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Jackie Robinson was 28 when he started playing Major League Baseball, and for ten years, he played hard.
By the 1956 season, his body was feeling the effects. In addition, Branch Rickey, who had always been Robinson’s strongest supporter, had left the Dodgers.
Robinson found out that the Dodgers were going to trade him to the New York Giants. Taking into account his aging body and his strong feelings for the Dodgers, he decided to retire from baseball. He was ready to try new things.
▲ Robinson was first eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. Members of the Hall of Fame are elected by a vote of the Baseball Writers of America. Robinson doubted he would receive enough votes because, he felt, he had offended many writers by his outspoken criticism of organized baseball. He received 77 percent of the votes. Here, Branch Rickey joins Robinson’s wife and mother at the ceremony.
◀ Jackie Robinson wanted to help other African Americans fight discrimination. He chaired the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Freedom Fund Drive. The NAACP is the organization that took the case for school desegregation to the Supreme Court. But Jackie did more than raise funds. He spoke out whenever he saw injustice. Here he is on a picket line at a construction site in 1963, protesting alleged discrimination against African Americans in hiring practices.
▲ The civil rights movement gained momentum in the 1960s. Jackie Robinson gave vocal support to its leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Robinson and his whole family were proud to be present at the historic March on Washington, on August 28, 1963.
Jackie and Rachel Robinson learned that Jackie Junior had become addicted to drugs. But they stuck by him, and celebrated when he beat the addiction through a program called Daytop Village. Jackie Junior was planning a benefit concert for the program when he died in a 1971 car crash. ▶
▲ To mark the 25th anniversary of his first year with the Dodgers, Jackie Robinson was invited to throw out a ball at the 1972 World Series. He warned those who had invited him that he would speak his mind. Although there were many African American players in the major leagues by then, there were no managers or coaches. Robinson thought it was a disgrace. At the ceremony, he said, “I am extremely proud and pleased. I am going to be tremendously more proud and pleased when I look at that third base coaching line one day and see a Black face managing in baseball.”
◀ Shortly after retiring from baseball, Jackie Robinson learned that he had diabetes. Diabetes affects people in different ways. In extreme cases, there is a danger of going blind and of circulation failing so that legs may have to be amputated. Over the years, Robinson’s health worsened, and he lost sight in one eye. On October 24, 1972, at the age of 53, baseball legend Jackie Robinson passed away. Don Newcombe and Pee Wee Reese helped carry the casket.
