From Baseball Icon to Crusading Columnist: How Jackie Robinson Used His Column in the African-American Press to Continue His Fight for Civil Rights in Sports

ABSTRACT

This study explores how Jackie Robinson continued his fight for civil rights in sports using his newspaper column in the New York Amsterdam News and syndicated in African-American newspapers during the 1960s, after the end of a Major League Baseball career in which he broke the sport’s “color line.” A review of those columns reveals a side of Robinson not typically seen in official histories depicting him as too conciliatory and restrained in his approach to race relations. Robinson came to take almost militant stands, challenging oppression by calling for boycotts of sporting events and event sponsors years before such strategies were adopted by a younger generation of athletes. Robinson was early in his support of Muhammad Ali’s right to refuse military service because of his religion, a backer of an Olympic boycott, and a fierce opponent of Republicans and Richard Nixon, a political party he once belonged to and a politician he had endorsed. Perhaps his most dramatic shift in opinion was that Major League Baseball, the sport he had helped show that integration was possible, had become a model of intolerance because of its failure to promote African-Americans to management positions.

KEYWORDS:

• 1960s, African-American press
• civil rights
• Jackie Robinson
• sports and civil rights

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Sharon Robinson, Stealing Home: An Intimate Family Portrait by the Daughter of Jackie Robinson, 1st ed. (New York, NY: Harper Collins, 1996), 196-200.

2. Dave Anderson, “Jackie Robinson, First Black in Major Leagues, Dies,” New York Times, Oct. 25, 1972, 1, 56.

3. Dave Potter, “Jackie Jr. Dead,” Chicago Defender, June 19, 1971, 24; “Jackie Robinson Jr. Dies in Car Crash,” New York Times, June 18, 1971, 22; Todd George, “Over 1,500 Attend Jackie Jr. Rites: Death Car,” New York Amsterdam News, June, 26, 1971, A1.

4. Lawrence K. Altman, “Diabetes Is Called Basic Cause of Robinson’s Death,” New York Times, Oct. 29, 1972, 6.

5. Anderson, “Jackie Robinson, First Black in Major Leagues, Dies,” 1, 56.

6. “All American,” New York Times, Oct. 25, 1972, 46.

7. Norman O. Unger, “Jackie Robinson Dies at 53,” Chicago Defender, Oct. 25, 1972, 32.

8. “Life Lists 20th Century’s Most Influential Americans,” Desert News, Sept. 1, 1990, <deseretnews.com/article/119956/LIFE-LISTS-20TH-CENTURYS-MOST-INFLUENTIAL-AMERICANS.html> (accessed Dec. 19, 2018); “People of the Century, Time, <content.time.com/time/specials/packages> (accessed Dec. 19, 2018); “Top N. American Athletes of the Century,” ESPN.com (accessed Dec. 19, 2018), <espn.com/sportscentury/athletes.html>.

9. “Plans Set to Honor Robinson,” New York Times, April 11, 1997, B15.

10. Andrew Simon, “No. 42 to Return as Baseball Celebrates Jackie,” MLB.com, April 15, 2016, <mlb.com/news/mlb-brings-back-no-42-for-jackie-robinson-day> (accessed Dec. 18, 2018).

11. NPR Staff, “‘42ʹ Gets the Story of Jackie Robinson Right,” NPR, Dec. 26, 2013, <npr.org/2013/12/27/257389769/42-gets-the-story-of-jackie-robinson-right> (accessed Dec. 18, 2018).

12. “All American,” New York Times, 46.

13. David Zang, Sportswars: Athletes in the Age of Aquarius (Fayetteville, AR: University of Arkansas Press, 2001), 100.

14. C. P. Trussell, “Jackie Robinson Terms Stand of Robeson on Negroes False,” New York Times, July 19, 1949, 8; Danny Peary, Jackie Robinson: In Quotes (Salem, MA: Page Street Publishing Co., 2016), 195; Jackie Robinson, “Jackie Robinson,” Chicago Defender, Jan. 5, 1960, 11; Jackie Robinson and Alfred Duckett, I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography (Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press, 1995), 82-86; William C. Rhoden, “Locker Room Talk: Jackie Robinson’s Legacy Is Profound, but Unfinished,” The Undefeated, April 15, 2017, <theundefeated.com/features/locker-room-talk-jackie-robinsons-legacy> (accessed Dec. 18, 2018).

15. Peary, Jackie Robinson: In Quotes, 195; Rhoden, “Locker Room Talk: Jackie Robinson’s Legacy Is Profound, but Unfinished,” The Undefeated, <theundefeated.com/features/locker-room-talk-jackie-robinsons-legacy>; Robinson and Duckett, I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography, 82-86; Trussell, “Jackie Robinson Terms Stand of Robeson on Negroes False,” 8.

16. Maury Allen, Jackie Robinson: A Life Remembered (New York, NY: F. Watts, 1987), 223.

17. Ibid.

18. Steve Gardner, “Colin Kaepernick Tweets Jackie Robinson Quote on National Anthem,” USA Today, April 15, 2018, <usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2018/04/15/colin-kaepernick-jackie-robinson-national-anthem-racial-inequality/519354002> (accessed Dec. 19, 2018). Robinson and Duckett, I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography, xxii.

19. Jackie Robinson and Michael G. Long, Beyond Home Plate: Jackie Robinson on Life after Baseball (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2013), xxii-xxiii.

20. Brian Carroll, “‘Jackie Robinson Says’: Robinson’s Surprising, Lengthy, Multifaceted Career in Journalism,” in The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, 2017-2018, ed. William M. Simons (Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture), 150-68; Carl Suddler, “Jackie Robinson Didn’t Shut Up and Play Ball, So Why Should Today’s Athletes?”, Bleacher Report, (n.d.), <bleacherreport.com/articles/2770001-jackie-robinson-didnt-shut-up-and-play-ball-so-why-should-todays-athletes> (accessed Aug. 17, 2019); Robinson and Long, Beyond Home Plate: Jackie Robinson on Life after Baseball; Steven Levingston, “Before Trump vs. the NFL, There Was Jackie Robinson vs. JFK,” Washington Post, Sept. 24, 2017, <washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/09/24/before-trump-vs-the-nfl-there-was-jackie-robinson-vs-jfk> (accessed Aug. 17, 2019); Todd Steven Burroughs, “That Time Jackie Robinson Was a Columnist for the Pittsburgh Courier,” The Root, April 4, 2016, <theroot.com/that-time-jackie-robinson-was-a-columnist-for-the-pitts-1790854857> (accessed Dec. 19, 2018).

21. Carrie Teresa, “A ‘Varied or Intense Existence’: Public Commemoration of Boxing Champion Jack Johnson,” Howard Journal of Communications 28, no. 3 (2017): 249; Simon Henderson, “Crossing the Line: Sport and the Limits of Civil Rights Protest,” International Journal of the History of Sport 26, no. 1 (2009): 101.

22. “All American,” New York Times, 46; Zang, Sportswars: Athletes in the Age of Aquarius, 100.

23. Stephen Segal, “An Unbreakable Game: Baseball and Its Inability to Bring about Equality during Reconstruction,” Historian 74, no. 3 (2012): 467.

24. Lane Demas, Integrating the Gridiron: Black Civil Rights and American College Football (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 2010), 6.

25. Teresa, “A ‘Varied or Intense Existence’: Public Commemoration of Boxing Champion Jack Johnson,” 249.

26. Donald McRae, “Perspective: A Special Bond between Champions,” New York Times, May 25, 2003, SP11.

27. A.S. Doc Young, “My Name Has Never Been Tom,” New York Times, May 3, 1970, 278.

28. Thomas Hauser, Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1991), 239.

29. Henderson, “Crossing the Line: Sport and the Limits of Civil Rights Protest,” 101; Simon Henderson, “‘Nasty Demonstrations by Negroes’: The Place of the Smith–Carlos Podium Salute in the Civil Rights Movement,” Bulletin of Latin American Research 29 (March 2, 2010): 78-92.

30. Jesse J. Holland, “Black Athletes in 1980s, 90s Not Outspoken, but Not Silent,” Associated Press, Feb. 16, 2018, <apnews.com/3753fab5175343e09a12d85c718c008c> (accessed Dec. 19, 2018).

31. John Branch, “The Awakening of Colin Kaepernick,” New York Times, Sept. 7, 2017, <nytimes.com/2017/09/07/sports/colin-kaepernick-nfl-protests.html> (accessed Dec. 19, 2018).

32. Barry Schwartz, “The Social Context of Commemoration: A Study in Collective Memory,” Social Forces 61, no. 2 (1982): 374.

33. Geoffrey C. Ward, Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, 1st ed. (New York, NY: A.A. Knopf, 2004): 249; Teresa, “A ‘Varied or Intense Existence’: Public Commemoration of Boxing Champion Jack Johnson,” 249.

34. John Eligon and Michael D. Shear, “Trump Pardons Jack Johnson, Heavyweight Boxing Champion,” New York Times, May 24, 2018, <nytimes.com/2018/05/24/sports/jack-johnson-pardon-trump.html> (accessed Dec. 20, 2018); Teresa, “A ‘Varied or Intense Existence’: Public Commemoration of Boxing Champion Jack Johnson,” 249.

35. Teresa, “A ‘Varied or Intense Existence’: Public Commemoration of Boxing Champion Jack Johnson,” 256-57.

36. Jamal L. Ratchford, “‘Black Fists and Fool’s Gold: The 1960s Black Athletic Revolt Reconsidered’: The Lebron James Decision and Self-Determination in Post-Racial America.” Black Scholar 42, no. 1 (2012): 49.

37. Ibid.

38. Robert Lipsyte, “Muhammad Ali Dies at 74: Titan of Boxing and the 20th Century,” New York Times, June 4, 2016, A1.

39. Brian Carroll, “Early Twentieth-Century Heroes,” Journalism History 32, no. 1 (2006): 34-42; Ethan Michaeli, The Defender: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016), 184.

40. Robinson and Duckett, I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography, 3-4.

41. Harry Levette, “Records Go Tumbling in Junior Meet,” Chicago Defender, May 21, 1938, 8; “Negroes Snap Records in West Coast Tourneys,” New York Amsterdam News, May 14, 1938, 15.

42. “Jackie Robinson Big Sensation In Chicago All-Star Grid Game,” New York Amsterdam News, Sept. 6, 1941, 18; “Robinson Enters U.C.L.A. and Students Are Happy,” Chicago Defender, Sept. 16, 1939, 8; “UCLA to Have 5 Negroes on Squad,” New York Amsterdam News, Sept. 30, 1939, 14.

43. Charley Cherokee, “National Grapevine,” Chicago Defender, Aug. 5, 1944, 13; “K. C. Monarchs Thrill Future ‘Diamond Aces’: Youngsters in Houston, Tex., Get-Together with Ex-Football Star; Present Baseball Players,” New York Amsterdam News, April 21, 1945, 10; “League Play Starts May 6,” Chicago Defender, March 17, 1945, 7; Peary, Jackie Robinson: In Quotes, 59-63.

44. Dan Burley, “Bklyn Dodgers Hire Negro Star: Color Line in Baseball Crumbles as Shortstop Jackie Robinson Signs,” New York Amsterdam News, Oct. 27, 1945, 1; Fay Young, “End of Baseball’s Jim Crow Seen with Signing of Jackie Robinson,” Chicago Defender, Nov. 3, 1945, 9; “Jackie Robinson Opens the Door … Makes History,” Chicago Defender, April 19, 1947, 1.

45. Christopher Lamb, “Jackie Robinson and the Press,” The Huffington Post, April 10, 2013, <huffingtonpost.com/christopher-lamb/jackie-robinson> (accessed Dec. 19, 2018).

46. Roscoe McGowen, “Double by Reiser Beats Boston, 5-3,” New York Times, April 16, 1947, 32.

47. Farrar, The Baltimore Afro-American, 1892-1950, 188-89; Jackie Robinson, “Jackie Reveals Reactions to Living in Baseball Showcase,” Baltimore Afro-American, March 15, 1947, 12.

48. Peary, Jackie Robinson: In Quotes, 153; David M. Shribmanmarch, “Hall of Famer Whose Pen Charted Path for Jackie Robinson,” New York Times, March 9, 2014, SP2.

49. Jackie Robinson and Wendell Smith, Jackie Robinson, My Own Story (New York, NY: Greenberg, 1948).

50. Our Sports, May 1953; Our Sports, June 1953; Our Sports, July 1953; Our Sports, August 1953: Our Sports, October-November 1953.

51. Ibid.

52. Roger Kahn, “What White Big Leaguers Really Think of Negro Players,” Our Sports, June 1953, In The Roger Kahn Reader, ed. Bill Dwyre (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2018), 16-21.

53. Ibid.

54. Ibid.

55. Robinson and Long, Beyond Home Plate: Jackie Robinson on Life after Baseball, xxiv.

56. Ibid.

57. Jackie Robinson, “Jackie Robinson Says,” New York Amsterdam News, Jan. 6, 1962, 9; Robinson, “2 Policies or 1?” New York Amsterdam News, Oct. 26, 1963, 11; Robinson and Long, Beyond Home Plate: Jackie Robinson on Life after Baseball, xxii-xxiii; Christopher J. Schutz, Jackie Robinson: An Integrated Life (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016).

58. “Alfred A. Duckett, 67, Dead; An Author and Businessman,” New York Times, Oct. 8, 1984, D10; Robinson and Duckett, I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography; Robinson and Long, Beyond Home Plate: Jackie Robinson on Life after Baseball, xxv.

59. Robinson and Long, Beyond Home Plate: Jackie Robinson on Life after Baseball, xxx.

60. Joseph A. Mirando, “Embracing Objectivity Early on: Journalism Textbooks of the 1800s,” Journal of Mass Media Ethics 16, no. 1 (2001): 25.

61. Johnny Saldaña, The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers, 2nd ed. (Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2016), 78.

62. Meghan Sweeney, “Listening Rhetorically to Textual Silence: Intimate Partner Homicide Media Coverage,” International Journal of Listening 26, no. 3 (2012): 146.

63. Robinson, “Living to Do the Right Thing?” New York Amsterdam News, Aug. 31, 1963, 11.

64. Ibid.

65. Robinson, “Jackie Robinson Says,” New York Amsterdam News, Jan. 6, 1962, 9.

66. Robinson, “Jackie Robinson,” Chicago Defender, Jan. 20, 1962, 8.

67. Robinson, “Why Must the Negro Wait?” New York Amsterdam News, Jan. 27, 1962, 11.

68. Ibid.

69. Robinson, “Jackie Robinson,” Chicago Defender, Feb. 10, 1962, 8.

70. Robinson, “Should the Mets Retire Stengel?” New York Amsterdam News, May 19, 1962, 11.

71. Robinson, “Open Letter to Richard Nixon,” New York Amsterdam News, May 4, 1963, 11; Robinson, “A President Dies,” New York Amsterdam News, Nov. 30, 1963, 11.

72. E.W. Kenworthy, “President Signs Civil Rights Bill; Bids All Back It,” New York Times, July 3, 1964, 1, 9; Robinson, “‘Vital Election,” New York Amsterdam News, Oct. 17, 1964, 21.

73. Hedrick Smith, “Nixon Wins by a Thin Margin, Pleads for Reunited Nation,” New York Times, Nov. 7, 1968, 1; Robinson, “Nixon Candidacy Imperils America,” New York Amsterdam News, Aug. 17, 1968, 13.

74. Martin Luther King, “Beyond Vietnam — A Time to Break Silence,” American Rhetoric, <americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm>, accessed Dec. 28, 2018.

75. Robinson, “What I Think of Dr. Martin L. King,” New York Amsterdam News, July 1, 1967, 17.

76. Michael Long, “Jackie Robinson Was No Martin Luther King, Jr.,” Huffington Post, April 17, 2017, <huffpost.com/entry/jackie-robinson-was-no-martin-luther-king-jr> (accessed July 1, 2019); Amanda Scurlock, “Jackie Robinson and King Became Friends through Civil Rights,” Los Angeles Sentinel, Jan. 11, 2017, <lasentinel.net/jackie-robinson-and-king-became-friends-through-civil-rights.html> (accessed July 1, 2019).

77. Peter Kihss, “Malcolm X Shot to Death at Rally Here,” New York Times, Feb. 22, 1965, 1, 10.

78. Robinson, “Egg Throwing and Dr. King,” New York Amsterdam News, July 13, 1963, 11; Robinson, “Malcolm X and Adam Powell,” New York Amsterdam News, Nov. 16, 1963, 11.

79. Justin Tinsley, “Jackie Robinson vs. Malcolm X,” The Undefeated, May 25, 2016, <theundefeated.com/features/jackie-robinson-vs-malcolm-x> (accessed July 1, 2019).

80. Robinson, “Jackie Robinson Again Writes to Malcolm X,” New York Amsterdam News, Dec. 14, 1963, 1.

81. Robinson, “Negroes Tired of Turning Other Cheek,” Chicago Defender, Sept. 15, 1964, 6.

82. Robinson, “‘I Must Live with Myself,’” New York Amsterdam News, Jan. 20, 1968, 15.

83. James Reston, “I Have a Dream …,” New York Times, Aug. 29, 1963, 1, 17; Nan Robertson, “For 200,000 Who Were There It Was a Date to Live Forever,” New York Times, Aug. 29, 1963, 20.

84. Robinson, “Marvelous March,” New York Amsterdam News, Sept. 7, 1963, 11.

85. Robinson, “Floyd Patterson Is ‘Underrated,’” New York Amsterdam News, Feb. 17, 1962, 9.

86. Robinson, “Showdown Time in Mississippi,” New York Amsterdam News, March 10, 1962, 11.

87. Ibid.

88. Robinson, “Jesse Owens and Alabama,” New York Amsterdam News, June 1, 1963, 11.

89. Ibid.

90. Rhiannon Walker, “Bill Russell Made History as the NBA’s First Black Head Coach,” The Undefeated, April 19, 2007, <theundefeated.com/features/bill-russell-nbas-first-black-head-coach> (accessed July 17, 2019).

91. Allan Barra, “The Integration of College Football Didn’t Happen in One Game,” The Atlantic, Nov. 15, 2013, <theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/11/the-integration-of-college-football-didnt-happen-in-one-game/281557> (accessed July 17, 2019); Associated Press, “SEC Enters 50th Season Since Its Integration,” USA Today, Aug. 30, 2017, <usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2017/08/30/sec-enters-50th-season-since-its-integration-of-football/105123670> (accessed July 17, 2019).

92. “Lure of Pro Football: 491,504 at 13 Games,” New York Times, Aug. 26, 1968, 50; Rosemary Hanes and Brian Taves, “American Women: Moving Image Section–Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division,” The Library of Congress, <memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/awmi10/television.html> (accessed Aug. 22, 2019).

93. “70 Million TV Fans Saw Super Bowl Contest,” New York Times, Jan. 16, 1968, 32; George Gent, “TV Ratings Rise on A.F.L. Contest,” New York Times, Jan. 21, 1969, 54; Joseph Durso, “Big Money and Professional Sports: Vexing Problems Go with Affluence,” New York Times, Feb. 9 1969, S1; Joseph Durso, “A.B.C. Signs Deal for Pro Football,” New York Times, May 27, 1969, 53; Joseph Durso, “Color the Next Decade a Lush Green,” New York Times, Jan. 4, 1970, 158; Leonard Sloane, “Sports Billings Are Far from the Pennant,” New York Times, Aug. 11, 1968, F16; Marc Gunther, The House That Roone Built: The Inside Story of ABC News 1st ed. (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1994), 9; Roone Arledge, Roone: A Memoir 1st ed. (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2003), 95; Val Adams, “C.B.S.-TV to Pay $28.2 Million for 2-Year Pro Football Rights,” New York Times, Jan. 25, 1964, 1; William N. Wallace, “It’s a Seller’s Market in Football TV,” New York Times, May 28, 1969, 50.

94. George Lois, Covering the ‘60s: George Lois, the Esquire Era (New York, NY: Monacelli Press: Distributed by Penguin USA, 1996).

95. Robinson, “Our Athletes and Commercials,” New York Amsterdam News, Sept. 9, 1967, 15.

96. Ibid.

97. Robinson, “Selective Buying Proves Successful,” New York Amsterdam News, March 16, 1963, 11.

98. Michael McCann, “Why Private Golf Clubs Are Legally Still Able to Discriminate against Women,” Sports Illustrated, June 1, 2019, <si.com/golf/2019/07/01/private-golf-clubs-muirfield-augusta-women-discrimination> (accessed July 16, 2019).

99. “Our Story,” NYAC.org, <nyac.org/Story> (accessed July 17, 2019).

100. Robinson, “Negro Athletes Running Backward,” New York Amsterdam News, March 3, 1962, 9.

101. Richard P. Hunt, “Mayor Quits Cub over Bias Charge,” New York Times, Feb. 10, 1962, 1, 48; Robinson, “Negro Athletes Running Backward,” 9.

102. Ibid.

103. “Timeline of African-American Achievements in Golf,” PGA.com, Feb. 4, 2011, <pga.com/timeline-african-american-achievements-in-golf> (accessed July 17, 2019).

104. Brian Cronin, “Did Augusta Change Its Rules to Keep Charlie Sifford from Playing?” Los Angeles Times, Sept. 2, 2012, <latimes.com/sports/la-xpm-2012-sep-02-la-sp-sn-augusta-charlie-sifford-20120904-story.html> (accessed July 17, 2019); Richard Goldstein, “Jack Whitaker, 95, TV Sportscaster Known for Elegant Commentaries, Dies,” New York Times, Aug. 18, 2019, D7.

105. Robinson, “Conspicuous by Their Absence,” New York Amsterdam News, Feb. 23, 1963, 11; Robinson, “Selective Buying Proves Successful,” New York Amsterdam News, March 16, 1963, 11.

106. Robinson, “A Question Asked, an Answer Given,” New York Amsterdam News, March 30, 1963, 11.

107. Robinson, “Buck and Ballot,” New York Amsterdam News, Nov. 2, 1963, 11.

108. Robinson, “Growth of Negro in World of Golf,” Chicago Defender, Sept. 16, 1967, 10.

109. Robinson, “No Half Loaf,” New York Amsterdam News, Jan. 23, 1965, 9.

110. Ibid.

111. Ibid.

112. Robinson, “Baseball ‘Problems’.” New York Amsterdam News, Jan. 26, 1963, 11.

113. “394,008 Fans on Sunday Set Majors’ Attendance Record,” New York Times, June 24, 1969, 50; “Attendance Reaches Peak for Major League Parks,” New York Times, Aug. 7, 1968, 51; George Vecsey, “Negroes, Starring at Field Positions, Now Aim for Nonplaying Baseball Jobs,” New York Times, April 6, 1969, S3; Leonard Koppett, “Baseball’s Pact Put at $4-Million,” New York Times, May 26, 1970, 67; Lydia Saad, “Gallup Vault: Football’s Rise as a US Spectator Sport,” Gallup.com, Feb. 2, 2017, <news.gallup.com/vault/203270/gallup-vault-football-rise-spectator-sport.aspx> (accessed Aug. 24, 2019).

114. David Lidman, “100th Anniversary of Pro Baseball,” New York Times, Aug. 17, 1969, D24; Koppett, “Baseball Owners Must Face Major Challenges to Achieve Modernization,” New York Times, Dec. 8, 1968, 255; Koppett, “Baseball Club Owners’ $5.1-Million Pension Offer Is Assailed as Inadequate,” New York Times, Dec. 18, 1968, 58; Koppett, “Players to Hear Progress Report,” New York Times, Feb. 27, 1970, 64; United Press, International, “Baseball Players Open 2-Day Strategy Talks Today,” New York Times, Dec. 13, 1969, 49.

115. Koppett, “Flood, Backed by Players, Plans Suit to Challenge Baseball Reserve Clause,” New York Times, Dec. 30, 1969, 42; Koppett, “Reserve Clause Is a Complicated Thing,” New York Times, Jan. 4, 1970, 159; Koppett, “Baseball Chiefs Attack Flood Suit; Illegal English Soccer Clause Survives,” New York Times, Jan. 18, 1970, 175; Koppett, “Flood Is First at Bat as Baseball Antitrust Suit Starts,” New York Times, May 20, 1970, 52; Steven Marcus, “Curt Flood’s Sacrifice Advanced MLB Players toward Freedom,” Newsday, Feb. 6, 2016, <newsday.com/sports/baseball/curt-flood-s-sacrifice-advanced-mlb-players-toward-freedom> (accessed Feb. 5, 2019).

116. Robinson, “Notes Of Gratitude,” New York Amsterdam News, May 30, 1964, 23.

117. Robinson, “Cobwebs in Dark’s Mind,” New York Amsterdam News, Aug. 15, 1964, 19.

118. Ibid.

119. Robinson, “I Won’t Crawl to the Hall of Fame,” New York Amsterdam News, Jan. 12, 1962, 1, 11.

120. Robinson, “Hall of Fame ‘My Greatest Thrill,’” Feb. 3, 1962, 9.

121. Robinson, “Life Tells It Like It Is,” New York Amsterdam News, Oct. 5, 1963, 11.

122. Robinson, “A Challenging Job,” Chicago Defender, April 10, 1965, 8.

123. Robinson, “Off-Limits Executive Suite,” Chicago Defender, Nov. 27, 1965, 10.

124. Ibid.

125. Robinson, “It’s Like Losing a Father,” New York Amsterdam News, Dec. 18, 1965, 4; Robinson, “Jackie Blasts Negro Ball Players,” Chicago Defender, Dec. 25, 1965, 13.

126. Robinson, “There Are No Rickeys Today,” New York Amsterdam News, Feb. 24, 1968, 17.

127. Ibid.

128. Robinson, “Cassius Did More Than Just Win,” New York Amsterdam News, March 14, 1964, 13; Laura Wagner, “Muhammad Ali Changed His Name in 1964: Newspapers Called Him Cassius Clay for Six More Years,” Slate, June 10, 2016, <slate.com/culture/2016/06/muhammad-ali-changed-his-name-in-1964-newspapers-called-him-cassius-clay-for-six-more-years.html> (accessed Dec. 28, 2018).

129. Robinson, “Cassius Did More Than Just Win,” 13.

130. Ibid.

131. Robinson, “A WBA Blunder,” New York Amsterdam News, April 4, 1964, 9.

132. Ibid.

133. Robinson, “In Floyd’s Corner,” Chicago Defender, Feb. 6, 1965, 8.

134. Robinson, “Clay’s a Champ, but,” Chicago Defender, Dec. 4, 1965, 10.

135. Ibid.

136. Robinson, “In Defense of Cassius Clay,” New York Amsterdam News, March 11, 1967, 17.

137. Ibid.

138. Ibid.

139. Robinson, “Dr. Martin L. King,” New York Amsterdam News, May 13, 1967, 17.

140. Robert Lipsyte, “Clay Refuses Army Oath; Stripped of Boxing Crown,” New York Times, April 29, 1967, 1; United Press International, “U.S. Contends Clay Used Religion as a Last Resort,” New York Times, Jan. 18, 1968, 21.

141. Robinson, “Heroism and Tragedy of Muhammad Ali,” New York Amsterdam News, Oct. 14, 1967, 15.

142. Ibid.

143. Robinson, “Victory Won in Olympic Boycott,” New York Amsterdam News, May 11, 1968, 19; Robinson, “Mixed Emotions over Boycott of the Olympics,” New York Amsterdam News, Dec. 16, 1967, 17.

144. Robinson, “Victory Won in Olympic Boycott,” 19.

145. Ahiza Garcia, “NBC’s $12 billion investment in the Olympics Is Looking Riskier,” CNN.com, Feb. 24, 2018, <money.cnn.com/2018/02/24/media/nbc-olympics-ratings-12-billion-rights/index.html> (accessed Aug. 30, 2019); George Gent, “A.B.C. Wins Rights to 1972 Olympics,” New York Times, April 2, 1969, 95; Jack Gould, “The Coverage Set Records, Too,” New York Times, Nov. 3, 1968, 141.

146. Associated Press, “Olympics Boycott Voted by Negroes,” New York Times, Nov. 24, 1967, 30; David K. Wiggins, “‘The Year of Awakening’: Black Athletes, Racial Unrest and the Civil Rights Movement of 1968,” International Journal of the History of Sport 9, no. 2 (1992): 188-208; David K. Wiggins, “‘The Struggle That Must Be’: Harry Edwards, Sport and the Fight for Racial Equality,” International Journal of the History of Sport 31, no. 7 (2014): 760-77; Frank Litsky, “An Olympian Problem,” New York Times, Feb. 18, 1968, 173; Frank Litsky, “65 Athletes Support Boycott of Olympics on S. Africa Issue,” New York Times, April 12, 1968, 28.

147. Robinson, “Mixed Emotions over Boycott of the Olympics,” New York Amsterdam News, Dec. 16, 1967, 17.

148. Ibid.

149. Ibid.

150. Frank Litsky, “Negro Olympic Boycott Group Demands Brundage Resign,” New York Times, Dec. 15, 1967, 69.

151. “New York A.C. Is Included in Proposed Negro Athletes’ Boycott,” New York Times, Nov. 25, 1967, 54.

152. Robinson, “Some Resolutions for the New Year,” New York Amsterdam News, Jan. 6, 1968, 13.

153. Robinson, “Down with Jim Crow at Infamous NYAC,” New York Amsterdam News, Feb. 10, 1968, 17.

154. Homer Bigart, “Police Repel Rights Pickets,” New York Times, Feb. 17, 1968, 19.

155. Dave Anderson, “Negro Athletes Apprehensive, but Compete in Meet Anyway,” New York Times, Feb. 17, 1968, 19; Frank Litsky, “Young Sets 2-Mile New York A.C. Meet Mark,” New York Times, Feb. 17, 1968, 19.

156. Robinson, “Others Snubbed by Biased NYAC,” New York Amsterdam News, March 16, 1968, 15.

157. C. Gerald Frazer “Negroes Call off Boycott, Reshape Olympic Protest,” New York Times, Sept. 1, 1968, S1; David P. Cline, “John Carlos Oral History Interview: 2013,” Journal of Pan African Studies 10 (2017): 371.

158. Robinson, “Victory Won in Olympic Boycott,” New York Amsterdam News, May 11, 1968, 19.

159. Ibid.

160. Ibid.

161. Ibid.

162. Ibid.

163. “Pickets in Harlem Protest Column by Jackie Robinson,” New York Times, July 15, 1962, 49; Hunt, “Mayor Quits Club over Bias Charge,” 1, 48.

164. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Freedom of Information — Privacy Act, Jackie Robinson, <webharvest.gov/peth04/20041015190724/;foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/robinson.htm> (accessed Feb. 7, 2019).

165. Robinson and Long, Beyond Home Plate: Jackie Robinson on Life after Baseball, xxx.

166. David Burnham, “Mayor and Leary Warn Policemen in Panther Melee,” New York Times, Sept. 6, 1968, 1; David Burnham, “Black Panthers Give Grievances,” New York Times, Sept. 7, 1968, 1; and Jackie Robinson, “West Coast Action! Reaction in NY?” New York Amsterdam News, Sept. 21 1968, 15.

167. “Nixon Nixes Parley with Black Leaders,” Chicago Daily Defender, Jan. 27, 1969, 6; “Nixon’s Policies Hit by Jackie Robinson,” Chicago Defender, Dec. 13, 1969, 1; “Robinson Cautions Nixon on Slum Aids,” New York Times, Jan. 30, 1969, 22; United Press International, “Humphrey Must Relate to Blacks Says Robinson,” Chicago Defender, Oct. 9, 1968, 5.

168. Robinson and Duckett, I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography, 215.

169. Ibid.

170. Ibid.

171. “Jackie Praises Olympic Stars,” Chicago Defender, Oct. 23, 1968, 28.

172. Koppett, “Ex-Stars Back Reserve Clause Change,” New York Times, May 22, 1970, 20; Steven Marcus, “Curt Flood’s Sacrifice Advanced MLB Players toward Freedom,” Newsday, Feb. 6, 2016, <newsday.com/sports/baseball/curt-flood-s-sacrifice-advanced-mlb-players-toward-freedom-1.11439381> (accessed Feb. 5, 2019).

173. Dave Anderson, “A Flame Grew in Brooklyn,” New York Times, Dec. 5, 1971, S5.

174. A. S. Doc. Young, “Good Morning, Sports!” Chicago Defender, June 20, 1972, 24.

175. Norman O. Unger, “Jackie Awaits Black Manager,” Chicago Defender, Oct. 17, 1972, 28; Rhiannon Walker, “Jackie Robinson’s Last Stand: To See Blacks Break into the MLB Managerial Ranks,” The Undefeated, April 13, 2018, <theundefeated.com/features/jackie-robinson-last-stand-to-see-blacks-break-into-the-mlb-managerial-ranks> (accessed Feb. 11, 2019).

176. Xlasides, “Jackie Robinson World Series,” YouTube video, 03.48. Posted [Sept. 21, 2013]. <youtube.com/watch?v=b3lEep4F744&feature=youtu.be&t=139>.

177. “No Flowers around Jackie Robinson; Only Friends,” New York Times, Oct. 27, 1972, 47; Steve Cady, “Jackie Goes Home to Brooklyn,” New York Times, Oct. 28, 1972, 25.

178. Dave Anderson, “Frank Robinson Is First Black Manager,” New York Times, Oct. 4, 1974, 1, 45.

179. William N. Wallace, “New Manager Shows Ease and Grace under Pressure,” New York Times, April 9, 1975, 31.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Raymond McCaffrey

Raymond McCaffrey is an assistant professor and director of the Center for Ethics in Journalism at the University of Arkansas. McCaffrey came to Arkansas in 2014 after earning his Ph.D. in journalism studies from the University of Maryland. He worked for more than 25 years as a journalist, including 8 years as a staff writer and editor at the Washington Post. McCaffrey also holds a bachelor of arts in psychology from Fairfield University and a master of arts in clinical psychology from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.