April 15th is the day most of us dread because we only think of it in terms of the statements we submit to the Internal Revenue Service, but April 15th should be an American holiday. Today is also the day that Jack Roosevelt Robinson played his first game as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Without this watershed moment in our country’s history we might still be using separate water fountains across the nation. It bears remembering that Jackie Robinson was as proactive off the field as he was on the diamond. He was an activist for equality in every walk of life and one of the greatest examples of the American ideal.
Let his memory make every April 15th a day to look forward to.
About 2 wks ago, my dad came to pick up me, my 2 boys & my daughter. He wanted to take them to the main library in Downtown L.A. If anybody’s been there, they’ll agree it’s mad cumbersome.
Anyhoo, the kids were looking for books, my lil girl got some fashion design shit, my oldest boy got a GI Joe graphic novel, & my youngest boy picked up a hardback comic. I looked @ it, & it was the story of Jackie Robinson. I asked why’d he get that instead of something else, he said because he knows that Jackie Robinson was important to Black people. That’s pretty heavy for a 7 year old. He read the whole thing that afternoon, instead of playing video games all day on spring break.
Then again, he’s played MLK & Barack Obama in several school plays & recited the “I have a dream” speech in front of the whole school & ABC7 News, So, maybe it’s not that heavy.
This brings to mind how every presentation during black history month in elementary school was either about MLK or jackie robinson.
TG,
Your youngest is a future PhD.
Respect to Jerry Stackhouse.
found out a few years back that he rocks JR’s number…I didn’t understand why he had such an odd basketball player number before….
Respect to Spike for having Mookie rock the JR jersey…in Do the Right Thing
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Ultimate respect for Jackie Robinson
there’s about 4-5 pivotal events that were precursor to the “Civil Rights Movement” and Jackie playing for the Dodgers was surely one of them.
get-
Man, this dude is going to be the best at whatever he does, & it’s awesome to see him @ work. On some, 30 years from now shit, “that’s MY boy.”
Only thing I don’t like about the anniversary of Jackie getting called up is..sports media goes overboard in talking about the lack of Black american born baseball players.
they actually……actually have the nerve to say “Jackie would be turning over in his grave” to see so few Blacks(USA) in MLB.
I was tempted to actually call in and tell them to please stop.