CRANK UP THE VCR:

The Jackie Robinson Story: Ken Burns Documentary Captures the Man and the Movement : The Ken Burns documentary airing on PBS this week demonstrates how the fight to break baseball's racial barrier went beyond Robinson's personal heroism and rested on a broad political movement. (Peter Dreier, April 11, 2016, American Prospect)

Even if you're not a baseball fan, the two-part Ken Burns documentary on Jackie Robinson that airs on PBS Monday and Tuesday will have you rooting for the Major League's first African American player to overcome the racist obstacles put in his way. It is an iconic tale of courage and determination that resonates today.

At a time when racial tensions are flaring in police departments, on college campuses, and on the presidential campaign trail, Robinson's story serves as a reminder of the nation's best impulses--and its worst. It is difficult today to summon the excitement that greeted Robinson's achievement of breaking Major League Baseball's color line in 1947 playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers. As Americans readjusted to life after returning from World War II, Robinson's success on the baseball diamond was a symbol of the promise of a racially integrated society.  He did more than change the way baseball is played and who plays it. His actions on and off the diamond helped pave the way for America to confront its racial hypocrisy.

In Burns's documentary, Rachel Robinson, Jackie's widow, recounts the ordeal the couple faced during their journey, two weeks after their marriage, to his first spring training in Daytona, Florida. After flying from Los Angeles to New Orleans, they were bumped from their connecting flight and were stranded in the New Orleans airport, where none of the restaurants would serve them. Jackie protested this obvious racist act to the airline attendant behind the counter, to no avail. They took a later flight to Pensacola, Florida, where they were to get on another connecting flight to Jacksonville. Once on board, they were ordered off the plane and replaced with two white passengers. Furious, they boarded a bus for Jacksonville. On the bus, the driver told them to move to the back of the bus, which (unlike the seats up-front) did not recline. After a long, bumpy ride they arrived in Jacksonville and switched to a bus to Daytona Beach.

For the next 11 years--until Robinson retired from baseball in 1956--the couple endured the humiliations and bigotry, and celebrated the triumphs and accolades, of being civil rights pioneers. The dignity with which Robinson handled his encounters with racism--including verbal and physical abuse on the field and in hotels, restaurants, trains, and elsewhere--drew public attention to the issue, stirred the consciences of many white Americans, and gave black Americans a tremendous boost of pride and self-confidence.

Martin Luther King Jr. once told Dodgers star Don Newcombe, who along with Robinson and baseball icon Roy Campanella moved from the Negro League to the Major League, "You'll never know what you and Jackie and Roy did to make it possible to do my job."

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 11, 2016 4:45 PM

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