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April 15th, 1947 was a historic date in Major League Baseball.

At Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Jackie Robinson, a 28 year old rookie, became the first African-American to play in a major league baseball game since 1884.

In 1945, Branch Rickey, president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, was searching for an African-American player to break the color barrier in the major leagues.

He chose Jackie Robinson not because Jackie was the best black player, but because he possessed the strength of character necessary for such a monumental undertaking.

In that historic meeting with Jackie, Branch warned him about the abuse he would face.

Jackie asked if he was looking for someone who was afraid to fight back?

That wasn't the case.

I want a ballplayer with guts enough not to fight back.

For the next ten years, Jackie Robinson was a major league standout.

During his first year in the majors, 1947 he won the inaugural rookie of the year award.

Always an electric player.

Jackie finished his career with 947 runs scored, 1518 hits, 197 stolen bases, and a lifetime batting average of 311.

All while enduring the racial harassment from fans, opposing players, and even members of his own team.

Before his professional career, Jackie was drafted into the United States Army during World War II.

In 1944, while stationed at Camp Hood in Texas, Jackie was involved in a bus riding incident that resulted in court martial charges.

He was ultimately acquitted.

But what if he had been convicted?

Would he still have been chosen by Branch Rickey?

Would it have still been Jackie who went on to become a powerful influence in Major League Baseball?

Hello, I'm Terry Pruitt, and coming up is a story of how a young army officer from Mid-Michigan who held a law degree, joined Jackie's legal team.

His legal expertise played a crucial role in securing Jackie's World War II court martial acquittal, and may very well have preserved Jackie Robinson's place in baseball history.

Jackie was born in the deep south in a sharecropping family.

He was the youngest child.

But right after Jackie was born, his father left.

His mother decided to move to Pasadena, California, to start a new life.

And there she was, basically a domestic and worked multiple jobs for some affluent people.

But their home was very humble.

But she provided it very well.

Jack grew up in Pasadena, California, and he was a natural athlete from his early youth and became a leader in their sports competition.

Jack's brother Mack excelled in track and field sports.

In the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Mack won a silver medal in the 200 meter run.

The winner of the gold medal was Jesse Owens.

He had another brother named Frank he was very close to.

But Frank the brother, got into a motorcycle accident and died.

So Jackie really wanted to pursue the athletics like his older brother Mack did.

Jackie's high school experience, he went to Muir High School in Pasadena, and in Muir High School, he played all the sports with the ball.

Jackie moved from high school to junior college, which is Pasadena Junior College.

In junior college, he might have been the football quarterback, guard in basketball, shortstop/second base in baseball.

And he ran track and I think he did the long jump too.

Jackie decided to stay in the Pasadena area.

And that's when he enrolled in UCLA and again excelled in every single sport there was.

Baseball was not his number one sport you know.

He was, he was an MVP in college.

Jackie left UCLA before graduation, wanting to help his family financially.

With the war looming on the horizon, he played semi-pro football in Honolulu and Los Angeles before being drafted in 1942.

He was assigned to Fort Riley in Kansas, where he joined a cavalry unit and was accepted into Officer Candidate School.

It was extremely difficult for a black officer to become officer.

In Jackie's case and for many other African-Americans, it took the intervention of a well-known boxer Joe Louis, also stationed at Fort Riley, to be accepted for officer training.

At Fort Riley, Jackie, now a second lieutenant, was appointed as acting morale officer.

It was here that he began challenging the Jim Crow laws that were still prevalent in the military.

His reputation as an All-American athlete had preceded him.

He was pressed to play halfback on the camp football team, but because he was barred from joining the white baseball team again, Jim Crow.

Jackie, the best running back there, refused to play in protest to the segregation.

As a result of this refusal, he was transferred to the 761st Tank Battalion at Camp Hood in Texas.

Jackie excelled at Camp Hood.

A college ankle injury, left him on limited duty, but his performance was so impressive that his commanding officer wanted him deployed with a unit to Europe.

To do this, Jackie agreed to sign a waiver of responsibility, which required him to have his ankle evaluated at a hospital.

Jackie was temporarily transferred to McCloskey hospital, 30 miles away from Camp Hood, for medical testing.

The test result took some time, and on July 6th, 1944, Jackie got a pass to go back to Camp Hood to visit his unit.

However, when Jackie arrived, he found his battalion was away on maneuvers, so he spent time visiting friends at the Officer's club.

In early 1944, Robinson boarded a bus at Camp Hood, where he was stationed, and he set in the, front area of the bus, next to a lady that he recognized as being, wife of the, Army officer whom, Jackie Robinson knew.

And she was, African-American, but she often appeared to be Caucasian.

So Jackie, knowing her, sat next to her, and they had a amicable, conversation, as the bus started leaving again.

And the bus driver looked in his rearview mirror and saw Jackie sitting next to what the driver perceived as being a white woman, and he stopped the bus and walked back and directed Jackie to move to the back of the bus.

And, Jackie, in his memoirs, indicated that he was aware of new Army regulations that stated that, there would be no discrimination on any racial basis, in the Army.

The bus driver had stopped the bus however and contacted the military police, the MPs.

The scene at the transfer station became quite heated.

Some white passengers began making racist remarks, which, of course, Jackie took exception to.

Military police arrived, and Corporal Elwood asked Jackie to sit in the back of a military police vehicle while they assessed the situation.

It was then that a Private First Class Mucklerath, who was waiting to transfer to another bus, asked Corporal Elwood a fateful question.

Jackie overheard Mucklerath's racial slur and threatened to break him into.

At the MP headquarters, Captain Bear then, essentially began an investigation, which is probably what, a good MP officer would be called to do in the circumstances.

He had Jackie take a seat in an adjoining room, the room that he joined, the room that, Captain Bear was in, had a door between the rooms that had a Dutch door where the top half opens and the bottom half can be closed.

So Jackie's in an adjoining room but he can hear everything going on as Captain Bear is conducting his investigation.

So as Captain Bear would bring in various witnesses, whether it be the, the bus dispatcher, who had disrespected Jackie, the bus driver, Private Mucklerath, the various witnesses from the incident at the bus depot, Jackie can hear or at all.

And, one can understand that Jackie's sitting in the adjoining room hearing people, describe what happened in a manner that he feels is incorrect and unfair.

You can imagine this is the 1940s in Texas.

A state where Jim Crow was in full flower and many of these witnesses were undoubtedly, racially insensitive in today's terms.

I'm sure Jackie felt that, the entire affair was being misrepresented, to make him look bad or even criminal.

So, Captain Bear is frustrated with Jackie interrupting, and so, he apparently orders Jackie to take a seat in the at the far end of the room and just stay seated.

And, according to subsequent testimony, Captain Bear would claim that, Jackie, disobeyed that direct order.

August 2, Lieutenant Jack Robinson was charged, legally with “acting in an insulin impertinent and rude manner toward Captain Gerald Bear”.

And for that alleged contact, Robinson was assigned to be court-martialed.

Jackie was originally charged with six violations.

Disrespect toward Captain Bear, contemptuous behavior, failure to obey a lawful order, and three counts of vulgar and obscene language.

After an investigation, several charges were dropped, leaving only the charges regarding Jackie's disrespectful demeanor to Captain Bear and his failure to follow Bear's orders to stay away from the interview room door.

The attorney that was assigned to Jackie was an officer named Cline, who was an attorney in civilian life, who apparently was more of a business attorney and did not have probably any courtroom experience to speak of.

He was also, a Texas resident, prior to, joining the Army during World War II.

Officer Cline, recognized as a white Texan being asked to defend, a black Californian army officer that might be somewhat prejudiced.

And to his credit, he told Jackie, I'm not sure I can do the best job defending you.

He then told Jackie he had the right to request his own lawyer.

Jackie, of course, didn't know any other lawyers to speak of.

And Mr.

Cline, told Jackie there was another army officer on base who was a lawyer in his previous profession.

Before joining the army during the war, and that this officer was from Michigan and he thought that officer could do a better job for Jackie.

So, Officer Cline introduced Jackie to Robert H. Johnson from Michigan.

Robert Johnson was born in Battle Creek, Michigan.

He graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1938 and was admitted to the bar of lawyers practicing in Bay County in 1940.

Robert served as a lieutenant during World War II.

And as fate would have it, was stationed at Camp Hood as a tank battalion officer at the same time, Jackie Robinson was charged.

Mr.

Johnson, was willing to, defend Jackie.

And, he ended up being his trial counsel, throughout the court martial.

Interestingly, if you read the transcript of the court martial, it never identifies Mr.

Johnson anywhere in the transcript.

Ive read the transcript myself, and I think the only place his name shows up is, at one point, there's a reference that says, Mr.

Johnson then asked and proceeds to indicate a question.

But nowhere else in the transcript at the beginning, where it formally identifies all of the parties to the proceeding, he's not identified.

So this Mr.

Johnson's, part in the whole incident of Jackie's court-martial and his defense was for many, many years lost to history.

During the court martial itself, the army was at pains to try to paint the matter as strictly a matter of military discipline and military rules.

And so the, initial witnesses brought forth, in the prosecution side were, Captain Wiggington and Captain Bear, the two, MP, investigators who had investigated and questioned the witnesses from the bus depot and, encountered, Jackie's, objections and oppositions to those witnesses.

So it was a fairly dry matter, at the end of the, prosecution's, case in chief.

Robert Johnson, the defense attorney, elected to put Jackie on the stand.

He wanted to be able to paint some of the background, and, make it clear that Jackie was, an officer number one and, an articulate and well-educated man.

So he had Jackie, testify.

And in the course of, his testimony, I think he effectively presented Jackie as a calm well-educated, well-spoken man.

then, Mr.

Johnson went on to, call a number of, other witnesses as, essentially character witnesses for Jackie.

Mr.

Johnson called, several of Jackie's, white superior officers, who all testified what an excellent officer Lieutenant Robinson was and, that he was a credit to the Army and so on.

So all of this was quite at odds with, the picture that the prosecution had painted of, Jackie's behavior at the M.P.

Headquarters This is the point in the trial where things got interesting.

Captain Johnson skillful tactics had already cast doubt on the reliability of government witnesses testimony.

He quickly recall Corporal Elwood, one of the MPs present at the bus station, for rebuttal.

Did Private First Class Mucklerath ever ask you at any time if you had a N-word, lieutenant, in your car?

Elwood answered, yes sir he did, at the bus station.

This final exchange made it clear to the court that the happenings at the bus station stemmed from a racial slur of an enlisted man to an officer.

It exposed the questionable credibility of government witnesses who were proven to have lied under oath.

Five hours and 15 minutes after the proceeding began, the trial transcript reads upon secret written ballot two thirds of the members of the court present at the time, the vote was taken, the court finds the accused of all specifications and charges not guilty and therefore acquits the accused.

In early 2019, I received an email, at my office, my law office in Bay City.

And that email came from a Major Adam Kama who was then an Army JAG officer, Judge Advocate General Corps, who, identified himself in the email as an amateur historian who was trying to correct history and tell the story of Jackie Robinsons World War II era court martial.

Giving credit to the attorney who actually defended Jackie.

Major Adam Kama became interested in the Jackie Robinson court-martial as a young captain.

After locating the court transcript, which was no easy task, he began his research.

For years Attorney William Cline was given credit for securing Jackie's not guilty verdict.

It wasn't until 1997 that another name surfaced.

Attorney Robert Johnson.

It was discovered that Robert played a significant role in the defense, and was a substantial reason for its success.

Kama was stymied by the lack of information on Robert Johnson.

He spent years investigating the case and eventually traced Robert Johnson to Bay City, Michigan.

Karas article Fairplay and Justice: The court-martial of Jackie Robinson won him the prestigious Keith E. Nelson Distinguished Service Award.

An honor presented for exceptional published literary work that advances the understanding and interest of military law.

Through his research, Major Kama also discovered something that had never come to light before.

Two of the nine judges on the Jackie Robinson court-martial panel were black.

After the court-martial, Jackie, knowing he would not be able to ship overseas with his unit, the 761st Tank Battalion wrote to the Army Adjutant General requesting a medical discharge.

He was sent to Camp Breckenridge, Kentucky.

There he coached sports teams until he received his honorable discharge.

Branch Rickey had spent years searching for the right black baseball player to integrate the major leagues.

When he signed Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers, he knew he had his man.

Jackie promised branch he would not fight back physically or verbally for three years, and those attacks were relentless.

But Jackie kept his word.

He did it his own way.

He retaliated with quiet dignity by hitting the ball hard, stealing bases and playing exceptional defense.

And gaining the respect of fellow players and fans alike.

In 1972, Jackie Robinson died of a heart attack at only 53 years old.

His life, though far too short was filled with accomplishment.

Back in 1944, in a military courtroom in Texas, a young, unheralded Bay City attorney named Robert H. Johnson helped Jackie begin his legacy.

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Thank you.