His name was Jack Roosevelt Robinson.
He played baseball.
Jackie Robinson was good, but he wasn't White.
He was good even at ping pong,
winning the Pasadena city championship
while he was in high school.
His brother, Mack, finished second in the 200
to Jesse Owens at the Berlin Olympics in the 1930s.
Mack wasn't White, either.
When Jackie got to UCLA,
he was the first athlete
to win a varsity letter in four sports.
He couldn't afford to stay and graduate from UCLA--
he had only his mother to help support him--
so he went to Hawaii where he played
professional football for the Honolulu Bears.
Then the nation entered World War II.
Jack Roosevelt Robinson became a second lieutenant,
but there was a problem: he was arrested and court-martialled
during boot training because he declined to sit
in the back of the bus. You know, the Not-White thing!
Later, they decided he was probably right.
Still, he wanted to play baseball,
so he did in the only place he could;
you know, that Non-White thing.
He played in the Negro Leagues.
Mari's mother, in Lake Mills, Iowa, loved the Dodgers.
She had never seen the Dodgers play, of course,
because she lived in Lake Mills, Iowa, and she
didn't have a washing machine, either, but if you can hear
the Brooklyn Dodgers on the radio, you can hear quite a lot.
It was hard when the Dodgers moved to California.
It wasn't as hard as it had been for Jackie Robinson,
but it was hard. Jackie's own teammates--some of them,
at first--thought it was terrible having to play with
a superb athlete whose skin was black, but Leo Durocher
said he would rather trade them than Jackie,
so Jackie, and some of his teammates, who thought
winning and fairness and common sense weren't colored
stood next to him, an arm around his shoulder,
and the next thing you know, here came Satchel Paige,
Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron! Isn't talent grand?
About three years after I graduated from college,
Ol' Jack Roosevelt Robinson retired from baseball.
I was busy, trying to get into my own minor leagues,
so I kind of lost touch with Jack Robinson,
but the next thing I knew, Jack was running for president!
And, by diddley-damn, he won!
They were still jeering at him, of course,
and he still declined to sit in the back of the bus.
When he said everybody deserved reasonable health care,
some of the other teams said there were just some differences;
things like what color you were, or whether you had a job,
or maybe even whether your mama or daddy was born
in a Christian home, or whether you were one what could talk good,
and things like that, and maybe if you were White, but
he did win the election. And then it went bad!
He said he would like to talk to the kids
at the beginning of the school year, just to encourage
them to get up early and study hard,
and not to pay attention to the guys who said
they didn't belong in the major leagues, but to
hang in there, and to do their best, and not to sit
in the back of the bus, no matter what position they played,
or what color they were, but to become something fine!
Of course that didn't go over big!
Not if you are the first Black major leaguer!
Jack Roosevelt Robinson had been there before.
He knew the idea was to to hit the ball, to run hard,
to do what would win the game! After a while,
even losers know there is something to winning.
As you know, Jack Roosevelt Robinson became President.
He did have to put up with a lot of shit along the way.
Shit doesn't just happen. It persists. It puts on
a white shirt and tie, or dangley earrings, or maybe a flag,
and it says it doesn't care whether Jack
is Black or White or Chinee, but it still thinks
that if Jack hadn't been just lucky enough
to be better then almost anybody else,
he would still be playing in that Other League.
Jack Robinson was good, but he wasn't White.
He did become President, though, you know!
I hope the kids get a chance to see him play.
He played baseball.
Jackie Robinson was good, but he wasn't White.
He was good even at ping pong,
winning the Pasadena city championship
while he was in high school.
His brother, Mack, finished second in the 200
to Jesse Owens at the Berlin Olympics in the 1930s.
Mack wasn't White, either.
When Jackie got to UCLA,
he was the first athlete
to win a varsity letter in four sports.
He couldn't afford to stay and graduate from UCLA--
he had only his mother to help support him--
so he went to Hawaii where he played
professional football for the Honolulu Bears.
Then the nation entered World War II.
Jack Roosevelt Robinson became a second lieutenant,
but there was a problem: he was arrested and court-martialled
during boot training because he declined to sit
in the back of the bus. You know, the Not-White thing!
Later, they decided he was probably right.
Still, he wanted to play baseball,
so he did in the only place he could;
you know, that Non-White thing.
He played in the Negro Leagues.
Mari's mother, in Lake Mills, Iowa, loved the Dodgers.
She had never seen the Dodgers play, of course,
because she lived in Lake Mills, Iowa, and she
didn't have a washing machine, either, but if you can hear
the Brooklyn Dodgers on the radio, you can hear quite a lot.
It was hard when the Dodgers moved to California.
It wasn't as hard as it had been for Jackie Robinson,
but it was hard. Jackie's own teammates--some of them,
at first--thought it was terrible having to play with
a superb athlete whose skin was black, but Leo Durocher
said he would rather trade them than Jackie,
so Jackie, and some of his teammates, who thought
winning and fairness and common sense weren't colored
stood next to him, an arm around his shoulder,
and the next thing you know, here came Satchel Paige,
Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron! Isn't talent grand?
About three years after I graduated from college,
Ol' Jack Roosevelt Robinson retired from baseball.
I was busy, trying to get into my own minor leagues,
so I kind of lost touch with Jack Robinson,
but the next thing I knew, Jack was running for president!
And, by diddley-damn, he won!
They were still jeering at him, of course,
and he still declined to sit in the back of the bus.
When he said everybody deserved reasonable health care,
some of the other teams said there were just some differences;
things like what color you were, or whether you had a job,
or maybe even whether your mama or daddy was born
in a Christian home, or whether you were one what could talk good,
and things like that, and maybe if you were White, but
he did win the election. And then it went bad!
He said he would like to talk to the kids
at the beginning of the school year, just to encourage
them to get up early and study hard,
and not to pay attention to the guys who said
they didn't belong in the major leagues, but to
hang in there, and to do their best, and not to sit
in the back of the bus, no matter what position they played,
or what color they were, but to become something fine!
Of course that didn't go over big!
Not if you are the first Black major leaguer!
Jack Roosevelt Robinson had been there before.
He knew the idea was to to hit the ball, to run hard,
to do what would win the game! After a while,
even losers know there is something to winning.
As you know, Jack Roosevelt Robinson became President.
He did have to put up with a lot of shit along the way.
Shit doesn't just happen. It persists. It puts on
a white shirt and tie, or dangley earrings, or maybe a flag,
and it says it doesn't care whether Jack
is Black or White or Chinee, but it still thinks
that if Jack hadn't been just lucky enough
to be better then almost anybody else,
he would still be playing in that Other League.
Jack Robinson was good, but he wasn't White.
He did become President, though, you know!
I hope the kids get a chance to see him play.
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