Guest column by Isabel Burrows
This month, Ken Burns released his documentary on Jackie Robinson and, Major League Baseball celebrates Jackie Robinson Day in honor of the breaking of the color barrier in 1947. Baseball was central in the American psyche, and this moment was incredibly important as a spark for the Civil Rights Movement. Many people know the basics of Jackie Robinson’s story and the role he played within baseball. However, any time that we honor a person and lift them up as heroes, some of the more complex and deeper parts of their authentic humanity can be lost.
What isn’t discussed openly when Robinson is revered is his faith – or, more specifically, the faith of his mother. Robinson was born in the Deep South in 1919. In his autobiography, he describes his absentee father as having been broken by the economic and systematic racism that seemed to control the family’s path. Even in the face of the oppression, Robinson’s mother held to her faith. She raised her kids in the idea that God was in charge and was the strength and hope that could lead the family through any challenges of this world. Robinson reports that one of his mother’s first prayers over him was “Bless you boy. For you to survive all this, God will have to keep His eye on you”.
Mallie Robinson moved with her five children to California in hopes of better jobs and opportunities. As a fairly well educated, Christian, single mother, she worked hard to ensure the kids were able to have the bare necessities, as well as an understanding that even in their poverty, God was in control and would take care of them. With no father in the house, and mother working, the young Jackie Robinson began to be involved in a street gang. While other kids moved deeper into the gang life and began to commit crimes and violence, Jackie took a different path. Jackie reported that his mother’s guidance and teaching about God’s way for his life was the reason that he didn’t choose the path of the other kids. At the same time, Jackie was exposed to a father figure in the pastor and athletic leader of his church, Carl Downs. Downs taught Jackie the basics of sport, but also engaged Jackie with a spirit-physical connection that resonated with him.
After a storied high school and college career, where he played football, baseball, basketball, and ran track, Jackie played semi-professional football and basketball. Then, Jackie was drafted into World War II. It is easy to present Robinson as a quiet leader when we look at his MLB career. However, Jackie was far from passive. Jackie was always seen as an outsider. He didn’t drink and smoke like others his age. They didn’t understand his core faith and how it led him. While he seemed distant and sullen, there was a quick temper and a deep fire against injustice that burned in him. Jackie Robinson wasn’t a war hero, and in fact was court martialed when he stood up against the Army’s racist policies by refusing to move to the back of the bus. He also exploded on a racist officer who was berating a fellow soldier, beating the officer to a pulp. The only reason that Robinson avoided a court martial after this beating was that American hero and Heavy Weight Champion Joe Louis stepped in to save Jackie.
After the war, Branch Rickie, a conservative Christian man, chose Jackie to join the Brooklyn Dodgers and to break baseball’s unwritten rule keeping African Americans out of baseball. In meeting with Robinson, Rickie called on Jackie’s faith in order to be able to overcome the great challenges that would be faced for being the first in the racist culturally loved baseball. During the interview process, Rickey read a section from Giovanni Papini’s “Life of Christ” to Jackie, highlighting the words “Bit whoever shall smite thee on the cheek, turn to him the other also.” While Jackie burned with a righteous anger against the racial bigotry, Jackie knew the importance of not acting out and proving the doubters right. He called on the faith of his mother, echoing her idea that God would provide and lead them through all challenges.
Branch Rickey later said “Surely, God was with me when I picked Jackie Robinson as the first Negro player in the major leagues.” This may be true, and Rickey’s values and awareness of the wrongs of pre-Civil Rights Movement America are tied to his faith. What we can’t lose sight of, however, is the role that family and faith played in Jackie Robinson’s path – and in his ability to face indignities, threats, and ignorance. Jackie was not super-human – and was not mythical. He was a man, full of anger – and full of faith. He used these parts of his very core to help change American culture, through the beloved sport of baseball.
