Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America

The subject of Sharon’s biography, Jackie Robinson, was Sharon’s father, and he became the first recognized Black baseball player to play in MLB. Sharon links Jackie’s path to MLB to the US’s racial history. Both are nonlinear, containing advances and setbacks. After Jackie and his family moved to California, Jackie flourished in sports; however, he experienced racism through segregation, cross burning, and a rock-throwing neighbor. His achievements and experience of racism coincided. Nevertheless, Jackie didn’t resign himself to racist norms. He continued to excel at sports, and he stood up to racism while in the Army.

Jackie embodied Change Through Persistence and The Different Methods to Combat Racism. His willpower ended segregation in baseball, yet he had to use different tactics: “He wasn’t used to backing down when attacked” (29). With the Dodgers, his actions served as the reply to racism. His physical play became his main form of communication.

While the book centers on Jackie, it contains no direct quotes from him; everything that the readers learn about Jackie comes from Sharon. The lack of quotes reinforces the emphasis on action. What mattered wasn’t what Jackie said but what he did. However, Sharon includes a postcard from Jackie, so if readers want to read something in Jackie’s words, they can decipher his cursive handwriting. Additionally, they can consult Jackie’s autobiographies, My Own Story (1948) and I Never Had It Made (1972).

Jackie met Rachel at UCLA, where she studied nursing. Sharon doesn’t provide much information about Rachel, but the few details indicate that she was a competent person and that Jackie viewed her as an equal partner. While heading to spring training, they experienced racism together, implying that Rachel had the willpower and composure to counter bigotry. Like Jackie, she was a strong person. Similar to Sharon, she believed in maintaining Jackie’s legacy and the principles that they shared, which is why she founded the Jackie Robinson Foundation.

Mallie was Sharon’s grandmother and Jackie’s mother. She and her husband, Jerry, were sharecroppers in Georgia. Unlike Jackie and Rachel, Mallie and Jerry weren’t equals. Jerry couldn’t confront the racist norms and abandoned his family. Sharon doesn’t delve into Jerry’s fate. She focuses on Mallie, presenting her as a strong, defiant person.

To get away from the South, Mallie moved her family to California, where racism persisted, but not quite as relentlessly as in other parts of the country. To support her family, she became a domestic worker for white people. Sharon adds, “Meanwhile, she insisted her children keep up their grades, work after school, and attend church every Sunday” (12). This quote implies that Mallie’s principles carried over to Jackie, who applied his mother’s discipline and resolve to baseball.

Rickey was the president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers at the time when Jackie played baseball. He had a long career in baseball, which included playing for the Reds and managing multiple teams. Sharon presents Rickey as the catalyst for change. He wanted to desegregate baseball, and because of Jackie’s mix of talent and resolve, he used Jackie to accomplish his goal.

Sharon’s presentation of Rickey is subtly layered. She states, “Even as a young man, Branch Rickey had strong values and firm beliefs” (26). Her implication is that Rickey shared Jackie’s ideals. At the same time, Sharon says, “Rickey knew that the talent pool in the Negro Leagues was too tempting for a smart businessman to ignore” (27). Rickey combined capitalism and activism, knowing that Black players would make baseball both more equal and more profitable.

Sharon omits unsavory elements about Rickey. Jackie played for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues, and Rickey didn’t compensate the Monarchs for taking their player. The transaction had a racial dynamic in which the white person (Rickey) felt that he could take from the Black community (the Monarchs). The minor leagues system that he created led to exploitation regardless of race. Owners could keep players in the minors, and until recently, players didn’t receive adequate salaries or support. In other words, by creating the minor leagues, Rickey launched one of the most predatory arrangements in sports.

Aside from referring to Reese as the Dodgers’ captain, Sharon doesn’t delve into his career. Like Jackie, Reese was a star and is in the Hall of Fame. He played shortstop for the Dodgers, spending his entire career with the team, even after they relocated to Los Angeles.

What captured Sharon’s attention was Reese’s allyship. A month into Jackie’s first season with the Dodgers, Reds fans taunted Reese for playing with a Black person. Instead of verbally or physically replying, Reese put his hand on Jackie’s shoulder, symbolizing his solidarity with Jackie. Like Jackie, he proved that actions are as forceful as words. His physical proximity to Jackie silenced the racist fans, demonstrably altering their behavior.

While the Nazi Party existed before Hitler, he took control of it and made it popular. Manipulating Germany’s democratic institutions, Hitler became chancellor in 1933. By the time of the 1936 Olympic Games, he was on his way to having complete control of Germany and turning the country into a true totalitarian state.

Sharon uses Hitler as a symbol of racism, describing how, at the Olympics, he refused to shake Jesse Owens’s hand. Hitler and the Nazis were racist and implemented multiple genocides. However, Hitler’s main target was Jewish people. Using the US’s racist laws against Black people and Indigenous people as a model, Hitler began persecuting Jews before systematically killing them. He didn’t systematically oppress Black people, not because he was an ally but because Germany had few Black people.

While Sharon details the US’s long history of racism, she doesn’t call out specific Americans who built and maintained the racist norms. Hitler stands out because she describes him as someone who was overtly responsible for lethal bigotry. While Hitler wasn’t American and his primary target wasn’t Black people, his presence in Jackie’s biography continues a trope wherein Americans present white supremacy as a foreign product.