African American

sheshe2

(83,746 posts) Sun Apr 17, 2016, 10:01 PM Apr 2016

ICYMI: Ken Burns’ Documentary on Jackie Robinson

By showing the context of Jackie Robinson’s life, including many stories about how he grew up, and what happened in his life, it brought out just how much of true American Hero Jackie Robinson was.

Jackie Robinson was so much more than baseball player.

He was an athlete.
He was a husband.
He was a father.
He was an activist.
He was an American committed in pushing his country towards how it should be.

Things I learned about Jackie Robinson.

His brother was an Olympic Athlete. Won Medals at the games in Berlin.

When he came back to his country – after dispelling Hitler’s ‘Master Race’ propaganda, the only job he could find was STREET SWEEPER.

An Olympic Athlete ——A STREET SWEEPER.

Jackie Robinson missed being at Pearl Harbor by a couple of days.

Jackie Robinson was a 4 SPORT -VARSITY ATHLETE at UCLA.

FOUR SPORTS!

Jackie Robinson joined the Army, and even though he had years of College, he was REJECTED for Officer Candidate School – BECAUSE HE WAS BLACK.

Jackie Robinson was finally admitted into Officer Candidate School – becoming one of the first Black Officers – because of Heavyweight champion Joe Louis.

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One of my favorite parts of the documentary was showing the relationship with his wife Rachel, from their initial courtship.

Mrs. Robinson describes how she was attracted to Jackie, not just because he was BMOC Athlete, but because he was comfortable in his own skin. He was ‘never ashamed of being Black’.

In Rachel, Jackie Robinson found his equal. A woman who was getting an education, going into an actual profession – nursing, and who would stand her own ground and speak her own mind. They had ups and downs, but even when broken up, Rachel didn’t sit around waiting for Jackie – she went on with her own life, and when he realized that he didn’t want his life to proceed without her, he manned up and made it happen!