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Jackie AtHermonBy ALVIN F. 0ICKLEJackie Robinson ..... .baseball.. .Branch Rickey... Brooklyn... money... black... crowds.. .blackcrowds., .black money... black Brooklyn black Jackie Robinson..,Hall of Fame... white... Branch Rickey.. .white Branch Rickey... white Brooklyn... white baseball...... and black Jackie Robinson.-o- o- -o-NAMES mean more than the people who carry them, sometimes. Think of George Washington and maybe you think of a new country dreaming up a new government. Say the name ofJoseph McCarthy and maybe it brings to mind the fear of innuendo. Read the name Plato, and think wisdom. Hear of Jackie Robinson and consider that only 20 years ago professional sports were white.Was Branch Rickey the man who brought the black infielder into Brooklyn to play major league ball, really all that much a humanitarian? Or was it that he sensed there was money to be made with the black athlete?Jackie Robinson, the man who cracked the white line for so many athletes in so many other sports—-is going to give the commencement address at Mount Hermon School next month.It seems tribute enough to this nation that nobody is likely to wonder if this is the first timethe prestigious boys academy has had a black man giving the big speech on graduation day. And even if one were to dare to wonder, It would be unfashionable to inquire, wouldn’t it?-o- -o- -o*IT'S ENOUGH that Jackie Robinson is a symbol of a new, more reasonable period in man’s history. It’s enough, that is, to know that he made it and because he made it hundreds ofother black kids have a chance to earn lots of money and to pull their families up another notch or two on society’s ladders.But Jackie Robinson is more than a symbol. Branch Rickey chose a young man with talent. He couldn’t afford to be wrong. The black kid he selected to play on his team had to be sureto belong on the Dodgers. But,just as important, that black kid had to have a certain awareness of what his playing in Brooklyn meant. It required his taking in some ways more abuse than many Negro athletes are willing to take even today.So Branch Rickey chose well. It was enough that Jackie should be a symbol but he was more than that. He was«a very special man. That, of course, is why he will be on the- podium at Mount Hermon School next month. Commencement platforms require very special people to give the addresses. Jackie Robinson has much to say.„-o--o--o-’TTHAT BLACK HAIR of hisyouth has gone almost snow white. But when he talks there is the same enthusiasm. His words are given out eagerly, just as they were when he sat around college dorms debatingand, later, after he learned to trust some of the newspaper writers, when he talked in the locker room after games. Jackie is successful enoughso that he could go off fishingfor the rest of his life and never worry much about money. But for Jackie Robinson, success isn’t money. It isn't even being Jackie Robinson, although he knows, as he has known all along, exactly what it means to have been Jackie Robinson, black baseball player.Success for Jackie Robinson is much deeper than that. It isin being a whole man. And a whole man can find his own complete dimensions only by giving all that he believes to help all other men. Jackie Robinson does that by being what Branch Rickey saw in ,him two decades ago.There are no shopping districts that he wants to burndown and loot nor any collegecampuses he wants to smash.For Jackie Robinson, there isonly one way to achieve and that is through performance and,..through dignity.-o--o--o-DIGNITY isn’t any easier to define than morality. Dignity can’t be measured by how tall a man stands or by how he bends over to put out a helping hand. Nor is morality defined by meeting another man’s conscience.Jackie Robinson is one of the most dignified men in America. He has the confidence that makes assurance a quiet, pleasant virtue. He has the ease and relaxed attitude that come only from knowing that his goals are being met.This is not to say that Jackie Robinson will stop working for equality or that he will achieve no more. Being a whole man and one who seeks success, he will go on through his lifebringing the dignity of his manhood and the assurance of his equality wherever he goes.*It is enough that Jackie Robinson is who he is. That he is really so much more and can continue to be is a reward we can attribute only to God. Mount Hermon seniors may think they are getting a former baseball player for a commencement speaker. How much better it is that they are getting a man.
Newspaper Details
Greenfield Recorder
Greenfield, Massachusetts, US
Mon, May 18, 1970
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Canton S.
OK, USA 21 Nov 2019
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