research paper on jackie robinson

Robinson, Jackie

January 31, 1919 to October 24, 1972

Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play major league baseball, used his prestige as a star athlete to garner support for the civil rights movement. Following his retirement from baseball in 1957, Robinson often appeared with Martin Luther King at rallies, fundraising events, and demonstrations. King told Robinson, “You have made every Negro in America proud through your baseball prowess and your inflexible demand for equal opportunity for all” (King, 14 May 1962).

Born 31 January 1919, in Cairo, Georgia, Robinson grew up in Pasadena, California. After graduating from high school he attended Pasadena Junior College and the University of California in Los Angeles, where he excelled in baseball, football, basketball, and track. In 1942 Robinson was drafted into the Army. Initially informally barred from Officer Candidate School because of his race, he eventually graduated as a second lieutenant. In July 1944 Robinson was court martialed for resisting a demand to move to the back of an Army bus. Eventually acquitted of the charges, he later received an honorable discharge from the Army.

Robinson was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1946, and on 15 April 1947 Robinson broke the color line in major league baseball when he took the field as first baseman for the Dodgers. Despite enduring insults, threats, isolation, and aggression on the playing field, Robinson eventually won over teammates and fans with his skill and competitive drive. He was named Rookie of the Year after his first season, and two years later he won the National League batting title and was named Most Valuable Player.

After leaving baseball in 1957, Robinson became an executive at Chock Full O’Nuts Corporation. Robinson also served as chairman of the  National Association for the Advancement Colored People  (NAACP) Freedom Fund Drive, and later joined its Board of Directors.

In October 1958 Robinson and King served as honorary chairmen of the  Youth March for Integrated Schools  in Washington, D.C. Two years later Robinson raised concerns with King that some people affiliated with the  Southern Christian Leadership Conference  (SCLC) were claiming that the NAACP had outlived its usefulness, but King reassured Robinson that he had “always stressed the need for great cooperation between SCLC and the NAACP” ( Papers  5:477 ).

Robinson continued to work with King, and when he became the first African American to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962, Robinson donated the proceeds of a dinner in his honor to SCLC’s voter registration project. In an article King wrote for the  New York Amsterdam News  upon this occasion, King applauded Robinson for choosing “truth” rather than “repose,” because “back in the days when integration wasn’t fashionable, he underwent the trauma and the humiliation and the loneliness which comes with being a pilgrim walking the lonesome byways toward the high road of Freedom. He was a sit-inner before the sit-ins, a freedom rider before the Freedom Rides” (King, “Hall of Famer”).

The following year, Robinson joined the platform guests at the  March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom . In 1964 he co-founded the interracial Freedom National Bank in Harlem and served as chairman until his death in 1972. In 1966 New York Governor Nelson  Rockefeller  hired him as a Special Assistant for Community Affairs.

Robinson disagreed with King’s opposition to the  Vietnam War  and his calls for the United States to stop its bombing campaigns. In an open letter published in his regular  Chicago Defender  newspaper column in May 1967, Robinson questioned King’s stance: “I am confused Martin, because I respect you deeply. But I also love this imperfect country” (Robinson, “An Open Letter”). After King called Robinson to elaborate on his beliefs, Robinson replied that despite disagreeing with King, he still saw King as “the finest leader the Negro people have and one of the most magnificent leaders the world has today” (Robinson, “What I Think”). Robinson died of a heart attack in 1972 at the age of 53. 

King, “Hall of Famer,”  New York Amsterdam News , 4 August 1962.

King, “The Measure of a Man,”  New York Amsterdam News , 29 September 1962.

King to Robinson, 19 June 1960, in  Papers  5:475–478 .

King to Robinson, 14 May 1962,  MLKJP-GAMK .

Rachel Robinson,  Jackie Robinson , 1996.

Robinson to King, 5 May 1960, in  Papers  5:454–455 .

Robinson,  I Never Had It Made , 1972.

Robinson, “An Open Letter to Dr. Martin L. King,”  Chicago Defender , 13 May 1967.

Robinson, “What I Think of Dr. Martin L. King,”  Chicago Defender , 1 July 1967.

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Jackie Robinson

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Daniel A. Nathan, Jackie Robinson, Journal of American History , Volume 104, Issue 1, June 2017, Pages 296–301, https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jax157

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More than twenty years after his eighteen-and-a-half-hour documentary series Baseball (1994), and six years since his four-hour Baseball sequel, The Tenth Inning (2010), the master storyteller Ken Burns, joined by his daughter Sarah Burns and her husband, David McMahon, returned to baseball with Jackie Robinson (2016). As most Americans know, Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play major league baseball in the twentieth century when he took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers on opening day in 1947. In the process Robinson courageously broke the racist “color barrier” that had existed since the late nineteenth century. “It is a tale of courage, heroics, and triumph,” writes the late historian Jules Tygiel in Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy (1983, p. 206). “Epic in its proportions, the Robinson legend has persevered—and will continue to do so—because the myth, which rarely deviated from reality, fits our national perceptions of fair play and social progress” ( ibid. ). Tygiel remains correct, and the desire for racial justice clearly animates this documentary.

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Exploring records relating to African Americans with the Say It Loud! Employee Affinity Group

Rediscovering Black History

The First Time Jackie Robinson Broke Baseball’s Color Barrier

Today’s post was written by Bob Nowatzki, Archives Technician in Research Services at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland.

For good reason, Jackie Robinson’s debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947 at Ebbets Field is seen by many as a major event in the history of U.S. civil rights as well as sports history. However, that day was the second time Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier. The first time he did it was seventy-five years ago, on March 17, 1946, when he played second base for the Montreal Royals (a minor league affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers) in a spring training game at City Island Ball Park in Daytona Beach, Florida ( NAID 77841845 ). He played his first regular season game with the Royals against the Jersey City Giants on April 18, 1946. Baseball’s color line included not only major league teams but also their minor league affiliates, and this barrier had excluded African American players since 1889, when catcher Moses Fleetwood Walker played his last game for the minor league Syracuse Stars.

During spring training, Robinson encountered significant racial discrimination while playing in Florida. He was not allowed to stay at hotels with his white teammates, and games were cancelled in De Land and Jacksonville because local authorities objected to the presence of Robinson and Johnny Wright, another Black player on the Royals’ roster. During a game in Sanford, Robinson and Wright were forced to leave the game by local authorities. Robinson also had to face the racial hostility of white players and fans of opposing teams, and he was well aware of the racism of his manager Clay Hooper, who pleaded (unsuccessfully) with Dodgers president and general manager Branch Rickey to not sign him to the Royals. However, Robinson found the Montreal fans to be very supportive of him; when the Royals won the “Junior World Series” against the Louisville Colonels of the American Association, thousands of fans waited after the game to cheer him. Robinson excelled during his only year with Montreal, leading the International League with a .349 batting average and helping the Royals win the pennant as well as the Governor’s Cup (the International League championship) against the Syracuse Chiefs. His performance was good enough to justify Rickey’s decision to promote him to the Dodgers during the spring of 1947, when he would break the color line in Major League Baseball.

The National Archives has two records relating to City Island Ballpark, the stadium where Robinson broke baseball’s color line in March 1946 (the current stadium on this site is named Jackie Robinson Ballpark):

• Florida MPS City Island Ballpark ( NAID 77841845 )
• Florida SP City Island ( NAID 77844222 )

In addition, the National Archives has numerous records relating to Jackie Robinson, including his correspondence with Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson:

• Official Military Personnel File for Jackie Robinson ( NAID 57308498 )
• New York NHL John Roosevelt “Jackie” Robinson House ( NAID 75315787 )
• Letter from Lt. Jack Robinson to Truman K. Gibson ( NAID 159703346 )
• Jackie Robinson in his Brooklyn Dodgers Uniform ( NAID 6802718 )
• Letter from Jackie Robinson to President John F. Kennedy ( NAID 7329815 )
• Letter from Jackie Robinson to Robert F. Kennedy ( NAID 193948 )
• Telegram from Jackie Robinson to E. Frederick Morrow ( NAID 2619029 )
• Letter from Jackie Robinson to President Lyndon Baines Johnson ( NAID 7329806 )
• Letter from Jackie Robinson to President Eisenhower ( NAID 17368593 )
• Statement of Jackie Robinson before the House Un-American Activities Committee ( NAID 7822182 )
• Letter from Jackie Robinson to Roland Elliot, Deputy Special Assistant to President Richard Nixon ( NAID 7329808 )
• Former Baseball Player Jackie Robinson with his son at the Civil Rights March on Washington ( NAID 542024 )

A Field of Dreams: The Jackie Robinson Ballpark . from Teaching with Historic Places, National Park Service is a detailed lesson plan and teaching resource dealing with Jackie Robinson

Further reading:

• Jackie Robinson. I Never Had It Made: The Autobiography of Jackie Robinson . Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press, 1995.
• Arnold Rampersad, Jackie Robinson: A Biography . New York: Ballantine Books, 1998.
• Sharon Robinson, Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America . New York: Scholastic Press, 2004.
• (children’s book) John R. M. Wilson, Jackie Robinson and the American Dilemma . New York: Pearson, 2009.

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Jackie Robinson was a Republican until the GOP became the ‘white man’s party’

Chris Lamb , Indiana University

Jackie Robinson was a radical – don’t listen to the sanitized version of history

Peter Dreier , Occidental College

Did racism kill Jackie Robinson?

Tamra Burns Loeb , University of California, Los Angeles ; Alicia Morehead-Gee , Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science , and Derek Novacek , University of California, Los Angeles

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Jackie Robinson

By: History.com Editors

Updated: March 29, 2023 | Original: October 29, 2009

Jackie Robinson was an African American professional baseball player who broke Major Leagues Baseball’s infamous “ color barrier ” when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. Until that time, professional ballplayers of color suited up for teams only in the Negro Leagues . Today, April 15th is observed as Jackie Robinson Day throughout MLB franchises, with players wearing the former Dodgers’ jersey number 42. Robinson’s dazzling athletic prowess and grace under pressure effectively led to the integration of the Major Leagues, and his 10-year career with the Dodgers — and his outspoken activism in his later years — helped set the stage for the burgeoning civil rights movement .

When Was Jackie Robinson Born?

Jackie Robinson was born on January 31, 1919, in Cairo, Georgia, to a family of sharecroppers . He was the youngest of five children.

After his father abandoned the family in 1920, they moved to Pasadena , California, where his mother, Mallie, worked a series of odd jobs to support herself and her children. Though Pasadena was a fairly affluent suburb of Los Angeles at the time, the Robinsons were poor, and Jackie and his friends in the city’s small Black community were often excluded from recreational activities.

That began to change when Jackie enrolled at John Muir High School in 1935. His older brother Mack, a silver medalist in track and field at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin , inspired him to pursue his interest in athletics, and the younger Robinson ultimately earned varsity letters in baseball, basketball, football and track while at Muir.

After graduating high school, Jackie attended Pasadena Junior College for two years, where he continued to have success in all four sports. Following the death of another older brother, Frank, in a motorcycle accident, Jackie decided to honor his memory by enrolling at UCLA in 1939.

There, he became the first Bruin to earn varsity letters in four sports — the same four in which he starred in high school — and he won the NCAA long jump championship in 1940. Jackie also met his future wife, Rachel, while at UCLA.

Did you know? In 1997, 50 years after Robinson integrated baseball, his number, 42, was permanently retired by every team in Major League Baseball.

Jackie Robinson in the U.S. Army

Jackie ultimately left college in the spring of his senior year, just a few credits short of his graduation. He accepted a job as an athletic administrator, but his dreams remained focused on the field of play.

He spent two years playing semi-professional football for integrated teams in leagues in Hawaii and California before being drafted into the U.S. Army in the spring of 1942, during World War II , although he never saw combat.

He was accepted into Officer Candidate School and was assigned to segregated Army units, first in Kansas and then in Texas. During this time, however, he remained close to Rachel, with whom he became engaged in 1943.

In 1944, Jackie was nearly court-martialed after he boarded a bus at Fort Hood in Texas and refused the driver’s order to sit in the back, as segregationist practices in the United States dictated at the time.

He was acquitted on all the charges and court-martialed, but it has been said that his experiences during the proceedings likely shaped his response to the racist taunts he received, a few years later, from fans and fellow players at the start of his professional baseball career.

Jackie was honorably discharged from the Army in November 1944, and he took a job coaching basketball at a college in Austin , Texas.

Jackie Robinson's Professional Sports Career

In early 1945, Jackie Robinson was signed by the Negro League team the Kansas City Monarchs, where he starred for one season, hitting .387.

At the time, Brooklyn Dodgers executive Branch Rickey was scouting the Negro Leagues, looking for players who not only had the talent but the demeanor to withstand the pressures associated with integrating Major League Baseball . Robinson was one of several players Rickey interviewed in August 1945 for assignment to the Dodgers’ farm team in Montreal, the Royals.

It is said that during the interview, Rickey demanded that Robinson not respond when on the receiving end of racial abuse. Robinson reportedly said, “Are you looking for a Negro who is afraid to fight back?” To which Rickey replied that he was looking for a person “with guts enough not to fight back.”

Once Robinson agreed to “turn the other cheek,” a Biblical phrase used by the religious baseball executive, he was assigned to the Royals for the 1946 season, where he was embraced by Montreal fans and batted an impressive .349. His performance both on and off the field earned him a call-up to Brooklyn the following season.

Jackie Robinson and the Dodgers

His debut with the Dodgers in 1947 was greeted with a lot of attention—not all of it positive. Although Robinson quickly proved he belonged as a player, the color of his skin was an issue for opposing teams and fans.

Hearing racist taunts from fans and players prior to a game, Dodgers teammate Pee Wee Reese is said to have put his arm around Robinson on the field to indicate that he was accepted by those wearing a Brooklyn uniform. Still, Robinson endured racist obscenities, hate mail and death threats for much of his career.

It was his play in the field that ultimately silenced his critics. In 1947, his first year with the Dodgers, he earned the inaugural “Rookie of the Year” award. Despite having been signed by the Dodgers at the relatively old age of 28, Robinson would go on to hit .311 over a 10-year career. He became the first Black player to win the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949, when he led the league in hitting with a .342 average, most stolen bases (37) and achieving a career-high 124 RBI. Robinson was an All-Star every year from 1949-1954. He led Brooklyn to a World Series championship over the rival New York Yankees in 1955.

Robinson retired after that season, and thus didn’t follow the Dodgers when the club moved to Los Angeles following the 1957 campaign.

Jackie Robinson Quotes

“I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me … all I ask is that you respect me as a human being.”

“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”

"Baseball is like a poker game. Nobody wants to quit when he's losing; nobody wants you to quit when you're ahead.”

"Life is not a spectator sport. If you're going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you're wasting your life."

"There's not an American in this country free until every one of us is free."

"As I write these words now I cannot stand and sing the National Anthem. I have learned that I remain a Black in a white world."

"Above anything else, I hate to lose."

Jackie Robinson: Legacy and Death

After retiring from the Dodgers, Robinson acted as a sportscaster, worked as a business executive at Chock full o'Nuts and was active in the NAACP and other civil rights groups.

Weakened by heart disease and diabetes, Robinson died in 1972 at the age of 53 from a heart attack suffered at his home in Stamford , Connecticut.

Thousands attended his funeral service, including former teammates and other professional athletes. His eulogy was delivered by the Reverend Jesse Jackson , who declared, “When Jackie took the field, something reminded us of our birthright to be free.”

Jackie Robinson Foundation Scholarship

Following his death, his wife Rachel, by then an assistant professor in the Yale School of Nursing , established the Jackie Robinson Foundation . In addition to recognizing other trailblazers in sports, the foundation awards the Jackie Robinson Foundation Scholarship to minority students.

Robinson’s jersey number 42 was retired by all big-league teams in 1997, meaning it could no longer be worn by any player. Those players already wearing the number were allowed to keep it.

The gesture was meant to honor Robinson’s legacy and the historic impact he had on professional baseball, sports in general and, by extension, American society, and in recognition of the difficulties the athlete faced in breaking Major League Baseball’s color barrier.

Jackie Robinson Movies: ‘The Jackie Robinson Story’ and ‘42’

In 1950, Robinson played himself in a movie on his life called “ The Jackie Robinson Story .” And in 2013, a movie about Robinson’s life called “ 42 ” was released to critical acclaim, with his widow involved in the production.

Baseball Hall of Fame. “Jackie Robinson.” BaseballHall.org . Lamb, C. (2019). “How Jackie Robinson’s wife, Rachel, helped him break baseball’s color line.” TheConversation.com . Breslin, Jimmy. (2011). Branch Rickey: A Life . Penguin Random House . Jackie Robinson: 7 memorable quotes. ABC7NY.com . Jackie Robinson. Baseball Reference .

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Looking Back at the Jackie Robinson Film ’42’

This article was written by  Adam MacKinnon

This article was published in Not an Easy Tale to Tell: Jackie Robinson on the Page, Stage, and Screen

Chadwick Boseman portrays Jackie Robinson in the Warner Bros/Legendary Entertainment motion picture 42. (Courtesy of Alamy)

The New York City skyline gleams in the background. A gravelly but urgent voice begins talking as the music swells to the climactic line delivered by the legendary Harrison Ford before it drops to the epic Jay-Z anthem “Brooklyn (Go Hard).” Slick action shots of diving catches and epic home runs peppered in between intense scenes of confrontation and triumph, punctuated by the slow-motion cap tip, and BAM! The nation’s pastoral pastime gets an epic trailer, all centered on arguably its most important player ever, Jackie Robinson. You didn’t have to be a baseball fan to feel the neck hairs begin to move after watching that.

It was 2013 and baseball hadn’t just lost its toehold in modern American culture, it had nearly fallen off the cliff altogether. The 2012 World Series recorded the lowest TV ratings (at that time) since the games had begun broadcasting in 1968 and, despite the critical success of 2011’s Moneyball , a baseball movie hadn’t really had a notable cultural impact since A League of Their Own in 1992. Lucrative TV contracts had moved baseball off of national networks, fracturing the game’s fans into fenced-in compounds and leaving behind generations of younger fans who had turned away from the cable companies that fostered these high-dollar deals. The game needed to reach new, younger fans while telling stories that took place before even their parents were alive. It seemed an opportune time for a baseball movie to bring some flash and style to a game that seemed to be very much lacking it at the moment. Who better to bring those qualities than the man who brought it to the game in real life? Jackie Robinson.

While portrayals of Robinson had appeared on stage ( The First, Play to Win) and on TV ( The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson, Soul of the Game) , an all-encompassing biopic hadn’t made its way to the silver screen since 1950, when Jackie played himself in The Jackie Robinson Story . Such a project hadn’t really gained a lot of traction until the 1990s, when Spike Lee had floated the idea as a passion project, wanting Denzel Washington (then in his 40s) to play Robinson. According to Lee himself in an Instagram post in 2020, he recalled that Denzel was the one who cited his age as a factor for turning it down, saying “…I wrote a script for Jackie Robinson. I wanted Denzel to play Jackie, but Denzel said he was too old.” 1 The film project allegedly evaporated over creative differences, and the idea of a Jackie Robinson biopic seemed to wither on the vine until Robert Redford reportedly took up the concept in 2004. Development of the idea didn’t begin until 2011, which had Redford serving as not only the film’s producer, but also playing the role of Branch Rickey, until Harrison Ford signed on to play the charismatic Dodgers executive. Brian Helgeland of LA Confidential fame signed on to direct, and a young, relatively unknown television actor named Chadwick Boseman was brought in to play Jackie Robinson.

Boseman was a relative newcomer when 42 was released in 2013. A native of South Carolina and graduate of Howard University, Boseman had seen some success on television with his roles in Lincoln Heights and Persons Unknown , but had yet to make his debut as a leading man in a movie before being selected to take on the part in 42. Helgeland was impressed with Boseman, though, and later said during a Washington Post interview, “He had to play one of the bravest men who ever lived, so I thought that he came in brave was a great indication.” 2 It doesn’t take long into the movie to see that bravery pay off, as we see him become Jackie Robinson.

When first seeing Boseman in the vintage Dodger white and blue jersey, one can’t help but notice the physical differences between him and Robinson. His slender frame and raspy vocals are notably a ways off from Robinson’s muscular build and higher-pitched voice, but those physical differences melt away as the movie takes shape. Boseman truly embodies the range and depth of Jackie, giving emotion and life to someone who was told to be silent and stoic. Probably most impressive is how he shows Jackie’s sense of humor during the movie, as a sort of coping mechanism for the horrendous abuse he endures. His wry smile makes an appearance multiple times, like when Wendell Smith (the writer assigned to Robinson’s personal needs during his time with the Dodgers, here portrayed by André Holland) is frantically driving Robinson out of town in the middle of the night away from the threat of racist tormentors. Smith frantically explains why he’s speeding off into the night only to be shocked by Robinson’s laughter. He thought Smith was driving him away at such an odd hour because he was cut from the team.

The true standout moment from the film though, is the exchange between Philadelphia Phillies manager Ben Chapman (played chillingly well by otherwise likable actor Alan Tudyk) and Robinson. Chapman spews a seemingly endless fountain of racial slurs and epithets at Robinson, which may cause modern (White) audiences to shift in their seats or avert their eyes, but was unfortunately true to life for that time in history. While on the field, Robinson takes the abuse seemingly unaffected, but after a particularly brutal verbal assault, he grabs a bat and escapes to the tunnel where he releases a guttural shout and smashes the bat to kindling. He collapses in tears, spent from both the penting and release of the anger that consumes him, only to be picked up by Branch Rickey, who appears almost celestially behind him, quietly reminding him of the importance of his task, and nudging him back to the field. It is a powerful moment, where we truly see the cracks in the otherwise impenetrable hide of the story’s hero. It is a powerful moment, and lends a more human element to Robinson than his typical image, where he took those fountains of hate in stride and never broke a sweat. It’s hard to see how he didn’t, given the magnitude not only of the pressure on him to absorb the abuse, but the added pressure of having to perform. While that moment in the film may never have happened in the actual story, it reminds the audience that this incredible person doing this incredible thing is still a person—a human being.

As with a lot of American stories that get the Hollywood treatment, parts are often embellished for dramatic effect, or paper over aspects of the truth that may not be as convenient for moviegoers that one can assume may not be as familiar with the subject matter. After all, watching baseball isn’t a prerequisite to buying a ticket to 42 . To help balance the temptations of oversimplifying the story with staying authentic to the life of the man himself, Rachel Robinson, Jackie’s widow, was brought on to ensure that it was being told properly. She told Fox Sports Detroit in an interview when the movie was released, “I didn’t want them to make him an angry black man or some stereotype, so it was important for me to be there.” 3 One could argue that she succeeded on this front, because 42 offers a trait to its lead that is often deliberately omitted from major biopics, in order to retain its hero’s “above the fray” status: compassion. We see Jackie doting over his newborn baby son before heading off for a game. We see him playfully flirting with his wife, being attentive, affectionate, even vulnerable with her. These are traits that more often than not are left out of characters in order to make them seem more determined, focused on the task at hand. To see this emotional range is a compliment to the acting of Boseman and writing of Brian Helgeland, but on a higher level, it is a credit to Rachel Robinson and her involvement. To much of White America, the defining trait of Jackie Robinson was his toughness, his ability to endure the punishment to the point where he becomes an almost biblical figure. In this movie, you see a human side to him that could only really be told by someone who saw it in real time, up close and personal.

The release of 42 brought a wide range of critical reactions but ultimately aggregated into a moderate success among the movie-learned. Harrison Ford and Chadwick Boseman in particular received praise for their roles, with one critic noting that, “Harrison Ford said he wanted to disappear into the role of Branch Rickey, and he damn near does.” 4 Boseman was also given kudos for relishing his first leading role in a major movie, including “It’s not easy to play a stoic, but Boseman anchors the movie, and when he smiles, 42 , already such a warm story of such cold times, gets even brighter.” 5 There were some though, who argued that the parts didn’t exactly sum up to a great movie, most notably Richard Roeper saying that the movie was “…a mostly unexceptional film about an exceptional man.” 6

One nagging shortfall of the movie isn’t necessarily what it did do, but the opportunities that were missed in the telling of how Robinson came to be on the Dodgers, and the ripple effects of his arrival. There’s a brief mention of some other Negro League players like Satchel Paige in the beginning, with Rickey quipping “I need a player with a future, not a past, ” before dismissing him as a potential addition to the team, but that element is left to die on the vine. Robinson’s embarrassment of a tryout for the Boston Red Sox in 1945 is completely omitted, and the embrace he received from fans in Canada is never even mentioned. Probably the biggest head-scratcher of the movie, though, is that rather than expand on the path that Jackie forged for other Black players, and really emphasize the scope of what his arrival and his handling of it accomplished, it ends honing in on the pennant race of 1947, basically just playing out the rest of the regular season. Those incredibly impactful points and historical landmarks? Relegated to footnotes in a brief epilogue, like a slideshow thrown in at the end of a history lesson. For a film that was clearly designed for the non-baseball enthusiast, it felt like a real swing-and-miss moment.

Regardless of whatever shortcomings, the movie showed up strong at the box office, grossing over $95 million, good enough for second all-time for baseball movies only behind A League of Their Own in 1992, which grossed $107.5 million. Of course, the latter had the contemporary star power of Rosie O’Donnell, Gina Davis, Tom Hanks, and Madonna to propel its draw, while 42 had a notable star in Ford, but relative unknowns or character actors in every other corner. One could argue that makes the financial accomplishments of the film even more remarkable, especially when you consider that 42 had obstacles like the internet to deal with. One could attribute its success at the box office to the fact that it broke the mold of previous baseball movies that placed the game at its center and built the stories around it. Instead, Brian Helgeland created an action movie with baseball as its stage. It took a game that many younger viewers thought was too slow and out of touch, and gave it a shot of adrenaline to get younger eyes to the screen and keep them there. It was a baseball movie that conformed to the times it was made, not the times it depicted.

Even if 42 may have fallen short in breaking ground the same way its subject did, the biggest takeaway is that Chadwick Boseman’s portrayal of Jackie Robinson was captivating, complete, and charismatic. The movie allowed us to see Robinson beyond what we learned in our history books and painted a very human picture of a legend, and gave those who may not have known his story something to remember. Much like Robinson himself, the stage may not have been perfect, but Boseman played the part like no one else could.

ADAM C. MacKINNON is a lifelong baseball fan and author of Baseball For Kids: A Young Fan’s Guide to the History of the Game. His writing can also be found in Baseball Almanac, Call to the Pen, and his own blog and podcast, Romantic About Baseball. He currently lives in Delaware with his wife and daughter.

1 “Spike Lee shares Unproduced Screenplay for Dream Jackie Robinson Biopic,” Collider, March 30, 2020. https://collider.com/spike-lee-jackie-robinson-script/

2 Mark Jenkins, “Jackie Robinson film ‘42’ Opens, starring Howard Graduate Chadwick Boseman,” Washington Post, April 11, 2013. https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/jackie-robinson-film-42-opens-starring-howard-graduate-chadwick-boseman/2013/04/11/dbdc8664-9e02-11e2-a941-a19bce7af755_story.html

3 “Rachel Robinson reflects on role in making ‘42’,” Fox Sports Detroit, April 15, 2013. https://www.foxsports.com/detroit/story/rachelrobinson-reflects-on-role-in-making-42-041513

4 Jason Fraley, “Jackie Robinson Hailed as Mythic Hero in ‘42’,” wtop.com , April 11, 2013. https://wtop.com/reviews/2013/04/jackierobinson-hailed-as-mythic-hero-in-42/

5 Mary Pols, “ 42 : The Jackie Robinson Biopic is a Solid Hit,” entertainment.time.com , April 12, 2013. https://entertainment.time.com/2013/04/12/42-the-jackie-robinson-biopic-is-a-solid-hit/

6 Richard Roeper, “42,” rogerebert.com , April 11, 2013, https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/42-2013

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