MIAMI — Jackie Robinson would be 102 years old today, had fate given him a longevity of life to approach the importance and magnitude of the one he led. Instead he died much too soon, at 53, of a heart attack in his home in 1972. Heart disease and diabetes had left him barely able to see by middle age.
Tens of thousands of mourners, fans and admirers lined the streets of his funeral procession in Brooklyn.
And the mind wonders:
What would this American hero, the man who broke the color line in Major League Baseball and died nearly blind — what would he be thinking if he could see what was happening now?
In the America he worked to change by being on the front lines against racism and prejudice?
In the America that still hasn’t changed nearly enough 74 years after this man endured the death threats aimed at the first Black man allowed into baseball’s highest level.
Thursday was Jackie Robinson Day in MLB, the annual day of reflection when baseball honors his legacy on the anniversary of his MLB debut. When throughout the majors, so many players who had it a little easier because of him wore his No. 42 to say thanks.
What would Jackie Robinson be thinking as a jury verdict neared in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin?
What might he have been thinking last May 25, when, for nearly 9 minutes and 29 seconds Chauvin kneeled on the upper back and neck of George Floyd, a Black man who had been stopped for an alleged petty crime, until which time Floyd took his last breath?
What would Jackie Robinson have been thinking earlier this month when MLB moved its 2021 All-Star Game out of Atlanta after the state of Georgia enacted a new law that civil rights activists believe will lead to voter suppression of minorities?
What would he have been thinking just this week when the Minnesota Twins canceled a home game because of surrounding civil unrest and protests because yet another Black man had been killed by police in a manner that stretched all credulity to justify?
In this case, the officer, who has since resigned and now faces a second-degree murder charge, shot and killed Daunte Wright, 20, because (she says) she accidentally mixed up her gun and her taser and fired the wrong weapon.
There are websites where you can say all the names. So many we know by heart. Eric Garner. Tamir Rice. Philando Castile. Ahmaud Arbery. Breonna Taylor. And all of us are helpless but to wonder who’s name we’ll be saying next.
#BlackLivesMatter, like #StopAsianHate, is a hashtag that exists because there remains an urgent need.
And yet so many want to shout “All lives matter!” even louder, tone-deaf to the obvious point.
This was Jackie Robinson Day in America, 2021.
Seventy-four years after this man made history, it is hard to credit all the progress made when you look around and see all the change still needed and the work still ahead.
Almost 50 years now since his death, in Jackie Robinson’s America, that simple, most noble ideal — equal rights — continues an elusive dream we’re still chasing.
We need to chase harder, and higher, and never stop.
