Baseball Great Jackie Robinson Dies
by: Dr. Clint Wilson
Baseball fans and humanitarians everywhere were saddened by the death of one of the most significant personalities in American history. Jackie Robinson, the man who integrated major league baseball - and by extension practically every other professional sport - was a proud symbol for Black Americans.
Robinson not only played the game with a high degree of skill, but also with a dignified presence that earned the admiration of humanitarians and the wrath of bigots.
Now, more than 50 years after he broke the color barrier in baseball, Robinson is recognized as someone who contributed much to breaking such barriers in almost every aspect of American life.
Sam Lacy, the black sports writer who covered Robinson’s career and who had been in the forefront of urging baseball’s integration, wrote about Jackie’s funeral for readers of the Baltimore Afro-American.
THOUSANDS PAY SAD HOMAGE TO JACKIE;
PLAYER TURNOUT IS DISAPPOINTING
NEW YORK - The elegant Riverside Church, equipped to accommodate 2,500 persons, was over taxed by at least another 500 who stood along the side walls and blocked the exits at the back.
A police estimate placed at 30,000 the crowds which lined 125th Street as the funeral procession made its way through Harlem; another 5,000 at the entrance to the Triboro Bridge which spans the East River en route to Brooklyn, and still another 2,000 awaiting the cortege when it reached the fresh green landscape of ...
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