Jackie Robinson’s Forgotten Faith: How Belief Shaped a Legend

Jackie Robinson Christian

The first African American to play Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern period was Jackie Robinson, an American professional baseball player who was born on January 31, 1919, and died on October 24, 1972. On April 15, 1947, Robinson began at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking the color line. Racial segregation in professional baseball, which had forced black players into the Negro leagues since the 1880s, came to an end with the Dodgers’ signing of Robinson.

Robinson grew up in Pasadena, California, after being born in Cairo, Georgia. As a four-sport student at the University of California, Los Angeles and Pasadena Junior College, he excelled with the UCLA Bruins football team and was more well-known for his football skills than his baseball skills.

After graduating from college, Jackie Robinson was drafted into the military during World War II, but he was honorably discharged after being court-martialed for refusing to ride in the rear of a segregated Army bus. He later joined the Negro leagues’ Kansas City Monarchs, where he attracted the attention of Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey, who believed he would be the ideal person to break the MLB color line.

He was the first Black player to win the National League (NL) Most Valuable Player Award in 1949, was named an All-Star for six straight seasons from 1949 to 1954, and won the first Rookie of the Year Award in 1947 during his ten-year MLB career.

Jackie Robinson participated in six World Series and helped the Dodgers win the World Series in 1955. In 1962, during his first year of eligibility, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The conventional foundation of segregation that had formerly characterized many other facets of American life was called into question by Robinson’s character, his use of nonviolence, and his talent. He made a substantial contribution to the civil rights movement and shaped its culture. In addition, Robinson was the first Black vice president of a significant American company, Chock full o’Nuts, and the first Black television analyst in Major League Baseball. He was involved in the founding of the Black American-owned Freedom National Bank, a financial institution situated in Harlem, New York, in the 1960s.

In honor of his accomplishments both on and off the field, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal posthumously after his death in 1972. He was the first professional athlete in any sport to have his uniform number, 42, retired by MLB for all Major League teams in 1997. On April 15, 2004, MLB also made “Jackie Robinson Day” a new yearly tradition, where all players on all teams wear the number 42.

Early Life

Born in Cairo, Georgia, on January 31, 1919, Jackie Robinson came from a sharecropper family. Born to Mallie (née McGriff) and Jerry Robinson, he was the youngest of five children, following siblings Willa Mae, Edgar, Frank, and Matthew (also known as “Mack”). Theodore Roosevelt, who passed away 25 days before Robinson was born, was commemorated with his middle name. They relocated to Pasadena, California, in 1920 when Robinson’s father abandoned them.

At 121 Pepper Street in Pasadena, the extended Robinson family set up shop on a residential lot with two modest homes. To provide for the family, Robinson’s mother took on a variety of odd occupations. Robinson and his minority companions were shut out of numerous recreational possibilities while growing up in relative poverty in an otherwise wealthy neighborhood. Robinson thus joined a local gang, but he was convinced to leave by his friend Carl Anderson.

UCLA and beyond

Jackie Robinson became the first athlete at UCLA to earn varsity letters in four sports—baseball, football, basketball, and track—after graduating from PJC in the spring of 1939.

The Bruins’ 1939 football team featured four black players, including Ray Bartlett, Kenny Washington, and Woody Strode. Of the team’s four backfield players, three were Washington, Strode, and Robinson. This made UCLA college football the most integrated squad during a period when very few black students participated in mainstream college football. At 6–0–4, they had four ties and were undefeated. The school football record for the most rushing yards per carry in a season as of 2022 was set by Robinson, who concluded the season with 12.2 yards per attempt on 42 carries.

In 1939 and 1940, Jackie Robinson also had the highest punt return average in the NCAA.

At 24 ft 10+1⁄4 in (7.58 m), he won the long jump at the 1940 NCAA track & field championship. Robinson’s “worst sport” at UCLA was baseball; he went 4-for-4 in his first game and stole home twice, but his sole season total was .097.

He met his future wife, Rachel Isum (b.1922), a UCLA freshman who knew of Robinson’s athletic success at PJC, while he was a senior at UCLA. As a senior, he participated in football, but the 1940 Bruins only managed one victory. Despite his mother’s and Isum’s misgivings, Robinson left college in the spring, just short of graduating.

In Atascadero, California, he accepted a position with the government’s National Youth Administration (NYA) as an assistant athletic director.

In the fall of 1941, Jackie Robinson moved to Honolulu to play football for the semi-professional, racially integrated Honolulu Bears after the government shut down NYA operations. Robinson returned to California in December 1941 after a brief season to play running back for the Pacific Coast Football League’s Los Angeles Bulldogs. However, Robinson’s fledgling football career was cut short by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which brought the United States into World War II.

Career

Military

Jackie Robinson joined a segregated Army cavalry unit at Fort Riley, Kansas, after being recruited in 1942. Robinson and a number of other black troops applied for admission to an Officer Candidate School (OCS) at Fort Riley during the time, claiming to meet the necessary requirements.

Despite the fact that the Army’s original OCS criteria from July 1941 were intended to be racially neutral, few black applicants were accepted into OCS until later orders from Army leadership. For several months, Robinson and his colleagues’ applications were not processed. The guys were admitted into OCS following objections by heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis, who was then assigned to Fort Riley, and with assistance from Truman Gibson, who was the Secretary of War’s assistant civilian adviser at the time.

Louis and Robinson became personal friends as a result of the encounter. In January 1943, Robinson received his second lieutenant appointment after completing OCS. Robinson and Isum were formally engaged shortly after that.

Following his commission, Jackie Robinson was transferred to the 761st “Black Panthers” Tank Battalion at Fort Hood, Texas. During his weekends at Fort Hood, he frequently traveled to Austin, Texas, to see the Rev. Karl Downs, President of Sam Huston College (now Huston-Tillotson University); Downs had served as Robinson’s pastor at Scott United Methodist Church in California during Robinson’s time at PJC.

After Military

He briefly rejoined the Los Angeles Bulldogs, his former football team, following his release. Then, Rev. Karl Downs, an old friend and minister, offered Jackie Robinson a position as sports director at Austin’s Samuel Huston College, which was then a member of the Southwestern sports Conference. During the 1944–45 season, the position included coaching the school’s basketball team. Few students tested out for the basketball team because it was a new program, and Robinson even went so far as to start himself in demonstration games. Despite the fact that his teams were outperformed by rivals, he was regarded as a strict coach and won the respect of players like Marques Haynes, a basketball player from Langston University who would later play for the Harlem Globetrotters.

Faith and Baseball

Jackie Robinson received a written offer from the Kansas City Monarchs to play professional baseball in the Negro leagues at the beginning of 1945 when he was a student at Sam Huston College. Robinson agreed to a $400 monthly contract. He performed admirably for the Monarchs, although he was unhappy with the encounter. He was horrified by the Negro leagues’ disarray and support of gambling interests because he had become accustomed to a regimented playing atmosphere in college. His connection with Isum was also strained by his busy travel schedule, as he was now only able to correspond with her by letter. He hit .387 with five home runs and recorded 13 stolen bases in his 47 games as a shortstop for the Monarchs. He played in the East-West All-Star Game in 1945 as well, but he was hitless in five at-bats.

Robinson pursued possible major league interest during the season. On April 16, the Boston Red Sox hosted a tryout for Robinson and other black players at Fenway Park, despite the fact that no black man had played in the big leagues since Moses Fleetwood Walker in 1884. However, the test was a farce that was mostly intended to appease influential Boston City Councilman Isadore H. Y. Muchnick’s desegregationist tastes. Robinson endured racial epithets even though the stands were restricted to management. The Red Sox became the last major level team to integrate their roster in July 1959, more than 14 years after he left the audition humiliated.

However, other organizations were more serious about acquiring a black player. The Brooklyn Dodgers’ general manager and club president, Branch Rickey, started looking through the Negro leagues in the middle of the 1940s for a potential addition to the team’s roster. Rickey interviewed Robinson after choosing him from a pool of talented black athletes in hopes of assigning him to the Montreal Royals, Brooklyn’s International League feeder club. Rickey was particularly concerned about his potential signee’s ability to endure the anticipated racial taunts that would be hurled at him.

Rickey questioned Robinson in a well-known three-hour conversation on August 28, 1945, if he could deal with the racial hostility without falling for the ruse and retaliating violently. This was a worry because Robinson had previously argued with police officers at PJC and in the military. “Are you looking for a Negro who is afraid to fight back?” Robinson asked in shock. In response, Rickey said he was looking for a Negro player “with guts enough not to fight back.” Rickey agreed to sign Robinson to a contract for $600 per month, or $10,479 today, after he promised to “turn the other cheek” to racial hostility.

Because the contracts lacked a reserve clause, Rickey thought all Negro league players were free agents and refused to pay the Monarchs. Wendell Smith, a journalist for the black weekly Pittsburgh Courier, was one of the people Rickey spoke with about prospects. Cleveland Indians owner and team president Bill Veeck claims that Smith “influenced Rickey to take Jack Robinson, for which he’s never completely gotten credit.”

Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey

Jackie Robinson’s determination to break baseball’s colour barrier, which required great bravery and fortitude in the face of ongoing abuse, was largely influenced by his profound Christian faith. Jackie Robinson was a Methodist, as was his manager, Branch Rickey, who especially looked for a man of strong religion to withstand racial taunts using a nonviolent resistance technique based on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Robinson’s future civil rights advocacy drew power and structure from his faith, which was anchored in Black church and Methodist traditions.

Jackie Robinson’s Christian Beliefs

He frequently said that despite the suffering and agony of his Major League Baseball career, his Christian faith kept him going. The progressive teachings of the Black church, especially those of the Rev. Karl Everette Downs, who infused a feeling of pride and the church’s vision as a force for social justice, also influenced his beliefs.

Jackie Robinson Spiritual Biography

Jackie Robinson took over second base after Stanky was traded to the Boston Braves in March 1948. That season, he recorded a fielding percentage of .980, which was somewhat lower than Stanky’s but still second in the National League at the position. Robinson finished the season with 22 stolen bases and a batting average of .296, respectively. On August 29, 1948, he batted for the cycle—a home run, triple, double, and single all in one game—in a 12–7 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. In late August 1948, the Dodgers temporarily took the top spot in the National League, but they ended up in third place as the Braves won the pennant and lost the World Series to the Cleveland Indians.

When many other black players joined the major leagues in 1948, racial pressure on Robinson decreased. In addition to Robinson, the Dodgers had three other black players: Larry Doby (who broke the color barrier in the American League on July 5, 1947, just 11 weeks after Robinson) and Satchel Paige, who played for the Cleveland Indians. He signed a $12,500 deal with the Dodgers in February 1948, which is equivalent to $163,591 today. Although this was a substantial sum, it was less than Robinson’s off-season earnings from a speaking tour of the South and a vaudeville tour in which he responded to pre-formulated baseball questions. He had surgery on his right ankle in between the tours.

He was 30 pounds (14 kg) overweight when he arrived to training camp due to his off-season activities. Despite losing weight during training camp, Jackie Robinson was weak at the plate as a result of dieting. Wendell Smith published Jackie Robinson: My Own Story in 1948.

As a Dodgers advisor in the spring of 1949, he looked to Hall of Famer George Sisler for batting assistance. Robinson learned to hit the ball to right field by spending hours at a batting tee at Sisler’s suggestion. On the grounds that it is simpler to adapt to a slower curveball later on, Sisler trained Robinson to anticipate a fastball.

“Sisler taught me how to stop lunging, how to check my swing until the last fraction of a second,” Robinson added. Robinson’s hitting average increased from .296 in 1948 to .342 in 1949 because to the instruction. That season, Robinson not only had a higher hitting average but also stole 37 bases, finished second in the league for doubles and triples, and knocked in 124 runs while scoring 122. Robinson received the National League’s Most Valuable Player Award for the performance. Robinson was also chosen by baseball fans to start at second base in the 1949 All-Star Game, which was the first to feature black players.

Jackie Robinson had 133 double plays in 1950, more than any other second baseman in the National League. At $35,000 ($457,420 in today’s dollars), his compensation that year was the most any Dodger had received up to that moment. He had 12 stolen bases, a .328 batting average, and 99 runs scored at the end of the season. The Jackie Robinson Story, a film history of Robinson’s life, was released that year. Ruby Dee played Rachel “Rae” (Isum) Robinson, and Robinson played himself. When the film’s makers refused to comply with two Hollywood studios’ requests that the film feature footage of Robinson receiving baseball instruction from a white man, the production was previously delayed. The New York Times reported that Robinson, “doing that rare thing of playing himself in the picture’s leading role, displays a calm assurance and composure that might be envied by many a Hollywood star.”

Retired and World Champion (1954–1956)

He had seven steals, a .311 batting average, and 62 runs scored in 1954. He blasted two home runs and two doubles on June 17, which was his finest day at the plate. When the Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in the 1955 World Series the following year, Robinson claimed his sole championship. Despite the team’s eventual success, Robinson’s personal career had its worst year in 1955. He swiped just 12 bases while hitting .256. Due to Gilliam’s established position at second base and Robinson’s deteriorating skills, the Dodgers experimented with him both as a third baseman and in the outfield. Jackie Robinson, who was 36 at the time, did not participate in Game 7 of the World Series and missed 49 games.

Due to manager Walter Alston’s decision to start Gilliam at second base and Don Hoak at third base, he was unable to play. Don Newcombe of the Dodgers made history that season by becoming the first black pitcher to win 20 games in a single season.

Jackie Robinson recorded 12 thefts, a. 275 batting average, and 61 runs scored in 1956. At that point, he was starting to show the signs of diabetes and was losing interest in the idea of managing or playing professional baseball. When Robinson hit out to conclude Game 7 of the 1956 World Series, he finished his major league career. Robinson was transferred by the Dodgers to the bitter rival New York Giants at the end of the season in exchange for Dick Littlefield and $35,000 in cash (now $404,792).

Unbeknownst to the Dodgers, Robinson had already reached an agreement with the president of Chock full o’Nuts to leave baseball and work as an executive for the company, therefore the deal was never finalized. Robinson’s decision to retire was made public by Look magazine rather than the Dodgers organization since the magazine had purchased the exclusive rights to any retirement story two years prior.

Jackie Robinson Civil Rights and Faith

The baseball colour line, or segregation in professional baseball that lasted for around 60 years, ended with Robinson’s major league debut. Blacks’ rapid movement to the North, where their political influence expanded, and President Harry Truman’s desegregation of the military in 1948 were two more factors that propelled the nation toward more equality for Blacks following World War II. Robinson’s professional success and his breach of the baseball color line served as a symbol of these larger shifts and showed that the struggle for equality was more than just a political issue. Martin Luther King Jr., the leader of the civil rights movement, saw himself as “a legend and a symbol in his own time” who “challenged the dark skies of intolerance and frustration.”

According to Doris Kearns Goodwin, Robinson’s “efforts were a monumental step in the civil-rights revolution in America … [His] accomplishments allowed black and white Americans to be more respectful and open to one another and more appreciative of everyone’s abilities.”