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Summary
Summary
Featuring contributions by Maury Allen, Red Barber, Arthur Mann, Malcolm X, Roger Kahn, and many others, The Jackie Robinson Reader gathers together writings, many of them previously unpublished, which demonstrate the cultural impact of the first black Major League baseball player's actions and the life of the man himself.
Author Notes
Born in Omaha, Nebraska, and the son of a Baptist minister, Malcolm Little grew up with violence. Whites killed several members of his family, including his father. As a youngster, he went to live with a sister in Boston where he started a career of crime that he continued in New York's Harlem as a drug peddler and pimp. While serving a prison term for burglary in 1952, he converted to Islam and undertook an intensive program of study and self-improvement, movingly detailed in "Autobiography of Malcolm X." He wrote constantly to Elijah Muhammad (Elijah Poole, 1897--1975), head of the black separatist Nation of Islam, which already claimed the loyalty of several of his brothers and sisters. Upon release from prison, Little went to Detroit, met with Elijah Muhammad, and dropped the last name Little, adopting X to symbolize the unknown African name his ancestors had been robbed of when they were enslaved.
Soon he was actively speaking and organizing as a Muslim minister. In his angry and articulate preaching, he condemned white America for its treatment of blacks, denounced the integration movement as black self-delusion, and advocated black control of black communities. During the turbulent 1960's, he was seen as inflammatory and dangerous.
In 1963, a storm broke out when he called President Kennedy's assassination a case of "chickens coming home to roost," meaning that white violence, long directed against blacks, had now turned on itself. The statement was received with fury, and Elijah Muhammad denounced him publicly. Shocked and already disillusioned with the leader because of his reputed involvement with several women, Malcolm X went on a pilgrimage to Mecca and then traveled to several African countries, where he was received as a fellow Muslim. When he returned home, he was bearing a new message: Islam is a religion that welcomes and unites people of all races in the Oneness of Allah. On the night of February 21, 1965, as he was preaching at Harlem's Audubon Ballroom, he was assassinated.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
It's probably not possible to publish an uninteresting book about pioneering African American Major Leaguer Jackie Robinson (1919-1972). This year is the 50th anniversary of Robinson's breaking the racial barrier in Major League Baseball. To commemorate that achievement, Tygiel (Baseball's Great Experiment) has collected a variety of writing, both recent and contemporary, to illuminate the life, career and personality of this extraordinary American. Interviews with Robinson's brother Mack (also a world-class athlete) and a college football teammate recall Robinson's brilliant feats in track and field and big-time college football during the 1930s. Tygiel includes his own detailed examination of the failed racist attempt to court-martial the young Lieutenant Robinson in 1944; a wonderful account by legendary black sportswriter Wendell Smith of Robinson's 1946 minor-league debut in Jersey City; a 1979 academic study on the social impact and political clash between Republican-to-be Robinson and the left-wing Paul Robeson; and a fascinating 1963 exchange of letters between Robinson and Malcolm X. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Historian Tygiel (San Francisco State Univ.; Baseball's Great Experiment, 1983, etc.) has fashioned what he calls ``an alternative biography'' of the man who broke major league baseball's color barrier in 1947. It's hard to believe anything new could be added to the Robinson story, but Tygiel has uncovered a few previously unpublished pieces that shed new light on Robinson's historic signing with Branch Rickey's Brooklyn Dodgers. Rickey provided the press with emotion-laden, probably apocryphal anecdotes to explain his signing an African-American. Published here for the first time is sportswriter (and later Dodger press secretary) Arthur Mann's ``exclusive scoop'' on the signing (which Rickey ultimately announced before Mann's piece could appear in Look magazine). According to Tygiel, the piece ``provides the first authorized account of Rickey's rationale for signing'' Robinson as well as an account of the behind-the-scenes action. Also published for the first time is an August 1946 report of a major league steering committee, ``most likely'' written by New York Yankees owner Larry MacPhail, that ``remains a damning document'' about segregationist attitudes held by many of the owners. Arranged chronologically, most of the material here is reprinted from Time or Look magazines, with a few interesting bits from sources such as the Pittsburgh Courier and the Baltimore Afro-American. Some of the great sportswriters are represented here, including Donald Honig and Roger Kahn. Also included are excerpts from Robinson's autobiographies that address his political and personal battles, such as his feud with Paul Robeson and the short, tragic life of his son. His exchange of letters with Malcolm X will prove interesting to social historians. While the writing styles and the quality vary wildly, and a few of the excerpts are from weak sources (e.g., Maury Allen's 1986 biography), this clever assemblage effectively tells the story.
Booklist Review
To mark the fiftieth anniversary of Jackie Robinson's first appearance in a Brooklyn Dodger uniform, editor Tygiel (Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy, 1983) has pulled together essays by Robinson's contemporaries that reflect the mood of the country both when Robinson was a player and, later, when he became a symbol of the civil rights movement. If there's one point to be made it's this: it could never have been easy being Jackie Robinson. There are essays by Maury Allen, in which he recounts Robinson's California youth, and Woody Strode, in which the actor recalls his time as Robinson's football teammate at UCLA. Wendell Smith's 1946 account of Robinson's first game as a minor leaguer is an eye-opener, as is a previously unpublished 1946 report by the major league baseball steering committee. The committee has the temerity to blame baseball's segregation on selfish Negro league team owners, lousy black players, and the threat of protesters should the game be integrated. This collection offers a new perspective on Robinson's exemplary life. Highly recommended. --Wes Lukowsky
Library Journal Review
This anthology must be made available as a valuable documenatry source in any library that collects in the areas of sports history or race relations. Selections include editor Tygiel's own piece on the court-martial of Robinson for refusing to move to the back of an officially desegregated bus. There are several accounts of the historic decision by Branch Rickey to bring Robinson into major league baseball, including one by Red Barber, a Southerner who had never questioned segregation before Rickey told him what was going to happen and who had to question his upbringing and his religion to determine the right thing to do. The document by the Major League Steering Committee attempting to justify the exclusion of "Negro" players from the league as being, somehow, not the result of discrimination is an amazing piece of obfuscation and deception. Of particular political interest are the accounts of Robinson's testimony against Paul Robeson before the House Un-American Activities Committee and the exchange of letters between Robinson and Malcolm X. Highly recommended.Marylaine Block, St. Ambrose Univ. Lib., Davenport, Iowa (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
