Author: Kyle Schafer
Final Draft of Thesis - Section 2
Historiography
Much has been written about Jackie Robinson’s achievement, and rightfully so. He blazed a path and broke through the chains of oppression in one of the most American institutions. Many people have analyzed the factors leading up to and following the breaking of the color barrier. The historian who has written the seminal works chronicling Robinson’s career is Jules Tygiel. In his book, Baseball’s Great Experiment, Tygiel mainly focuses on Jackie’s playing career, as well as instances therein, and his struggle to get to the Majors to different aspects of equality. Tygiel asserts that Jackie held on to the belief that he, “...stood as confirmation that the American Dream encompassed all, regardless of race.” He was able to attain a high standard of living, rise to the top of several businesses, and overcome racism to become prosperous.
In Jackie Robinson: Race, Sports, and the American Dream, a collection of essays on and relating to Jackie Robinson and his impact on sports and society, Patrick Henry argues, as many others echo, that Jackie accomplished a lot for black people, but also a tremendous amount for white people as well. Moreover, he asserts that Jackie was a civil rights leader, before Dr. King and Malcolm X.
Henry even said of Jackie’s style, that he, “...came to symbolize the new American black–proud, defiant, articulate, no longer patiently waiting to receive civil rights, and no longer willing to reinforce an image of inferiority by expressing gratitude for getting his or her due.” He was truly a shining beacon of hope, and an inspirational role model, more than a decade before Dr. King attained national notoriety.
On his Republican political leanings, Alfred Duckett, in his section in The Jackie Robinson Reader (edited by Jules Tygiel) introducing an excerpt from Robinson’s 1972 autobiography, explains that Jackie supported the moderate wing of the Republican Party. He was a big supporter of New York Republican, Nelson Rockefeller, because he was the primary moderate Republican. In 1964, when the party shifted toward Conservatism, at the convention, he supported Johnson, instead of Goldwater.
Meanwhile, he wanted blacks to become active in both parties, so that their votes would not be taken for granted by one major party, and their demands be minimized. Jackie saw the clearest path toward integration in a more conservative tactic. It wasn’t marching to demand civil rights, but achieving economic gains, and becoming part of the national economy.
I intend to expand on many of these themes by asserting several different ideas. First, as he was a Republican, I feel that he would principally remain in the GOP, but would reach outside of the “Big Tent” to support a Democratic candidate, if he were the right man to fight for civil rights and equality. I also intend to build on Jules Tygiel’s belief that Robinson saw himself as proof of the American Dream, but by dissecting it and looking at it through his ability to achieve all he was able to achieve. However, I will mainly focus on Patrick Henry’s assertion that Jackie was a civil rights leader. I will go in-depth and examine what Jackie did and went through to become the civil rights leader that Henry says Robinson is.
Jackie Robinson: Civil Rights Leader - Index
- Jackie Robinson: Civil Rights Leader
- Jackie Robinson - Historiography
- Jackie Robinson - The Back Story
- Jackie Robinson - Black Ballplayers and Branch Rickey
- Jackie Robinson - Becoming Political
- Jackie Robinson - Post-retirement
- Jackie Robinson - Support of and Backlash Against the Movement
- Jackie Robinson - Conclusion
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