“I can still hear him.”
How Jackie Robinson inspired black and white kids alike all over America
It’s spring training in 1946 for the Brooklyn Dodgers, and Jackie Robinson is boarding a train to a game. Ed Charles, at the time, a small black boy, sees Jackie, and Jackie tosses Ed a ball. Ed chases the train until it disappears into the distance. He gets on his knees and lowers his ear to the train track, and yells, “I can still hear him.”
Jackie didn’t only break the color barrier in baseball, but he inspired so many young African American kids to chase their dreams not only in baseball but also in life. Ed Charles would go on to play over 1,000 games in the MLB and win the World Series in 1969 with the Mets.
Jackie Robinson always wondered why Branch Rickey, the Brooklyn Dodgers owner, wanted to bring in a black man to play for them. The amount of turmoil and backlash he would receive not only around the league but the country could destroy him. “ Why did you do this, Mr. Rickey?” Jackie asks. Mr. Rickey says, “ We had a victory over fascism in Germany,” and Jackie stops him and says, “ No, why did you do it?” Mr. Rickey replies,
“40 years ago, I was a player-coach at Ohio Wesleyan University. We had a Negro catcher, best hitter on the team. Saw him laid low and broken because of the color of his skin and I didn’t do enough to help. Told myself I did, but I didn’t. There was something unfair at the heart of the game I love, and I ignored it. But a time came where I could no longer do that.”
This was my second time watching 42, and it was more enlightening this time than before. Not only is the acting by Chadwick Boseman stellar, but you truly do experience the movie like you are there. Boseman is not shy to films based around breaking racial barriers. In Marshall, Boseman played Thurgood Marshall, the first black Supreme Court Justice; in Get on Up, he played the Godfather of Soul, James Brown. He would also later go on to star as King T’Challa in Marvel blockbuster Black Panther. Sadly, Boseman lost his life to a battle with colon cancer in August 2020, but like Jackie Robinson, his legacy continues to inspire.
The most impressive thing for me while watching the film was how Jackie transformed as a person. When Mr. Rickey brings Jackie into his office at the beginning of the film, he tells him, “I want a player who got the guts not to fight back.” Now, this is important because Jackie has been known to be stubborn. If Jackie loses his temper or fights back, people will only remember that he fought back, not that he was instigated. He will most likely be banished from the League, and nobody will remember his unparalleled gifts.
Yet as time goes on, Jackie faces many hardships, yet retains composure. In one harrowing scene, every time Jackie goes up to bat, the Phillies’ manager Ben Champman calls him racial slurs over and over. After striking out, Jackie breaks down. He retreats to the tunnel, smashes his bat, and starts crying. Mr. Rickey comes to comfort him: “We need you; everyone needs you, Jack. Now get on base and score and help us win this game.” In his next at bat, Jackie hits a single to right and then scores the winning run.
Just watching this scene almost made me tear up. Jackie Robinson, for both his athletic exploits and his inner fortitude, became an inspiration for all Americans.
Jackie Robinson and Martin Luther King were similar in many ways. Both took brave steps to achieve a goal of equality for everyone. A day before Dr. King’s assassination, King asked us “to develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness.” Nobody embodied this more than Jackie.
“Jackie Robinson made my success possible. Without him, I would never have been able to do what I did.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
