Dr. Yohuru Williams, founding director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas, sat down with Katy Milkman, host of the “Choiceology” podcast, to explain how Jackie Robinson’s restraint and strategic discipline helped dismantle racial barriers in Major League Baseball.
From the podcast:
Katy Milkman: But the kind of man that it took to do what Robinson did, to be part of integrating American baseball, required something very different than a passive character. He was actually outspoken on civil rights, and he was strategic and disciplined about his role in advocating for equality. When he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, Dr. Martin Luther King wrote a public letter stating that Robinson was …
Yohuru Williams: A sit-inner before the sit-ins and a Freedom Rider before the Freedom Rides.
Milkman: Jack had another quality that we often see in history’s most legendary athletes.
Williams: Very rarely is it simply a reflection of what they can do with their bodies. It’s the way that they master their minds, the way that they can overcome pressure, the way that they’re students of the game. And you can almost see that when you look back at their careers, and you can see the decisions that they’re making on the field and off the field that ultimately influenced the way that we think about their legacy, and there’s no better example of that than Jack Robinson.
