JACKIE: PRESPECTIVES ON 42

No one can doubt the immense courage shown by Jackie Robinson when he took his position at Ebbets Field on Tuesday afternoon, April 15, 1947. The first play of the game was a ground ball to third base, and Robinson, playing first, took the throw to make the first putout.



It wasn’t just the one moment that was important, of course, but the ongoing significance of his presence on the field. Robinson was the first Black American to play what was then defined as major-league baseball at a time when baseball was dominant in American culture—truly the National Pastime—but an institution which had been segregated by race.

David has two essays in the collection Jackie: Perspectives on 42, published by the Society for American Baseball Research. “Of Memory and Mystery Guests: Jackie Robinson, Soupy Sales, and What’s My Line?” focuses on Robinson’s appearance in a 1969 episode. “Jackie Robinson and Journal Square” covers the historical and artistic impacts of the Robinson statue that resides in the center of Jersey city.