JACKIE ROBINSON

[Music] he can beat you more ways than any man alive his daring play earned him a place in baseball's hall of fame but in his brilliant career he became one of the most controversial sports figures of our time his name is jackie robinson and this is his biography [Applause] [Music] so [Applause] i'm mike wallace this is biography our story jackie robinson he was the first negro to play major league baseball an aggressive competitor he asked no quarter and gave none but he won the admiration of players and fans alike with his skill and daring from the very first he made it clear that he wanted to be accepted on the basis of his ability i came here he said to play baseball on april 15 1947 ebbets field in brooklyn jackie robinson makes his appearance as a major league baseball player and shatters a half century of tradition in the coming months and years his courage and his character will be severely tested jackie robinson is uniquely prepared to meet this challenge born in 1919 on a cotton plantation near the town of cairo georgia jackie robinson is six months old when his father deserts the family mally robinson and her five children are forced to leave the one-room cabin on the plantation the family sets out on a long journey in search of a new home the trip ends in pasadena california where mali robinson's brother has found a place for them to live my mother had a strong sense of dignity and pride she tried to teach all of us to stand up for what we believed it wasn't easy at first we were the only negro family in the neighborhood the only playmates i had were my brothers and sisters i went to school with my older sister willa may when my mother worked i was too young to go to classes so i waited outside i learned to get along on my own to make up my own games and i played them by my own rules it seemed to me i always wanted something and i couldn't have it the best i could do for a baseball was a lot of rags and i used to think if i ever could hold a real baseball my life would be [Music] i complete to be a little bit better or i couldn't get the plate [Applause] [Music] i wanted to win all kids do but it meant a little bit more to me winning somehow took the sting out of being the outsider [Music] my brother mack was the star of the school's track team when he was picked for the united states olympic team in 1936 i was a proud kid in the block the 1936 olympic games are held in nazi germany boasts adolf hitler the pure blooded nazi aryan will prove his supremacy in this arena [Music] the competition does produce a superman but he is neither aryan nor nazi he is america's great jesse owens mack robinson is proud to play second to owens in the 200 meter dash [Applause] max set the example for me says jackie and at pasadena city college he drives himself relentlessly in practice and competition [Music] in 1938 he breaks mack's record in the broad jump establishing a new mark for himself jackie enrolls at ucla in 1939 he has a vague idea that he wants to become a high school athletic coach but his future plans are hazy still uncertain football is the major sport at ucla and jackie quickly becomes a mainstay of the team he was a take charge guy who hated to lose as a friend and you could be sure that big number 28 would always be in the thick of the action he is the leading ground gainer in collegiate football in his first season averaging 12 yards per carry and newspapermen called jackie the gridiron phantom jackie sees each game as a personal battle in which he must prove he's better than any man on the field [Music] in one game against stanford he makes a spectacular plot return although to begin with he's surrounded by a host of stanford players jackie stars in baseball basketball and he wins the national championship in the broad jump in his senior year he is called the best all-round athlete in america the greatest negro athlete of all time unquestionably writes one reporter he is the jim thorpe of his race [Music] jackie serves as an army officer during world war ii and returns home in 1945 to face an uncertain future i try to get a job as a high school coach but there were a few openings i could fill i was 26 years old i had no job only a mammal full of trophies he is an extraordinary athlete and he longs to play professional baseball but by gentleman's agreement no negro is given the opportunity to play in the major leagues baseball booms in the post-war era fans flock to the ballparks as familiar stars return from military service men like stan musial ted williams and joe dimaggio [Applause] [Music] negroes have the chance to play baseball for pay only in a segregated league robinson is delighted when the kansas city monarchs of the negro american league offer him 400 a month to play ball the pay is irregular crowds are small and playing conditions are poor but jackie robinson is doing what he likes best [Music] campaigning for reelection in new york governor tom dewey begins a movement to wipe out racial restrictions in baseball most major league teams resist dewey's suggestions one man however branch ricky secretly makes plans to break baseball's color line the dynamic outspoken general manager of the brooklyn dodgers sees the negro athlete as an untapped reservoir of talon and as his dodgers begin their training at bear mountain he is already scouting negro players but ricky knows that the first negro to play major league baseball must be able to endure constant threats of physical violence racial insults even hostility from teammates ricky narrows his choice to a handful of men he considers the brilliant but erratic satchel page in his forties and still pitching the powerful placid roy campanella don nukem fiery young pitcher and an infielder named jackie robinson ricky feels robinson has intelligence ability courage but he must be sure he is the right man robinson is summoned to his office for an interview branch rickey tells about that first meeting he was everything that i had hoped he would be at that moment uh the the surprise of that equal occasion was was was robinson i couldn't convince him that i was giving him this interview and and considering him for a job on the on the height team the brooklyn dodgers i had to give him an actual picture by voice by gesture but by every means i had to have him realize what he was in front of and what he was about to agree to he had to know that he would be called these names and his mother would be attacked and his ancestry as i put it well i asked him what he would do i'd kill him it was a very resentment that i wanted and yet he had to realize that he must be able to handle himself under those dark conditions and there was finally an agreement that for three years he would undertake to turn the other cheek and we defined what that meant in actual field play under ricky's orders jackie will be forced to restrain his desire to fight back when he's insulted or threatened with physical violence robinson agrees and signs his contract with a mixture of exaltation and apprehension [Music] 1946 the montreal royals of brooklyn dodger farm team open the season at jersey city on their playing roster is baseball's most controversial new figure jackie robinson spring training has been a harrowing experience for robinson during the barnstorming tour in the south he has been reviled by fans and shunned by his own teammates but in a season ahead he will channel his anger and humiliation into a driving determination that will become the trademark of jackie robinson [Applause] foreign [Music] 1947 the brooklyn dodgers and montreal royals begin spring training in panama largely because of robinson branch rickey has been forced to move his teams out of the traditional training grounds in the south robinson knows there is resistance against him dodger players have signed a petition protesting his appearance on the field the challenge of acceptance by his teammates that was the first hurdle that had to be made and there was the petition on the club we've never advertised that uh dixie walker an eminent gentleman and stanky mobile boy and they were opposed to it a tremendous opposition to it at the time uh i didn't decide to uh to put him on the brooklyn club until the saturday before the opening on tuesday of the national league season that first day i tried to tell myself it was just another game i tried to blot out the sounds and the excitement but i couldn't do it there was so much writing on this game only for me but for mr ricky i could see mr ricky catching every ball with me he kept urging me to be more aggressive he was such an inspiration to me i know i couldn't have made it without him jackie robinson proves he can hold his own on the playing field but he is still the outcast forced to live in separate hotels he has no roommates and is known as the loneliest man in baseball [Music] forced to turn the other cheek he must let his baseball ability speak for him [Applause] [Music] [Applause] slowly the fans from flatbush begin to accept jackie robinson and so do his teammates says branch ricky the players rallied to his defense and it caused the glue on the club that molded them into a pennant winning team [Music] [Applause] for the brooklyn dodgers it's the first pennant in six years brooklyn fans shower their affection on the beloved bums jackie robinson crowns his first season in the major leagues by being named rookie of the year branch rickey couldn't ask for anything more the season has been exhausting though he is the first negro to play in major league baseball robinson has earned just five thousand dollars to supplement his income he sells home appliances as a national sports figure jackie is taking it upon himself to shoulder a further responsibility the brotherhood movement is gaining ground every day it is slowly and surely becoming a fact and not remaining just a theory and i'm glad that i can report from my own personal experiences on the baseball diamond that the feeling of intolerance no longer exist by 1949 robinson has paved the way for others to follow men like catcher roy campanella and pitcher don newcomb the negro's position in baseball is secure branch rickey removes all restrictions and 1949 is robinson's year it better be rough on me jackie declares because i'm going to be rough on them almost overnight jackie becomes the hauler guy the spark plug behind brooklyn victory [Applause] july 1949 jackie robinson is unexpectedly cast into the political spotlight with his wife ray by his side the mature and confident jackie robinson testifies before the house on american activities committee i've been asked to express my views on paul robeson's statement in paris to the effect that american negroes would refuse to fight in any war against russia because we love russia so much i haven't any comment to make except that any event of war with russia negroes and italians and aries and jews and swedes and slavs and other americans would act just as all these groups did in the last war they do their best to keep their country out of war if unsuccessful that do their best to help their country won the war against russia or any other enemy that threatened us the 1950s in his new home in suburban stamford connecticut jackie savors the rewards of years of struggle he is an established major league star earning a major league salary in five figures in the off season he can relax with his family enjoying economic security he never knew in childhood and for his son there will be no need to play baseball with broom handles and rags jackie is imbued with a nagging sense of responsibility he feels he must speak out where injustice has been done his friend and teammate roy campanella often disagrees with jackie i'm no crusaders as campanella i'm just a baseball player robinson will not tolerate this attitude he has always been a fighter he will continue to be a fighter a man must speak out for what he believes says jackie [Applause] robinson is now more than a ball player he is by circumstance a representative of his race we were put through the usual bag of tricks right in this state at first we were told that the house we were interested in had been sold just before we inquired or we would be invited to make an offer a sort of a seal bid and then we'd be told that the offers higher than ours had been turned down then we tried buying houses on the spot for whatever price was asked they handed the handle this by telling us the house had been taking off taken off the market and once we met a broker who told us he was he would like to help us find a home but his clients were against selling to negros and whether or not we got a story with the refusal the results were always the same he is praised for his explosive play in the field but is sometimes criticized for deliberately engaging in controversy jackie's a guy who likes to mouth off many say he's a troublemaker and jackie himself admits my temper cost me my popularity 1955 jackie robinson is 36 he is the elder statesman of the dodgers he occupies a center locker a special mark of distinction nine hectic years in the majors have been filled with controversy in the twilight of his baseball career reporters call him the old grave fat man his legs lack speed agility his reflexes are sluggish [Applause] [Applause] the dodgers however clinch the national league pennant late in september once more they will face the yankees in the world series for jackie robinson there may not be another [Music] since 1947 the dodgers have won the pennant four times and four times they have lost to the new york yankees in the world series the experts predict the dodgers will be beaten for the fifth consecutive time the dodgers are an old team they say virtually unchanged since 1947 even the most loyal dodger rooters are skeptical but in this world series the 36 year old jackie robinson flashes the daring speed that recalls the robbie of old [Music] [Applause] [Applause] sparked by robinson the dodgers win the 1955 world series writes one reporter the old gray fat man had done what he wanted he had shown the dodgers he had shown the yankees he had shown the world by the end of 1956 after a furious decade in baseball jackie robinson has decided to retire i had decided that i'd used up the good years i didn't want to work out the string as a pinch hitter or a part-time player most of all i wanted security for my family i had considered the possibility of becoming a manager but when the president of chock full of nuts mr william black offered me a job as vice president in charge of personnel i was so impressed by the man and the company that i decided to start my new career here what appealed to me most was that i wasn't being hired in order to have my name adorn a letterhead but i was being asked to join the company and become an integral part of the organization the job was and still is a challenge but that's the way i like it generally i meet with mr black to go over new employee programs brief him on my activities and discuss new company policies or to get an occasional balling out i rarely miss baseball i just don't have the time to miss it but if i did it would be the playing i never felt comfortable as a spectator looking back now on my days in baseball i can remember times when i was advised not to press issues or speak out when i felt it was necessary but i couldn't do that i believe that a man is judged on more than the power of his hands and legs he's just also on the strength of his mind and his character not to speak out when i saw or felt an injustice would have been as bad as taking the third strike every time i came to bed right now if i had the chance to live my life over again i'd live it the same way [Music] in july of 1962 at cooperstown new york jackie robinson receives baseball's highest honor he is elected to the hall of fame he sees it as the crowning achievement of his career says jackie robinson this is the proudest day of my entire life you