Negroes Plan Protest

Newspaper article

By: Anonymous

Date: December 25, 1959

Source: The New York Times, December 25, 1959.

About the Author: The New York Times is one of the most respected and widely circulated newspapers in the United States.

INTRODUCTION

Jackie Robinson (1919–1972) became the first black athlete to play in major league baseball in 1947 when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. As the man who broke the color line in baseball, Robinson became a hero to many African Americans. He used his fame to promote civil rights.

The Georgia-born Robinson played for the Kansas City Monarchs, a club in the Negro American Baseball League. While playing for the Monarchs in 1945, he was signed by Dodgers' president Branch Rickey and assigned to the Dodgers' Montreal farm team. He was heralded as the first black athlete to be under contract to a major league baseball team. After spending a season in Montreal, Robinson joined the Dodgers in 1947. He led the team to a National League pennant, batting .297 and playing mostly at second base, and was voted Rookie of the Year. Noted for his hitting, fielding, and baserunning, Robinson helped the Dodgers win five more pennants as well as the 1955 World Series championship. He was traded to the New York Giants in the beginning of the 1957 season and retired from baseball with a lifetime average of .311. Robinson was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1962.

A civil rights activist, Robinson used his fame and popularity to promote black business ventures. He also served as chair of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Fight for Freedom fund. Robinson worked for passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination in public accommodations such as airport waiting rooms.

PRIMARY SOURCE

Carolina March to Cite Incident Involving Jackie Robinson

Greenville, S.C., Dec. 24 (UPI)— Some 5,000 Negroes will march to the Greenville Airport on New Year's Day to protest a racial incident involving Jackie Robinson, the former baseball star.

The plan was announced by the Rev. J.S. Hall, spokesman for the two groups sponsoring the demonstration—the Committee on Racial Equality and the Greenville Ministerial Alliance.

Mr. Hall said that when Mr. Robinson visited Greenville last Oct. 25 he was asked to move to the air terminal's waiting room for Negroes. Mr. Robinson was here to address a meeting of the South Carolina chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Mr. Robinson reportedly refused to leave the white waiting room. He later told the 1,700 persons at the N.A.A.C.P. meeting that he "hoped that by 1963 all of the group could use the white facilities at the airport."

SIGNIFICANCE

Robinson's pioneering efforts made it possible for other black men to play professional sports. By 1960, every baseball team had some black players, if only in the farm clubs. This speedy process ended segregated baseball and also destroyed the separatist black major leagues while converting thousands of African Americans into major-league fans. Not everyone welcomed this change. Some white owners, fearful of a tidal wave of black players, established quotas while black militants saw the death of black leagues as a concession to white racism.

Robinson was a moderate integrationist who did not hesitate to assert his rights. As he realized, sports were an area in which black men could combat racial prejudice. Several black athletes became heroes, particularly to African Americans, by becoming models of black manhood and outperforming whites. Track star Jesse Owens in the 1930s and boxer Muhammad Ali (formerly Cassius Clay) in the 1960s and 1970s demonstrated that race had nothing to do with ability to succeed. Black athletes challenged white supremacist beliefs and, by doing so, gave support to the civil rights movement.

FURTHER RESOURCES

Books

Falkner, David. Great Time Coming: The Life of Jackie Robinson, from Baseball to Birmingham. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995.

Meier, August, and Elliott M. Rudwick. CORE: A Study in the Civil Rights Movement, 1942–1968. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973.

Tygiel, Jules. Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.