Jackie Robinson Military

Jackie Robinson Military - Incidentally, on July 26, 1948, just over a year after Robinson made his trailblazing appearance in the Major Leagues, Executive Order 9982 was issued by President Harry S. Truman, abolishing racial discrimination in the armed forces.

It is for these reasons that we should all be grateful that Robinson was acquitted at his court-martial for refusing to move to the back of the bus, and that we should honor the immortal legacy of Jackie Robinson as one of the greatest heroes of the

Jackie Robinson Military

modern civil rights movement, this extraordinarily noble man who suffered so much in so many ways for the sacrifices he made, both publicly and privately, so that African Americans could continue their long march for freedom and equality in this great republic with new vigor and determination

After The Army

. In a July 1944 letter from Robinson to Truman Gibson, who had earlier aided the former OCS candidate, he wrote: "I don't want any unfavorable publicity for myself or the Army but I believe in fair play and I feel I have to let

[someone] in on the case.” 2nd Lieutenant Jackie Robinson's court-martial commenced on August 2, 1944. During the trial, cross-examination of the prosecution's witnesses by Robinson's attorney, Captain William Cline, revealed numerous inconsistencies in their testimonies. Robinson was ultimately acquitted on all charges.

Robinson led that league in batting average in 1946 and was brought up to play for Brooklyn in 1947. He was an immediate success on the field. Leading the National League in stolen bases, he was chosen Rookie of the Year.

In 1949 he won the batting championship with a .342 average and was voted the league's Most Valuable Player (MVP). Major League Baseball celebrates Jackie Robinson Day each April 15. On that day the number that Robinson wore for the Brooklyn Dodgers, 42—retired from Major League Baseball in 1997—is "unretired" and worn by all players, coaches, and umpires in the

Standing His Ground

games played that day. Call Veteran Owned Business: (877) 862-5478 | Army US Army | Air Force USAF | USMC Marines | Navy USN | National Guard Coast Guard USCG | Add your Veteran-Owned Small Business VOSB or SDVOSB to our FREE Prior Military Veteran-Owned Business Directory |

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On that day, he was arrested. Rampersad says that "At 1:45 in the afternoon on August 2, the case of The United States v. 2nd Lieutenant Jack R. Robinson, 0-10315861, Cavalry, Company C, 758th Tank Battalion, began."

Robinson's fate was in the hands of nine men, eight of them white: "One was black; another had been a UCLA student [where Robinson had been an undergraduate]. Six votes were needed for conviction." On November 4, 1944, Lieutenant Robinson was honorably discharged from the United States Army, allegedly due to two ankle injuries he sustained playing football in 1937, and again in 1941. A bone chip in Robinson's twice-broken ankle periodically caused the joint to lock

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up, which made him physically unfit for military service. Now a civilian, Robinson was free to pursue a career in professional baseball. As detailed in the masterful Jackie Robinson: A Biography by Arnold Rampersad, on July 6, 1944, Robinson "became entangled in a dispute that threatened to end his military service in disgrace."

While riding on a military bus returning to a hospital from "the colored officers club," Robinson sat next to Virginia Jones, the wife of one of his fellow officers. Jones looked white — at least the white bus driver thought so.

After a few blocks, the driver abruptly ordered Robinson "to move to the back of the bus." Robinson, justifiably outraged, refused. Among other things, he had read that segregation was no longer allowed on military buses (pdf) and proceeded to engage in a form of protest prefiguring a similar action by Rosa Parks 11 years later.

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Setting History In Motion

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An event on July 6, 1944 derailed Robinson's military career. While awaiting results of hospital tests on the ankle he had injured in junior college, Robinson boarded an Army bus with a fellow officer's wife; although the Army had commissioned its own unsegregated bus line, the bus driver ordered Robinson to move to the back of the bus.

Robinson refused. The driver backed down, but after reaching the end of the line, summoned the military police, who took Robinson into custody. When Robinson later confronted the investigating duty officer about racist questioning by the officer and his assistant, the officer recommended Robinson be court-martialled.

After Robinson's commander in the 761st, Paul L. Bates, refused to authorize the legal action, Robinson was summarily transferred to the 758th Battalion—where the commander quickly consented to charge Robinson with multiple offenses, including, among other charges, public drunkenness, even

An Unjust Era

although Robinson did not drink. Jackie Robinson was reared in Pasadena, California. An outstanding all-around athlete at Pasadena Junior College and at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), he excelled in football, basketball, track, and baseball.

He withdrew from UCLA in his third year to help his mother care for the family. In 1942 he entered the U.S. Army. It is so easy for us to underestimate the enormous significance, both symbolically and politically, of Jackie Robinson's integration of Major League Baseball, today when so many black athletes play such dominant roles in sports.

Baseball was America's "national pastime," and it was also, accordingly, the ultimate bastion of white male dominance. If professional sports as a whole were to be desegregated — and to some extent, the larger society — this effort had to commence on the baseball field.

To understand the even broader social and political import of what Robinson's actions on the field initiated, we only need to consider the chain reaction of crucial episodes in the history of the civil rights movement that unfolded almost immediately after his first season with the Dodgers.

His Fight For Equality

Rickey had been planning an attempt to integrate baseball and was looking for the right candidate. Robinson's skills on the field, his integrity, and his conservative family-oriented lifestyle all appealed greatly to Rickey. Rickey's main fear concerning Robinson was that he would be unable to withstand the racist abuse without responding in a way that would hurt integration's chances for success.

During a legendary meeting Rickey shouted insults at Robinson, trying to be certain that Robinson could accept taunts without incident. On October 23, 1945, Rickey signed Robinson to play on a Dodger farm team, the Montreal Royals of the International League.

These are the facts of his baseball career, which kids my age knew by heart. But what virtually none of us knew back then, and many people don't know today, is that Lt. Jack Roosevelt Robinson was actually court-martialed in 1944!

Court-martials are military courts, usually consisting of a panel of commissioned officers who conduct a criminal trial. There are three types of courts-martial: Summary Court-Martial, Special Court-Martial and General Court-Martial. Robinson faced a General Court-Martial. The rest, as they say, is history: During a relatively short career spanning only nine years, Robinson was Rookie of the Year in 1947, Most Valuable Player in 1949, took his team to the World Series six times (including one World Championship in

1955) and made the All-Star Team six times. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1962, and in an unprecedented gesture to his enormous historical significance and prowess as an athlete, Major League Baseball retired his number "42" in 1997, the first time this has been done for any athlete in

any sport. I'm not claiming that what Jackie Robinson alone achieved in 1947 set off this chain reaction of events, but his courage and bravery played a major role in the history of integration, both on the field and throughout American society, and no history of the

civil rights movement would be complete without noting Robinson's major role, and according to him a place of honor and immortality in African-American history because of it. Plenty of times I wanted to haul off when somebody insulted me for the color of my skin, but I had to keep to myself.

I knew I was kind of an experiment. The whole thing was bigger than me. In 1947, the year he broke baseball's "color line," Jackie Robinson was named National League Rookie of the Year. In 1949 he was the league's Most Valuable Player.

Robinson led the Brooklyn Dodgers to six league championships and one World Series victory. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. Had he been found guilty, the whole course of black participation in professional baseball and every other professional sport, as well as the modern civil rights movement, most probably would have been profoundly affected adversely.

But the circumstances of that court-martial only add to Robinson's credentials as one of the true pioneers of the civil rights movement. Jackie Robinson, byname of Jack Roosevelt Robinson, (born January 31, 1919, Cairo, Georgia, U.S.—died October 24, 1972, Stamford, Connecticut), the first Black baseball player to play in the American major leagues during the 20th century.

On April 15, 1947, Robinson broke the decades-old "color line" of Major League Baseball when he appeared on the field for the National League Brooklyn Dodgers. He played as an infielder and outfielder for the Dodgers from 1947 through 1956.

Off the field, Jackie Robinson was also one of the movement's strongest voices, in spite of the fact that he had to withstand so much abuse on the field and from the stands in stoic yet eloquent silence.

He once wrote, in a letter to Averell Harriman in 1955, that "We are sure that in time, the spirit embedded in the Constitution of the United States will prevail in all sections of the country;

however, it is important now that we be vigilant in guarding against flagrant miscarriages of justice that will hurt not only the innocent victims, but also the perpetrators." He desperately — and unsuccessfully — lobbied Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon to intervene when Dr.

King was jailed in Georgia in October 1960. Some scholars believe that John Kennedy's decision to do so led to his margin of victory over Nixon. Rampersad reprints Robinson's statement about what happened next: "The bus driver asked me for my identification card.

I refused to give it to him. He then went to the Dispatcher and told him something. What he told him I don't know. He then comes back and tells the people that this nigger is making trouble.

I told the driver to stop f—in with me, so he gets the rest of the men around there and starts blowing his top and someone calls the MP's." Robinson was placed under "arrest in quarters," which meant that "he would be considered under arrest at the hospital, although without a guard.

Robinson was then taken to the hospital in a police pickup truck." A white officer would recall that Robinson "was handcuffed, and there were shackles on his legs. Robinson's face was angry, the muscles on his face tight, his eyes half closed."

In 1997, Jackie Robinson's uniform number 42 was retired throughout professional baseball. Subsequently in 2004, Major League Baseball designated April 15th as Jackie Robinson Day. On this day, every player, coach, manager, and umpire wears Robinson's number to honor the man and his enduring legacy.

Robinson not only changed the game of baseball by breaking the color barrier, but also by the way he lived his life with humility, poise, and an unwavering commitment to equality. Legendary number 42 continues to inspire the lives of others today.

For more information regarding Jackie Robinson's life, click here. In April 1997, on the 50th anniversary of the breaking of the color bar in baseball, baseball commissioner Bud Selig retired Robinson's jersey number, 42, from Major League Baseball.

It was common for a team to retire the number of a player from that team, but for a number to be retired for all the professional teams within a sport was unprecedented. In 2004 Major League Baseball announced that it would annually honor Robinson each April 15, which would henceforth be recognized as Jackie Robinson Day.

Three years later, star slugger Ken Griffey, Jr., received permission from the commissioner of baseball to wear the number 42 on Jackie Robinson Day, and the annual "unretiring" of Robinson's number gained more adherents until, in 2009, Major League Baseball decided

that all players, coaches, and umpires would wear number 42 on April 15. Veteran Business Owners: join 37,000+ other businesses proudly owned by veterans, active duty, reservists, service disabled veterans and military spouses! Get your company's FREE profile and be seen by millions of fellow veterans, government agencies, prime/sub contractors, corporate purchasing departments and every day consumers strongly support businesses owned by those who proudly served/serve our great nation!

It's FREE! When the bus reached the end of the line, Military Police were called and took Robinson into custody. When Lieutenant Robinson challenged the racist line of questioning by the assistant provost marshal, the officer of the day, and others regarding his unfair treatment on the bus, he was arrested.

As a result of the confrontation, several charges were brought against Robinson, to include insubordination, conduct unbecoming of an officer, refusing to obey the lawful orders of a superior officer, disturbing the peace, drunkenness (although he did not drink), and insulting

a civilian woman. The beleaguered Lieutenant would face these trumped-up charges against him in a court-martial. First, President Harry Truman issued Executive Order 9982 on July 26, 1948, just over a year after Robinson faced his first pitcher at Ebbets Field, abolishing racial discrimination in the armed forces.

It is certainly reasonable to assume that Truman's timing was informed by Robinson's successful integration of professional baseball. Truman's desegregation of the military no doubt informed the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board decision desegregating public schools in 1954, which in turn informed the actions of Rosa Parks on her bus, leading to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Out of the Montgomery Bus Boycott emerged the leadership role of the young Martin Luther King Jr. Without Martin Luther King, Jr. there would have been no modern civil rights movement. Did you know that April 15th is Jackie Robinson Day?

On this day in 1947, Robinson broke Major League Baseball's decades-old color barrier, when he stepped foot onto Ebbets Field as the Brooklyn Dodgers' first baseman, wearing his now iconic number 42 jersey. However, few know that before his legendary career as a professional baseball player, Robinson served in the United States Army during WWII.

Continue reading to learn more! Jackie Robinson's moral courage and fierce opposition to racism while in the Army foreshadowed the impact the future Hall of Famer would have less than three years later, when number 42 stood at first base on Ebbets Field as a Brooklyn Dodger.

Robinson faced two charges: "The first, a violation of Article of War No. 63, accused him of 'behaving with disrespect towards Capt. Gerald M. Bear, CMP, his superior officer' ... The second charge was a violation of Article No.

64, in this case 'willful disobedience of lawful command of Gerald M. Bear, CMP, his superior.'" Three other charges were dropped before the trial began. Testimony reveals how bravely Robinson had fought to defend himself on the evening of the incident, including reportedly saying quite heroically, "Look here, you son-of-a-bitch, don't you call me no nigger!"

After a four-hour trial, Robinson was exonerated: "Robinson secured at least the four votes (secret and written) needed for his acquittal. He was found 'not guilty of all specifications and charges.'" After his discharge, Robinson briefly returned to his old football club, the Los Angeles Bulldogs.

Robinson then accepted an offer from his old friend and pastor Rev. Karl Downs to be the athletic director at Sam Huston College in Austin, then of the Southwestern Athletic Conference. The job included coaching the school's basketball team for the 1944-45 season.

As it was a fledgling program, few students tried out for the basketball team, and Robinson even resorted to inserting himself into the lineup for exhibition games. Although his teams were outmatched by opponents, Robinson was respected as a disciplinary coach, and drew the admiration of, among others, Langston University basketball player Marques Haynes, a future member of the Harlem Globetrotters.

After retiring from baseball early in 1957, Robinson engaged in business and in civil rights activism. He was a spokesperson for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and made appearances with Martin Luther King, Jr.

With his induction in 1962, Robinson became the first Black person in the Baseball Hall of Fame, in Cooperstown, New York. His autobiography, I Never Had It Made, was published in 1972. In 1984 Robinson was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor for an American civilian.

As the philosopher Cornel West put it in his introduction to Jackie Robinson's autobiography, I Never Had It Made, "More even than either Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, or Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights movement, Jackie Robinson graphically symbolized and personified the challenge to a vicious legacy and ideology of white supremacy in American history," a challenge, Cornel continued, that "remains incomplete, unfinished."

His career in baseball was stellar. His lifetime batting average was .311, and he led the Dodgers to six league championships and one World Series victory. As a base runner, Robinson unnerved opposing pitchers and terrorized infielders who had to try to prevent him from stealing bases.

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