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Title details for The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson by Michael Lee Lanning - Available

The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson

The Baseball Legend's Battle for Civil Rights during World War II

by Michael Lee Lanning
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Eleven years before Rosa Parks resisted going to the back of the bus, a young black second lieutenant, hungry to fight Nazis in Europe, refused to move to the back of a U.S. Army bus in Texas and found himself court-martialed. The defiant soldier was Jack Roosevelt Robinson, already in 1944 a celebrated athlete in track and football and in a few years the man who would break Major League Baseball's color barrier. This was the pivotal moment in Jackie Robinson's pre-MLB career. Had he been found guilty, he would not have been the man who broke baseball's color barrier. Had the incident never happened, he would've gone overseas with the Black Panther tank battalion—and who knows what after that. Having survived this crucible of unjust prosecution as an American soldier, Robinson—already a talented multisport athlete—became the ideal player to integrate baseball.
This is a dramatic story, deeply engaging and enraging. It's a Jackie Robinson story and a baseball story, but it is also an army story as well as an American story.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 21, 2020

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780811768627

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780811768627
      • File size: 566 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      February 14, 2020

      Though athlete Jackie Robinson is known for breaking baseball's color barrier, his activism started earlier than most realize. On July 6, 1944, a young Robinson, then a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army, boarded a bus headed to his barracks in Camp Hood, TX, after a night of socializing. The white bus driver, offended that a black officer was sitting next to a "white woman" (she was actually the light-skinned African American wife of a fellow black officer), told Robinson to move to the back of the bus. His refusal led to his subsequent arrest and court-martial. Through copious primary source research--court transcripts, testimonies, letters, and witness statements--Lanning (Vietnam 1969-1970: A Company Commander's Journal) argues that this court-martial became an early touchstone moment in civil rights history, especially with regard to the racial integration of the U.S. military. VERDICT Bringing further attention to a subject that has been glossed over in most works about Robinson, this effective, thought-provoking study will appeal to those interested in civil rights and military history during World War II.--Leah Huey, Dekalb P.L., IL

      Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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