The scene
When the esteemed F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote years ago, “Show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy,” he most assuredly did not have Jackie Robinson in mind.
Yet when the heroic Robinson emerged from the passion play that was the integration of Major League Baseball in the spring of 1947, the feat certainly addressed the tragedy of race relations that existed in this country half a century ago…and even to this very day.
This in a country that purported that “all men are created equal, endowed with certain inalienable rights among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
The men
Fifty years ago the pursuit of professional baseball happiness was restricted to White men. Not since Moses Fleetwood Walker and his brother Weldly Walker made brief appearances in 1884 had the national pastime, as baseball was dubbed, seen Blacks and Whites share the same playing field. Thereafter, any men of color who aspired to play professionally had to restrict their myriad talents to the Negro Leagues, which sprouted up in the early 1900s, or travel to Mexico and other Caribbean countries to compete.
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