Jackie Robinson Suffers One More Indignity

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Jackie Robinson had an exceptionally distinguished college athletic record from his days at Pasadena Junior College and UCLA where he had lettered at both schools in baseball, football, basketball, and track and field well before he played his one season (1945) with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Baseball League - and certainly well before he broke the color barrier in 1947 when he signed to play Major League Baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers.  But even with a stellar record as an accomplished athlete, Robinson suffered many personal attacks and indignities as he struggled in demonstrating to the world - and especially to other players - his abilities in the game of baseball, all the while trying to hold the door open so that other athletes of color could join him at the show.

Robinson died of a heart attack more that fifty years ago at the extremely young age of only fifty-three.  The hall-of-famer had proven himself on the field having appeared in six World Series and six All-Star games during his ten years with the Dodgers, and, perhaps more importantly, he had successfully navigated the racially charged waters of professional sports and become an icon in the game of baseball - and he had become an inspiration for young athletes of color the world over.

Sadly, a half-century after the death of this baseball legend, one more indignity has been heaped atop a long list of personal affronts.  Last Thursday night a bronze, life-sized statue of Jackie Robinson, was severed at the ankles at a park in Wichita, Kansas, and hauled off in a truck by persons unknown to a destination and for a purpose also unknown.

The statue's monetary value was $75,000, but its emotional value to the children who visited the park and particularly to the members of League 42, a children's baseball league whose name is derived from Robinson's uniform number, is obviously incalculable.   

Rewards have been posted for information leading to the arrest of the thieves, as well as for the safe return of the statue.

McAdams Park, the place where the statue of Robinson recently stood, serves as a sports complex for youth teams from five to fourteen years of age.  Participants are primarily from low-income households, much like the household in which Robinson grew up.   The park has a focus of honoring individuals of color who had a strong impact on the community.

Local police are stressing a desire to get the statue back before Black History month begins on February 1st.    Donations have also been coming in for its replacement.

One local official described the theft of the Jackie Robinson statue as a "crime against children."  

All that remains of the replica of Jackie Robinson now are his bronze shoes standing atop home plate.  Those shoes form a reminder of the loneliness that Jackie Robinson must have felt on that April day in 1947 when he stepped onto Ebbets Field in Brooklyn and stood there bravely representing an entire subjugated race in the face of baseball as it had always been but no longer was.

Jackie Robinson was a beacon of hope for millions, and his statue helped to share his story and inspiration with the children of Wichita.   He is theirs, and he must be returned!