Jackie Robinson: Breaking the Racial Barriers

JACKIE ROBINSON: Breaking the Racial Barriers On July 23, 1962, in the charming village of Cooperstown, New York, four new members were inducted into baseball 's Hall of Fame. As they gathered around the wooden platform, the fans reminisced about America 's national pastime. Edd Roush and Bill McKechnie, sixty-eight and seventy-four years old respectively, were tow of the inductees that day (Robinson 142). They were old-timers chosen by the veterans ' committee. Bob Feller and Jackie Robinson, both forty-two, were youngsters by comparison. According to the rules of the Hall of Fame, a player must be retired for five years before he can be considered for induction. Both Feller and Robinson were elected in the first year they were eligible (141). As Robinson received his plaque to take his place among the greats in the Hall of Fame, he said, "I 've been riding on cloud number nine since the election, and I don 't think I 'll ever come down. Today everything is complete" (Robinson 142). After the induction ceremony, an exhibition game between the Milwaukee Braves and the New York Yankees was to take place at Doubleday Field, where the sport had its beginnings. A sudden thunderstorm delayed the game, and after an hours wait it was cancelled. At this same time, picketers in the streets of Harlem were carrying signs saying, "Jackie, we love you as a ballplayer, but not as a spokesman for the Negro race" (143). Just two days earlier at a banquet in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, many people had paid $25 a plate to show their admiration for Jackie as both a ballplayer and a representative of the Negro race as well. Some of the most distinguished figures in the nation were present this day and their praise was loud and long (Mann 187). Jackie had accepted without hesitation a challenge to break a prevailing color barrier in the national sport of America with complete knowledge of how much depended on him. Few men had ever faced such

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