Jackie Robinson Museum Opens in NYC

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: This week, a new museum honoring sports and civil rights legend Jackie Robinson opens in New York. It’s 75 years since he began playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers. The first black player in Major League Baseball. Walter Isaacson spoke to his son, David Robinson, about his father’s incredible legacy.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

WALTER ISAACSON, HOST: Thank you very much. And David Robinson, welcome to the show. And congratulations on this new museum.

DAVID ROBINSON, SON OF JACKIE ROBINSON: Well, we all should be congratulated. There was a great core team of people that’s worked more than a decade to get the actual facility up and operating. But it’s really the spirit of people who wanted to see this happen for a long time that’s made it come to fruition. So, we’re all to be congratulated.

ISAACSON: It’s been 75 years since your father, Jackie Robinson, broke the color line with Brooklyn Dodgers, became a hero to so many of us. Why is his story so relevant today?

ROBINSON: Well, it’s a human story captured in — within the national sport. So, it embraced a huge amount of Americans in terms of the drama. And it was a story that gathered people into its embrace over time and over generations. You have people who never saw Jackie Robinson play but who relate today to the heroics and the dynamics of the Brooklyn Dodgers of the ’40s and ’50s. And so, it’s a great story to broaden into a family or personal story in life.

ISAACSON: Tell me though about his life. What he stood for? What happened back then? How that resonates today?

ROBINSON: Well, again, Jackie Robinson was born in Georgia. His grandmother was a slave. His mother was a sharecropper and a domestic servant. He had the opportunity to see both of those family members in his own. And in looking into their face, he saw not only the suffering and challenge of his family but the American story as well. And that was something that he had to change and be part of the change for specifically within his family, specifically within his race. But he can see that as a national dynamic as well. And so, his involvement in baseball was not involvement in a sports per se of being an athlete. It was of involvement in terms of being a human being in a human struggle to liberate not only the African-American community but America as a whole.

ISAACSON: Tell me some stories about how your father impacted the lives of ordinary people on the streets.

ROBINSON: Well, my father seldomly used the word I. He always would talk in the context of we. At times as a kid, I never even knew who that we was but I begin to understand the concept as I got older. That restarted with family, four brothers and sisters. A mother and a grandmother who was struggling. It started with race. But through the Brooklyn Dodgers and the alliance and the team, it expanded. And it was so intimate and so intense. One day, my father was going to work early in the morning in New York City. Just walking down the street, an African-American man approached him, extends his hands, handshakes his hand, and says you know, Mr. Robinson, the day you get elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame is going to be the happiest day of my life. And my father, again, shook his hand and said, thank you, and they parted ways. But as the man walked away, my father was — it was — he found it curious to see how interlinked and how at one he was with that man. Because that man’s satisfaction and victory was part of Jackie Robinson’s life. And Jackie Robinson’s life also was part of that man’s story because as his life and his self-image and his strength expanded, so that meant the impact in the meaning of Jackie Robinson’s life got bigger. So, it was — and it was something that, as I say, family and race who were our beginning. But he, and our family, and myself, we’ve met thousands of Americans who talk about being part of the Brooklyn experience. Being part of the American experience. And feeling part of Jackie Robinson’s victory. And having it be their victory as well.

SIDNER: The museum is organized around four pillars of his life. One was soldier, one with activist, one was family member, one was entrepreneur. Tell me about the legacy of him as a soldier and what he had to face.

ROBINSON: Well, African-Americans since before the civil war were ready and eager and pushing to utilize military service in the American army in order to show readiness to be full citizens and participants in American society. They were a huge factor in the civil war when the numbers of soldiers (INAUDIBLE) who had died in the early years of the war were — had to reduced number. So, my father, when he was called to be in the army, he was ready to serve. He was proud to follow in that tradition of wanting to show his readiness to continue to be part of American growth, as we were part of American growth even during our enslavement. He would not, however, allow that desire to be part of American society to limit his civil or human rights. And so, at the time that a bigoted and races bus driver told him to get to the back of the bus when the bus was on a military base and the regulations would not allow that discrimination. He, again, he stood up for the larger principle. And the principle, really, that was the principle that ultimately is an American aspiration towards greatness, which is to say that we should have equal rights, equal opportunities and he would not give up that right and go to the back of the bus. And he was court marshaled. So, he had more conflict with the American army than he had with any enemy army of American soil. But it was all part of developing the American dynamic and conflicted times to bring justice to a society that was not born injustice.

ISAACSON: Another pillar of the museum is him as an entrepreneur. It’s a very moving legacy. Tell me about the bank he did. And in some ways, it fits into what you’re doing now which is being an entrepreneur and why that was so important.

ROBINSON: Well, it’s — you know, yes, you mentioned the bank. Entrepreneurs across the globe. Financing is an important issue. And so, he and some other African-Americans got together and they formed Freedom National Bank. Opened it on 125 Street in New York City’s Harlem, part of the black community. It’s — he comments on the — a thread that both he and Malcolm X had. They had their conflicts in terms of game plans and some philosophies and stages in their lives. But my father said, not only do I want to aim for the employment of being the server of the coffee in a coffee shop. But I want to own the cup, I want to own the coffee, I want to own the counter, and I want to own the coffee shop because that ultimately is where you get into the broad dynamics of human development. Racial development, social development, being owners, entrepreneurs. Having your own entrepreneurial spirit. Taking the spirit of a Jackie Robinson which was to go out and win. And challenge any game whether it’s a business game or a baseball game with new techniques and new styles. That is a way to challenge the threatening elements for African-Americans and all Americans today. That spirit of getting out and making our own opportunities happen.

ISAACSON: Another pillar of this museum is family. So, I got a personal question for you. What was it like growing up in a household with Jackie Robinson as a dad?

ROBINSON: It was a blessing, Walter. My father grew up without a father. He knew the importance of a father’s being there in terms of support and being there in terms of love. So, we were usually blessed to have him, maybe not as many hours or days of a week as some families might have had their father. But he made a point to show his concern and commitment to his children. I love to fish. He did not like to fish. But we have been in the middle of huge lakes in Canada in a 10-foot rowboat. He and I fishing. And, Walter, he didn’t even know how to swim. But his desire to be with his son in something that he enjoyed doing was such that that was not even in consideration. So, we fished all over in Canada, on the East Coast of the U.S., in the Caribbean Islands. He did for his children both financially and emotionally.

ISAACSON: Your mother just heard 100. Tell me the role she played.

ROBINSON: She was a heart of the family. An emotional joy and a comfort of the family. An intellectual of the family. The books that she had in our library in terms of human development, in terms of social dynamics, in terms of group growth were outstanding. I couldn’t read any or really understand any of them as a kid. But it — the title of the books brought me the awareness there was more to life than what the surface seem to offer. So, she was a tremendous influence and a giver of love to the family. And my father and she responded beautifully in that relationship of being both parents and loves themselves.

ISAACSON: One of the really relevant parts of this museum is the idea of your father as an activist. There’s a wonderful picture of the march on Washington. And there he is, and you’re there with him. Tell me about that day.

ROBINSON: Well, it was part of a great day and part of a great era where people galvanized, focused, engaged, and challenged and interacted with the issues. They were very clear at that point. And it was — some things were easier to challenge then than today. The white-only signs were up. The where you can ride on the buses or planes which they’re an — a very clear discrimination. So, that day was coming together. People of all walks of life, races, and religions. And expressing that we all wanted something more. America had promised something more. Citizens had to work towards something more. And sustained development. Sustained internal peace. Required that we come together and express ourselves. And that requirement is still there today because, you know, aren’t we a more united nation today than 1950, 1960, 1970? Are we a stronger nation? Are we a better model for global interaction? Those are questions which have very murky answers. And I think the need for people to come together within their own groups but on a larger basis as well. On a national and international basis. The need is there. And if one thing comes out of a vision through Jackie Robinson Museum, I hope it’s that people are galvanized to see the critical challenges in society today reflected in how Jackie Robinson and people responded during an era. And we pick up that challenge because it is a multigenerational challenge. Jackie Robinson saw his grandmother and his mother’s life and meeting his own impact to help reconcile some of that. And then reconcile the position of his children. That need of back to back multigenerational development is critical today. It may be less visible. But if we do not come together to solve those problems, they will continue to plague our society and individual members within our nation.

ISAACSON: David Robinson. Thank you so much for joining us.

ROBINSON: Thank you, Walter.