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Before the United States Supreme Court ruled against segregation in public schools, and before Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama, Jackie Robinson walked onto the diamond on April 15, 1947, as first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers, making history as the first African American to integrate Major League Baseball in the twentieth century. Today a national icon, Robinson was a complicated man who navigated an even more complicated world that both celebrated and despised him.
Many are familiar with Robinson as a baseball hero. Few, however, know of the inner turmoil that came with his historic status. Featuring piercing essays from a range of distinguished sportswriters, cultural critics, and scholars, this book explores Robinson's perspectives and legacies on civil rights, sports, faith, youth, and nonviolence, while providing rare glimpses into the struggles and strength of one of the nation's most athletically gifted and politically significant citizens. Featuring a foreword by celebrated directors and producers Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon, this volume recasts Jackie Robinson's legacy and establishes how he set a precedent for future civil rights activism, from Black Lives Matter to Colin Kaepernick.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
February 23, 2021 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781705275511
- File size: 196453 KB
- Duration: 06:49:16
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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This collection of essays is, at its base, about Jackie Robinson's off-the-field religious beliefs, opinions on civil rights, and other non-baseball topics. But it extends further, with the assorted writers taking on the ramifications of those topics. The one constant is narrator Mirron Willis, whose voice brings a powerful resonance to a subject that demands exactly that. It is the narration that helps pull together the individual chapters. The writers have different voices--which yield slight overlaps, considering the common theme is Robinson. (Many well-known moments are mentioned briefly in various chapters.) Willis narrates with an interested tone and with emotion. He helps listeners understand that Robinson cannot be painted in broad strokes but rather in specific ones that reveal an enigmatic human being. M.B. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine -
November 9, 2020
Biographer Long (Jackie Robinson: A Spiritual Biography), along with 13 contributors, explore lesser-known aspects of the life of Jackie Robinson, who became the first Black American to play Major League Baseball when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Robinson’s Methodist faith is explored in Randal Maurice Jelk’s “A Methodist Life,” which examines how Robinson’s wife Rachel’s connection with the AME Church—and its message of “self-determination, self-sufficiency, and black independence”—influenced Robinson. The “First Famous Jock for Justice” catalogs the athletes who followed Robinson’s efforts on behalf of racial equality with their own social justice activism. Other notable essays include “Before the World Failed Him,” which discusses Robinson in context with other civil rights leaders, and “On Retirement,” about his life after hanging up his glove. Even those who know nothing about Robinson will take something inpsiring away from this excellent anthology.
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