African-American History

Mollie's pride and determination caused her to seek a better life for her children. Jim Sasser, owner of the plantation on which the Robinsons lived and worked, had accused Mollie of causing Jerry to disappear. 

An uncle in Pasadena had invited Mollie and her five children to abandon Cairo and live with him. In 1920 Mollie decided to take Edgar, Frank, Mack, Jack and Willa Mae to Pasadena to live with their uncle Burton. 

The early years were a struggle for Mollie as the house owned by Uncle Burton was not large enough for the growing Robinson family. It remains a mystery how she was able to purchase a four-bedroom cottage at 121 Pepper Street without a husband and on a domestic's salary! 

After getting a light-skinned Black man to act as if he was buying the house, Mollie never doubted that this house was where she and her family belonged, in spite of the restrictive covenants that barred black people from Pepper Street. The white residents petitioned and threatened to burn the house. 

Jackie Robinson always thought that his mother's religious beliefs and determination were her unyielding strength. From his mother, Jackie developed values and strengths that were the hallmarks of Jackie Robinson and of his legacy. 

Life in Pasadena in the 20's and 30's was as "typical" for people of color as that anywhere else in America. As Woody Strode in his memoirs (Goal Dust) stated: "Some communities (in Pasadena) were more prejudiced than others. Up through the 1940s a Black man couldn't walk through Inglewood (CA) after dark. They had a sign posted: NO JEWS AND NO COLOREDS ARE WELCOME IN THIS TOWN! And Pasadena was a prejudiced area; that's where most of the rich white people lived. That's where Jackie Robinson was from; I think that's why Jackie had a little more hate going than the rest of us. But in the local sports they never held grudges, especially between the players." 

Jackie belonged to the "Pepper Street Gang" that included Blacks, Hispanics and Asians. They engaged in a number of "mischievous escapades" between the one day of the week they were allowed at the local YMCA, and at the city's big Brookside Park that included an attractive, large swimming pool. The day after people of color used the pool, the city changed the water in the pool. 

These escapades by Jackie caused two men Carl Anderson, a mechanic, and Reverend Karl Downs, pastor at Pasadena's Scotts Methodist Church to reach out to Jackie. Rev. Downs seemed to fill a void in Jackie's life. As the youngest child of Mollie Robinson, Jackie never had a father around while he was growing up. Downs was a friend as well as a religious and ethical advisor. Rev. Karl used his influence to strengthen Jackie's ability to cope with his youthful challenges and his resolve to use his faith to face life as an adult. 

After graduating from Washington Junior and Muir Technical High School, Jackie decided to attend Pasadena Junior College so that he could remain in Pasadena to assist his mother. At PJC (a two-year institution) Jackie starred in football, track and baseball. 

Three incidents at PJC gave portents of Jackie's athletic potential: 1) he broke older brother Mack's broad-jump record (25 feet, 1/2 inch); 2) he led PJC to the Junior College Championship in 1938; and 3) in the same year, he was named the Most Valuable Junior College Player in Southern California. 

Jackie sports exploits at UCLA began in 1939. He was a teammate of Woody Strode and Kenny Washington. That year will be remembered more for the tragic death of his brother Frank in a motorcycle accident than for his ascendance into senior college athletics. His first year at UCLA was monumental, again, as he met a young nursing student --Rachel Isum--who was to become his wife and life-long companion.

After leaving UCLA in 1941 Jackie was hired to play football for the semipro Honolulu Bears. One of the latter's exhibition games was played December 5 at Pearl Harbor. He and the team had departed just two days before the Japanese bombed and destroyed Pearl harbor, December 7. Jackie was on-board the ship Lurline sailing home when our Congress formally declared war with Japan. 

Jack Roosevelt Robinson and a Pasadena buddy Rascal DeVore were inducted into the United States Army, April 3, 1942. While Jackie was training to help defend his country, Rachel, to whom Jackie was engaged, was equally busy as she was a nursing student by day and a riveter by night at Lockheed Aircraft. 

For a year work and study consumed Rachel's days and nights. After this year she spent her last three years of training at the U.C. San Francisco School of Nursing.

Jackie became Second Lieutenant Jackie Robinson January 28, 1943 at Fort Riley, Kansas after having experienced a multitude of instances of racial discrimination. He was transferred to Vamp Hood, Texas, but only the geography changed, not the injustices he and other persons of color suffered. 

An incident occurred at Camp Hood that though unfortunate and gut wrenching was, nevertheless, God-sent in a sense that it set the stage for Branch Rickey's "Noble Experiment." 

July 6, 1944, Lt. Robinson had taken the Camp Hood bus on his way to the base hospital to have an ankle examined for bone chips. The driver of the bus ordered the officer to the back of the bus while he was seated talking to a fellow officer's light complexioned wife who was African-American. 

Lt. Robinson, fully aware of military regulations that barred racial discrimination on any army post vehicle, refused to move. After shouting at Jackie, and having the army officer shout back, the driver left his bus to return with his dispatcher. 

The driver there said to his dispatcher, as he pointed at Jackie, "There's the nigger that's been causing trouble." 

The military police appeared on the scene at this time to politely ask Jackie to accompany them to M.P. Headquarters. At the latter such charges as being drunk (a blood test was taken immediately) and disorderly were lodged against Jackie. 

A Colonel R. L. Bates befriended Jackie during his court-martial at which time charges were unsubstantiated. Although cleared of all charges (August 2, 1944), fellow officers at Camp Hood contacted the NACCP for "advice and counsel." 

The NAACP's Assistant Special Counsel Edward Dudley contacted Judge Advocate General's Board of Review in Washington, DC as this case was never being reviewed by the military at the highest level. The military brass in Washington agreed that this was not a case "involving any violation of the Articles of War but simply a situation in which a few individual sought to vent their bigotry on a Negro they considered 'uppity.'" 

The court-martial had caused Jackie immeasurable pain as well as to be left behind as Colonel Bates' outfit was now overseas. Lt. Robinson deliberately violated military protocol by writing a letter directly to the Adjutant General's Office in Washington about his case. He knew this would get immediate attention, and it did. 

Because of this letter and the determination that Jackie did have bone chips in his ankle, the army gave Jackie an honorable discharge November 28, 1944. 

Upon joining the Kansas City Monarchs for Spring Training in 1945, Jackie was searching for his career. The Negro Leagues were not what he really wanted. However, he had to face the fact that without a college degree he had few marketable skills. It was the Negro Leagues or what? 

During spring training with the Monarchs, Jackie thought he had hit-it-rich when he signed at a salary of $400 a month. It was during his one-year stint with Kansas City that Branch Rickey scouted him to become part of his "Noble Experiment."