Jackie Robinson: First Class Citizen
the measure of this man was written in his letters
2007-10-30
Reviewed by Brian Gilmore

First Class Citizenship: The Civil Rights Letters of Jackie Robinson
Michael G. Long
Times Books (359 pages)

There was a time that African-American male athletes fancied themselves citizens of the world with intellectual accomplishments, professional aspirations, athletic prowess and, most importantly, a willingness and commitment to racial justice in America. The great Paul Robeson is in this group as is the tennis legend Arthur Ashe. There are countless others who could be given a shout out here as well.

Jackie Robinson, the man who walked into history back in 1945 when he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers’ baseball organization and broke the color line (he actually integrated Major League Baseball when he played in a game on April 15, 1947), might be, with the exception of Robeson, the most representative member of this storied and legendary group of black men. His life, while seemingly that of a sports figure, is really the story of an African-American who was, indeed, a citizen of the world.

Professor Michael G. Long’s book, First Class Citizenship: The Civil Rights Letters of Jackie Robinson, provides strong evidence of Robinson as one of the prototypes. In First Class Citizenship, Long accumulates Robinson’s writing life and it is more revealing than much of what has been written about Robinson over the years. In effect, Long challenges the limiting American myth that labels Robinson as just a courageous, yet tempered star, who integrated baseball.

Robinson shows himself to be more than player, he was a businessman (he became an executive with the coffee company, Chock Full o’ Nuts after retirement), an intellectual (he wrote a regular political column for the New York Post where some of these letters appear) and political activist (he tirelessly worked behind the scenes for the cause of civil rights with politicians and activists).

It is all here too. There are letters by Robinson to and from Nelson Rockefeller, Richard Nixon, Dwight Eisenhower, Barry Goldwater, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Roy Wilkins and many other key figures in the movement. It is a journey through American history.

The letters reveal Robinson’s many emotional sides as well: angry, optimistic, perhaps naive, but also a man willing to succeed within the system despite the deep-seated racial wounds he faced everyday. His letter to the Black Muslim leader, Malcolm X is case in point.

Malcolm attacked Robinson in a November 30, 1963 column in New York’s black newspaper, The Amsterdam News. Malcolm had not yet split from the Nation of Islam and was still carrying the party line, lambasting Robinson for trying to "win the Big Game" for the "White Boss," a person that Malcolm X describes in a variety of contexts in his column.

Robinson, who never ran from a fight, and who had a shrewd writing style, went after Malcolm without apology. He called Malcolm’s views "racist" and cheerfully told him that "to be attacked by you is a tribute." It was just one example of the hidden Jackie Robinson, the tireless advocate for full citizenship.

His letters to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King are some of the best in the collection. Robinson’s devotion to King’s cause is clear. Ideologically, King and Robinson were close even though Robinson was a Republican, as were many Blacks at the time. In one May 1960 letter, Robinson calls for unity among the various civil rights groups after reports of infighting surfaced.

"Let’s not be a party to the old game of divide and conquer. The N.A.A.C.P as any group, has its’ faults, but the good the organization has done cannot be measured. Talk like this sets our cause back."

King answered Robinson with a tour de force letter on June 19, 1960 letting Robinson know that "the job ahead is too great, and the days are too bright to be bickering in the darkness of jealousy..." It is one of several letters that demonstrates the love the men had for each other as they fought the same fight on different fronts.

Robinson’s literary exchanges with the legendary New York Congressmen, Adam Clayton Powell, are not as cordial and respectful. Powell, a Northerner, and a firebrand in the Democratic Party and Congress, took Robinson to task for a specific reason: his support of Republican politicians who were perceived to be using Robinson as a pawn.

Powell wrote Robinson on June 15, 1960 specifically about his support for Richard Nixon for President and included a copy of Nixon’s civil rights voting record. Powell let Robinson know at the time that "Nixon has grown but...it is totally wrong for him to say that his record has been consistently good, because it has not."

As letters to and from Nixon and Nelson Rockefeller show, Robinson was probably too party loyal for too long and almost too even-handed.

Only after Nixon used the famous Southern strategy to win the 1968 election and then fully embraced the racially divisive policies of the post-civil rights Republican Party, did Robinson, who endorsed the Democrat, Hubert Humphrey, slowly drift away from Nixon. In a letter to Nixon in 1972, he writes "I want to love this nation...as I once did." It was a low moment for Robinson, the optimist, considering he once was in Nixon’s corner completely.

As for Rockefeller, a man Robinson admired politically for years, the Attica Prison uprising and riot of 1971 that saw 23 African-American prisoners shot and killed sent Robinson over the edge.

"I cannot fight any longer, Governor, for I believe you have lost the sensitivity and understanding I felt was yours when I worked with you. Somehow, I think getting ahead politically is more important to you than what is right."

There are, of course, countless other small instances of political history here where Robinson was a player beyond the definition we know.

In a recent GQ profile, Michael Jordan is quoted as eschewing politics because it would have taken his focus from what he did best. Jackie Robinson’s letter and life prove that being good at what you do only provides the platform for greatness. True heroism comes in what else you do with your life.

Brian Gilmore is an attorney and writer based in Washington, D.C.