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An appreciative biography of Jackie Robinson (1919-1972) and his role in the integration of Major League Baseball.

When he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1962, notes Kennedy, editorial director at Meredith and a former Sports Illustrated senior writer, Robinson “asked that his plaque make no mention of his role in integrating baseball.” The diffidence is curious, since Robinson famously faced court-martial while serving in the Army for refusing to vacate a bus seat reserved for Whites—10 years before Rosa Parks—and had been an active supporter of and fundraiser for the civil rights movement. Indeed, as the author shows, Robinson was a first in many ways—especially as the first Black player to work in MLB in the 20th century, by the design of executive Branch Rickey, who believed that the time had come for the sport to show the rest of American society the way to treat all citizens equally. Regrettably, as Kennedy writes, the lessons were hard-won. Robinson may have been an equal on the field, but when the Brooklyn Dodgers traveled, Robinson often dined alone in his hotel room, discouraged or forbidden from entering Whites-only dining areas. Even in the supposed racial haven of Canada, where Robinson played while being groomed in the minor leagues, he encountered the “clear marginalization of Black Montrealers, the small-in-numbers populace who lived for the most part in particular areas of town, who stayed only in particular hotels or rooming houses, who found jobs in labor and service.” Robinson didn’t go out of his way to make waves, nor did his friend and fellow Black player Roy Campanella, who insisted, “I’m no crusader.” Yet, in his quiet determination, Robinson opened numerous doors. There’s not much new in Kennedy’s life of Robinson, but it’s always good to be reminded of his greatness and significance in any big-picture view of modern America.

A sturdy combination of sportswriting and social history.