A BOUNDARY-BREAKING HERO
LAMB
MICHAEL G. LONG is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Peace and Confl ict Studies at Elizabethtown College and is the author or editor of several books on civil rights, religion and politics, and peacemaking in mid-century America, including First Class Citizenship: The Civil Rights Letters of Jackie Robinson, which was named a best book of the year by Publishers Weekly.
CHRIS LAMB is Professor of Journalism at Indiana University–Purdue University at Indianapolis and is the author or editor of several books, including Blackout: The Untold Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Spring Training and Conspiracy of Silence: Sportswriters and the Long Campaign to Desegregate Baseball, which was called one of the best nonfi ction baseball books of all time by the Huffi ngton Post and was named the Best Book on Journalism and Mass Communication History by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in 2013.
www.wjkbooks.com
Ë|xHSKGQEy262037zv*:+:!:+:!
Biography
ISBN-13: 978-0-664-26203-7
MICHAEL G. LONG AND CHRIS LAMB
Jackie Robinson
A Spiritual Biography
Jackie Robinson
A Spiritual Biography
The Faith of a Boundary-Breaking Hero
Michael G. lonG and chris laMb
© 2017 Michael G. Long and Chris Lamb
First edition
Published by Westminster John Knox Press
Louisville, Kentucky
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26—10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Westminster John Knox Press, 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202-1396.
Or contact us online at www.wjkbooks.com.
Excerpts from various documents located in the Jackie Robinson Papers at the Library of Congress are used by permission of Rachel Robinson. All rights reserved. Excerpts from interviews with Lee Lowenfish are used by permission. All rights reserved.
Every effort has been made to determine whether texts are under copyright. If through an oversight any copyrighted material has been used without permission, and the publisher is notified of this, acknowledgment will be made in future printings.
Book design by Drew Stevens
Cover design by Marc Whitaker / MTWdesign.net
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Long, Michael G., author.
Title: Jackie Robinson : a spiritual biography : the faith of a
boundary-breaking hero / Michael G. Long and Chris Lamb.
Description: Louisville, KY : Westminster John Knox Press, 2017. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016052017 (print) | LCCN 2016056614 (ebook) | ISBN
9780664262037 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781611648010 (ebk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Robinson, Jackie, 1919-1972. | Robinson, Jackie,
1919-1972--Religion. | African American baseball players--Biography. |
Discrimination in sports--United States--History--20th century. |
United States--Race relations--History--20th century.
Classification: LCC GV865.R6 L66 2017 (print) | LCC GV865.R6 (ebook) |
DDC 796.357092 [B] --dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016052017
printed in the united states of aMerica
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Westminster John Knox Press advocates the responsible use of our natural resources. The text paper of this book is made from 30% post-consumer waste.
Most Westminster John Knox Press books are available at special quantity discounts when purchased in bulk by corporations, organizations, and special-interest groups. For more information, please e-mail SpecialSales@wjkbooks.com.
For Bob, Karin, and Sharon,
who guided me through the night.
—MGL
For Jean Lamb (1925–2016),
whose faith inspired me to write this book.
—CL
The Good Lord has showered blessings on me and this country and its people, black and white, have been good to me.
But no matter how rich or famous I might become,
no matter what luxuries or special privileges I might achieve,
no matter how many powerful friends I might make,
I would never be the man I want to be until my humblest brother, black and white, becomes the man he wants to be.
So I must be involved in our fight for freedom.
—Jackie robinson
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction
“God Is with Us in This, Jackie”: The Meeting
of the
Methodists
1
Part One: The Exodus
1. “I Put My Trust in God and Moved”: The Active Faith
of Mallie Robinson
13
2. “To Seek to Help Others”: The Spiritual Influence
of Karl Downs
27
3. “You Are a Child of God”: Refusing the Back of the Bus
39
Part Two: A Boundary-Breaking Faith
4. “I Have Kept My Promise”: Branch Rickey
and the Push for Integration
51
5. “God Has Been Good to Us Today”:
Integrating the Minors
69
6. “I Get Down on My Knees and Pray”:
Integrating Major League Baseball
87
Part Three: Fighting for Freedom
7. “Hoeing with God”: An Impatient Faith
107
8. “Do You Know What God Did?”:
For King, against Malcolm
127
9. “The Good Lord Has Showered Blessings on Me and
This Country”: From Freedom National Bank to Vietnam 141
10. “I Guess the Good Lord Has a Job for Me”: Heading Home 161
Notes 179
Index 199
Excerpt from Peaceful Neighbor, by Michael G. Long
207
Acknowledgments
We are deeply grateful to the following individuals and institutions: Rachel Robinson, who kindly met with Michael to talk about her husband’s faith; Lee Lowenfish, author of Branch Rickey: Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman, for his valuable comments on the manuscript; the staff at the Manuscripts Division of the Library of Congress; the National Baseball Hall of Fame; the Special Collections Department staff at
Ohio University Western Libraries; Tim Tanton, executive director of global voices, news, and information at United Methodist Communications; the microfilm staff at Pattee and Paterno Library of the Pennsylvania State University; Sylvia Morra and the staff of High Library at Elizabethtown College; Dean Fletcher McClellan of Elizabethtown
College; Tom Davis, dean of the School of Liberal Arts, and Jonas
Bjork, chair of the Department of Journalism and Public Relations
at Indiana University–Purdue University, Indianapolis; Sharon Herr;
Karin, Jackson, and Nate Long; Lesly and David Lamb; and the won-
derful staff at Westminster John Knox Press, especially Jessica Miller Kelley and Julie Tonini.
ix
Introduction
“God Is with Us in This, Jackie”:
The Meeting of the Methodists
Jackie Robinson met Brooklyn Dodgers president Branch Rickey for
the first time shortly after 10:00 a.m. on August 28, 1945, in Rickey’s fourth-floor office at 215 Montague Street in Brooklyn, New York.
Rickey sat in a leather swivel chair behind a large mahogany desk.
Rickey, bulky and rumpled, was wearing a sport coat and bow tie and
holding a cigar. Light gleamed off his glasses. An extensive file on Robinson lay on his desk.
Robinson entered the office with Clyde Sukeforth, a Brooklyn scout,
who had joined him outside the Montague Street building. A few days
earlier, Sukeforth had introduced himself to Robinson, a shortstop on the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro leagues, after a game in Chicago. Sukeforth said he was there on behalf of Rickey, who wanted to talk to the ballplayer about joining a black team Rickey was creating, the Brooklyn Brown Dodgers.1
Robinson was unaware that Rickey had been scouting him for sev-
eral months. Rickey had learned everything he could about Robinson,
including his time at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), in the US Army, and with the Monarchs. Rickey’s announcement that
he was creating a team for a new Negro league worked as a smoke
screen to hide his real intentions.2
Robinson’s eyes quickly scanned the inside of Rickey’s office. On one wall was a blackboard with the names of the baseball personnel at all levels in the Brooklyn organization. On another was a portrait of Abraham
1
2
JACKIE ROBINSON
Lincoln, the Great Emancipator. There were photos of Brooklyn’s
tempestuous manager, Leo Durocher, Rickey’s granddaughters, and the
late Charley Barrett, who had been one of Rickey’s closest friends.
Goldfish swam nervously in a fish tank off to the side of the office, demonstrating an uneasiness that Robinson later said captured his own.
“Hello, Jackie,” said Rickey as he stood up, reached across his desk, and warmly shook Robinson’s hand.3
Rickey did not immediately say anything else.
“He just stared and stared,” Sukeforth recalled. “That’s what he did with Robinson—stared at him as if he were trying to get inside the
man. And Jack stared right back at him. Oh, they were a pair, those
two. I tell you, the air in the office was electric.”4
Rickey then began asking Robinson about his personal life.
“Do you have a girl?” he said.
Robinson told Rickey he was engaged to Rachel Isum, whom he met
while attending UCLA.
“Well, marry her,” Rickey said. “When we get through today you
may want to call her up, because there are times when a man needs a
woman by his side.”5
The personal questions continued.
Rickey asked Robinson about his religious affiliation. Robinson said he was a Methodist. This pleased Rickey, a lifelong Methodist whose
name, Wesley Branch Rickey, came from John Wesley, the founder of
Methodism.
Shortly before his meeting with Robinson, Rickey had visited the
office of the Rev. L. Wendell Fifield, his pastor at Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims in Brooklyn.
“Don’t let me interrupt you. I can’t talk with you,” Rickey said. “I just want to be here. Do you mind?”
The minister agreed, and for the next forty-five minutes Rickey
frantically paced about Fifield’s office.
“I’ve got it,” Rickey finally yelled as he pounded the minister’s desk.
“Got what, Branch?” Fifield replied.
Rickey plopped down on the minister’s couch and offered a brief
explanation. “This was so complex, fraught with so many pitfalls but filled with so much good, if it was right, that I just had to work it out in this room with you. I had to talk to God about it and be sure what He wanted me to do. I hope you don’t mind.
“Wendell,” Rickey said, “I’ve decided to sign Jackie Robinson!”
Rickey then straightened his trademark bow tie and thanked his pastor.
IntroductIon
3
“Bless you, Wendell,” he said, and left the room.6
In later years, Rickey said, “Surely, God was with me when I picked
Jackie Robinson as the first Negro player in the major leagues.”7
The late August 1945 meeting between the two Methodists, Rickey
and Robinson, ultimately transformed baseball and America.
Rickey knew Robinson was a good athlete who had lettered in four
sports at UCLA. He earned honorable mention on the all-American
football team. He led the conference in scoring in basketball and finished first in the long jump at the NCAA national track and field
championship. His worst sport was baseball.
But Rickey wanted to know more about Robinson as a man. He
asked him if he drank alcohol. Robinson said he did not. Jackie, in
fact, had openly scorned his whiskey-drinking teammates on the Kan-
sas City Monarchs, once tossing a glass of scotch into a lighted fireplace to demonstrate the lethality of liquor.
Robinson did
not tell Rickey this story. But if he had, it would have brought a smile to Rickey’s face. Rickey, too, often used dramatics to make a point.
As Rickey looked at Robinson, he saw the intensity in Robinson’s
face. The ballplayer was twenty-six, old for someone without any experience in what was called “organized professional baseball.”
Robinson’s birthday was January 31, 1919. The date resonated
with Rickey. His own son, Branch Rickey Jr., was born on January 31, 1914. Both men, Robinson and Rickey Jr., as it turned out, would die relatively young from complications from diabetes.
Rickey’s line of questioning thus far must have confounded Robin-
son, who still did not know what he was doing in the office on Mon-
tague Street.
Rickey asked Robinson if he was under contract with the Monarchs.
Robinson said he was not. Rickey then asked if Robinson had any
agreement with the Monarchs.
“No, none at all. Just pay day to pay day,” Robinson said.8
Finally, Rickey asked Robinson if he knew why he had been brought
to the office.
“To play on a black team,” Robinson responded.
Rickey shook his head.
He told Robinson he wanted to sign him for the Brooklyn Dodgers
organization. Rickey told Robinson he would start with the Montreal
Royals, the organization’s top minor-league team, and then, if he was good enough, be promoted to the Dodgers.
4
JACKIE ROBINSON
Robinson was being asked if he was interested in breaking baseball’s color line, which had existed since the nineteenth century.
Robinson tried to grasp the totality of the moment.
Rickey’s booming voice interrupted Robinson’s thoughts.
“I want to win the pennant and we need ball players!” Rickey thun-
dered as he whacked his desk. “Do you think you can do it?”
Robinson waited before answering.
“Jack waited, and waited, and waited before answering,” Sukeforth
remembered.
“Yes,” Robinson said.9
Rickey’s scouts told him that Robinson was a good baseball player,
maybe not the best player in black baseball, but better than most.
Rickey liked the fact that Robinson had played against white athletes in college and that he had been an officer in the army. He liked what he heard about Robinson’s athleticism, his intelligence, his speed, and his competitiveness. Rickey liked just about everything he heard about Robinson.