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 | REMEMBERING JACKIE ROBINSON with author ROGER KAHN April 24, 1997 |
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Questions asked
in this forum:
How did integration change the Negro Leagues? How relevant is Branch Rickey to today's celebrations? Was Branch Rickey a civil rights activist before he hired Jackie Robinson? What will bring back baseball's popularity? Why does the color barrier still exist today? What was Jackie Robinson's reaction to Bobby Thompson's 1951 homerun?
NewsHour Links
The NewHour celebrates the legacy of Jackie Robinson.
Tiger Woods wins the Masters Golf Tournament.
David Gergen engages Roger Kahn.
OUTSIDE LINKS
Major League Baseball created a special Jackie Robinson section of their site entitled, "Jackie Robinson: Breaking Barriers."
The National Archives has a Web page documenting Jackie Robinson's behind-the-scenes work for civil rights.
The L.A. Dodgers, Robinson's old team, gathered together facts and videos of the former player.
Jackie Robinson Society
Dan Gorman of Chicago, IL asks:
Jackie Robinson anniversary
Mr. Kahn, I have admired your work for many years, and I am delighted to be seeing and hearing you so frequently of late in connection with the Jackie Robinson anniversary celebrations.
What effect do you think the integration of the major leagues had on the viability of the Negro Leagues, many of whose teams were owned and operated by African-Americans? If Jackie Robinson were alive today, what do you think he would be saying about the slow progress in integrating baseball's front offices and ownership? What do you think he would say with regard to the question of whether athletes have a responsibility to provide positive role models for young people?
Roger Kahn responds:
The integration of the major leagues had the effect of destroying the Negro Leagues because once the big attractions such as Satchell Paige went into white baseball, attendance at Negro League games slumped, eventually to the point where the Negro leagues closed their doors.
Angry to put it mildly at the progress, or lack of progress at integrating baseball's executive positions. In his own lifetime, he felt deeply hurt that no one had organized in baseball-- From the day he retired as a player in 1956—no one in organized baseball ever offered him a job.
Robinson felt that he himself has a responsibility as a role model for young people and blacks, generally. When his son was arrested on a drug charge in a very tragic moment, Jackie said "I don't think I could have helped anyone, I didn't help my own son." But that was grief speaking, he continued to work with young people.
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