Branch Rickey and Pee Wee Reese have always been the secondary heroes most associated with Jackie Robinson’s racial integration of Major League Baseball. Rickey was the Dodger general manager who signed Robinson and helped prepare him for the trials of the 1947 season; Reese was the Brooklyn shortstop and captain who publicly put his arm around Robinson to deflect the racist feelings of some fans.
The role played by Rachel Robinson, Jackie’s widow, had for a long time been forgotten, perhaps as a result of her quiet nature and her failure to seek attention. As evidenced, however, by the reception she received at Citi Field on April 15, her many contributions to baseball and society are finally beginning to earn Rachel Robinson her due.
“She is American royalty,” said Mets executive vice president Dave Howard – a sentiment repeated a few minutes later by U.S. representative Eliot Engel.
“There’s just an aura about her, and you just want to sit down with her and just talk baseball and talk about all the life experiences she’s been through,” Mets third baseman David Wright told The Queens Courier. “I wish I could talk to her more, but she’s a lovely woman, and fortunately she comes out to … see us play every so often, so I enjoy it when she does come.”
Rachel Robinson was in attendance on April 15 for both a Jackie Robinson Day pre-game ceremony and the dedication of the Jackie Robinson Rotunda at Citi Field. For the dedication, she was part of a group that included Governor David Paterson, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, baseball Hall of Famer Joe Morgan, and Spike Lee. Also in tow were nine Jackie Robinson scholars, young men and women who perhaps best represent the good work that Rachel Robinson is still doing.
She founded the Jackie Robinson Foundation after Jackie died in 1973. Since then, the group has awarded college scholarships to 1,200 minority students, 97 percent of whom have graduated. One of them is Ayesha Lewis of Jamaica, Queens.
“I’ve always been a fan of history, so when I would read about Jackie Robinson and what he did in 1947, it always blew me away,” she said. “It’s a source of motivation for me.”
Rachel Robinson had been a nurse, and after her husband’s retirement, she returned to the field, working her way up to an assistant professorship at Yale and a directorship of the Connecticut Mental Health Center. She was there for support, too, when Jackie Robinson responded to countless threats and epithets by keeping his head down and playing the game hard. “Quiet dignity and strength,” Schumer called it.
“I feel strengthened by the life that we lived,” she said.
Already awarded the MLB Commissioner’s Historic Achievement Award in 2007, Rachel Robinson will soon receive the UCLA medal, the highest honor bestowed by the university attended by her and her husband.
Morgan and Mets shortstop Jose Reyes both spoke glowingly to The Queens Courier about the April 15 ceremonies to which she was so central.
“I grew up idolizing Jackie Robinson,” said Morgan, who serves on the Foundation’s board of directors. “This is a fabulous tribute to the Foundation and [to] Rachel, for what she’s doing to keep [Jackie’s] legacy alive.”
“It’s something we never forget when we do something for Jackie Robinson, so it’s a good memory,” Reyes said.
