Transcripts For CSPAN2 Call-in With Sharon Robinson Child Of The Dream 20240713

So we integrated ouroo neighborhood and schools. Host how many black people were living in stamford connecticut in 1963 . Guest it was north stamford, so it was our family. There may have been two or three that lived up in that section of town and we just kind of desegregated ourselves. Host what do you remember about being one of the few africanamericans . Guest i remember in children people asking i me my race and i would be feeling shy, didnt speak at all, wouldnt ask questions or wear my glasses because i didnt want to be different in any other way and i didnt understand that was part of my experience being the only black child in fifth grade. Until fifth grade i was the only black child in the school. Host why did your mom and dad wan wants you to live their . Guest i dont think they wanted us to have that level of isolation. My father was still playing for the brooklyn dodgers and wanted to live on the land with privacy and thought it would be better for the family. Stanfords was 45 minutes from w york city so he would go for games and practice easily so that this kind of setup. They actually ran into housing discrimination when they were looking for land and a house and it was with the help of Andrea Steinman from the simon and Schuster Family because she was in the community in the summertime we were able to find this particular piece of property. Host were you aware that you were Jackie Robinsons daughter . Guest i was. We had each row of the room in our house. Our friends were very enamored of all of the trophies and plaques. In public ity. Was different. We could go to Grocery Stores on the weekend and go into the dining room and everyone would turn and look so we were aware on the public side. Host from your buck this is something somebody told you maybe your older brother such High Expectations and not enough praise. St guest it wasnt so much from our family that everyone else. For example, my brother who played Little League baseball, they would compare him to my father. Thats what the heckling was about. You are constantly told you are not doing it well so that was his experience setting him up for a number of failures because bhe was compared all the time. We didnt know how to measure success. We had a bad and supermom as well so we were not sure how to measure success. Dad said it isnt about trophies and awards, its about how you live your life and change other peoples lives but we were not there yet. Host who is Rachel Robinson . Guest by extraordinary mother now 97 and i will see her on some day. She was my dads partner. They had a wonderful marriage and he died relativelyel young n his life and hers as well. She switched her career so she huld take over something he had begun in housing and they gave her a new career model and then she started the Jackie Robinson foundation so she had both a number of successful careers as a nurse and educator independent housing and the Jackie Robinson foundation. Host 1963 is kind of a benchmark year in the country but also for your family what are some of the activities that havent . Guest birmingham alabama. Thats where doctor king had centralized his activities birmingham is considered the most segregated in america at that point. It sets the tone that he just declared war. It also set the country up to understand what ourr battle was and that was like a battle cry for us. Doctor king organized in birmingham alabama after coming from albany georgia they were marching and learned not to be as broad in what they were marchingn for and what their expectations were and they didth organizing with adults and by april they were not t able to mobilize so they turn to children. For me the whole inspiration for the buck was the childrens march because as a child watching it on Television Every Night and having my dad go down chto birmingham, i wanted to mah with the children and join the movement in a more substantial way and not just the sort of isolated in stamford connecticut so my dad found a way to bring us into the Civil Rights Movement. Back then it wasnt the Baseball Players thatat traveled, they needed people to bring visibility to the movement and hes one of the great guys that went down. That picturetu t right there ise motel doctor king was staying. My dad went down the next day to bring money for the children who had been jailed in the marches. They also state that the motel where it had just been bombed. Host Martin Luther king a friend of the family . Guest yes a friend of the family. Anat we did as a family is we went to jazz concerts and it was also to raise money. My brothers and i sold hot dogs and sodas and turned in a thousand dollars and then we had a second one after the march on washington and we had gone as a family. That was our first time as a family participating in the Larger Movement and it was an amazing experience because this is what we were asking for. We asked can we go with you to birmingham and he said i will figure a this out and he figured it out by bringing us with an to the march on washington and then jajust after, we had our second jazz concert and doctor king came to our house in south and it was amazing. Host we are talking with sharon robinson, the author of the book child of the dream and in morthen more of 1963, talkint the Civil Rights Movement, her childhood during that time and of course she is the daughter of Jackie Robinson. 202 7488200 in the central time zone if you would like to join the conversation, 2027 for 88201 for those of you in announcing its pacific time zones. The daughter of until the end. Do you get tired of hearing that . Guest now, i dont get tired of it as long as it is in the business world. I get tired of it where i live because i want to come home and just be sharon. I just want to be me and that is where i should have privacy. N so im working on my community to let them know now we know this so lets just go on and realize i am a neighbor. Host do you work with Major League Baseball to a . Guest yes, we have an Incredible Program for 24 years that was started in 1997 called breaking barriers. It helps kidsp understand barriers are a part of life, my dads story and give them values i associate with his success. They told the story a National Contest with barriers they have overcome and they include which values they use. I got out and select winners to get between 11,000 to 50,000 essays each year tickets all over the united states. I got out and visit the winners in their classrooms, bring them to parks and the grand Prize Winners are honored at either the allstar game or the world series and it is an Incredible Program and ive been working with kids on the importance of finding their voice. I told them to me voices confidence and its like writing it down and showing what theyve overcome helping to build confidence and inner strength. Thats been my work. Ive met some amazing children and they stay in touch. Host 56 years ago i believe if i got that right, the march on washington happened here 2 miles from where we are sitting. What do you remember about that . Guest i remember that it was hot and very crowded and people came from all over there were buses all over the city. I remember going as a family. This was our first time going to a march and we had only seen the marches in birmingham on television so we didnt know quite what to expect. I remember we were separated from my dad at one point and in that process i got overheated and dehydrated and fainted so i remember being hauled off to the medical tent and they got me back together then we met met up with my dad and heard theer speech. It was an experience i wanted to be part of the Larger Movement so this was my First Experience of really participating being an activist on that a level. I started on a lower level in terms of my School Papers and advocating for myself in school but now i felt the energy and excitement of being in this mass of people that were all driving for equal 30 and justice. Host what you think of the movies that have been made . Guest he understood determination. The original story host [inaudible] my dad played himself in that one, blackandwhite of course, but even as a child, i was a child when this was made and i was watching it at day camp and i didnt recognize my dad is the way that it was directed. You can direct somebody to come the people come away feeling he has a personality he could handle that adversity as opposed to someone determined with a Larger Mission pushing forward and sort of holding back the Natural Instincts for some of the reactions. Chad was a strong actor and did a good Jackie Robinson and showed him as a strong powerful man who was on a mission. Host our guest. The first call comes from laura in maryland. Go ahead. Caller thank you so much. Im thrilled to be able to talk to you and heres my question. You are talking about the 63 march. I was 16 in 1959 and went on the youth march for integrated schools and i am dying to know if you remember anything about that because your dad was there and so was i. And ive been trying to find out more information about it. I was going to try to get in touch with your mom, but now i have you. Do you remember anything . Guest i remember my dad did a march in 1959 that i also would like to hear your memories. You can reach me through the Jackie Robinson Foundation Based in new york city. Please call and leave a message that you are trying to reach me and we will talk. Host sheraton in dublin ohio. Go ahead. Caller i was wondering how long it took you to writee your book and where do you live now . Guest thank you. As an author you very much right books in your head for a long time before you start writing them down so i wanted to write a book around the childrens march and started doing research for several years before i started writing the book. My publicist finally convinced me that it was in a memoir format so the actual writing process i did about two years of research and it took about a year and a half to write. It ends up being a process at the end but it was a number of years to think about the march and how it affected me. So i live in florida and go back and forth between delray and new york city. My mom is in new york and connecticut sign with her every month. Host im a writer that works with structure and a laptop, a wall with timelines [inaudible] guest right now shes at the hotel. She travels with me still. Host she is a dog . Guest a 5 pounds yorkie. Theres a particular restaurant across the street from the beach and they will allow me to sit there for hours and there is a table i like that i can actually see the water so i sit at an upper level and i can look up and see the water and do my editing and i like voices around men when i edit. I dont know why that is. Host next called, larry from georgia. Caller hello there. As you know they filmed 42 here and i enjoyed watching them film. It was a wonderful experience. Ive been down to the park so many times and lived through the integration and so much of the stadium so many times. Ive just had some wonderful experiences and ive enjoyed seeing not only in the ballpark within the downtown area also. Jackie robinson has always been one of my heroes so i just want to say thank you. You said it was very accurate and i thought it was, too. I enjoyed watching them and everything. I remember the integration of the stadium. There were so many africanamericans that came to watch and that they there wasnt a chance but to integrate the stadium because blacks had previously been made to sit over on the thirdbase side section. Host lary, and do you remember hearing from people who were opposed to the integration of baseball and integration of the stadium etc. . Caller yes, yes. Very much so. Host what were some of the tmments . Guest well, you know they started with the schools and woprotested that and they would make comments like you know, they cant be happy, now they want to integrate our baseball park, now they want to integrate them into the army and all this stuff, so it was really sad. I would like to say we are over that now that we go through that a few times. It wasnt a good time, but it was a dark part of our history and the whole nations history. Host two final questions, how what kind of work do you do and how old are you . Guest caller and 72 and i am a retired librarian. Host appreciate your time. Guest i have heard times have changed and he experienced a change. The part he didnt say white people didnt want to sit next to black people at the stadium. Unfortunately, we are experiencing similar attitudes today. One of the things my dad told me in the 60s and the Civil Rights Movement we were fighting to change the law. He said you cant legislate ha hate. Hate will be around and a constant struggle and i certainly think that today. He wanted to say schools are re segregated in many places in america. Its lessons we can learn from 1963 or the Civil Rights Movement from the 50s through the 60s when we pass the Civil Rights Act in 1964 but we still are living in a very divided world. Host you talked about the Robinson Family had a very public face. Did your parents have to walk that line quite a bit going in the sense that they were cultural icons, but you that yor was a cultural icon and get they have personal feelings as well . Guest i wouldnt say that. My dad wrote columns and letters. She never stopped advocating for equal but he and justice. He was always a voice out there. Once he retired from Major League Baseball, activism was in his blood and the movement was heating up and she jumped right in their and found every way he could to continue to use his voice. Host what about his endorsement of Richard Nixon . Guest it was a good day. I told him i was 10yearsold and, you know, it was my first discussion with him about politics. By fifth grade teacher, i asked who my father was voting for and i didnt have enough selfconfidence [inaudible] i went home and had the discussion with my dad and i learned about integrity and commitment and he made a commitment to Richard Nixon but thankfully didnt support him the Second Time Around and learned that nixon wasnt going to listen to him early in the campaign. He met with kennedy, kennedy did and was ten and i explained it to me about trust and how you establish trust with somebody and also he said that the voting record y was not he had a chance to work on these issues as a senator and he had done it so we continue to have those discussions right until goldwater in 64 when my family went out to San Francisco and the republican convention, the entire family went and dad was there and they lost and have to regroup. We literally drove back across country and stopped at rockefellers ranch so he and dad could sit on the porch and to save the Republican Party is going in a different direction and they have to regroup. My dad from that point on well, he didnt live that much longer but he voted for candidates were supportedss people he felt regardless of party he could support. W host what year did he pass . Seventytwo, he was actually 53. Host and the reason . Guest he had diabetes and heart disease. It runs on his side. Adult onset type one. And he had a massive heart attack. Host you have two brothers. What happened to jackie junior . Guest jackie died in a car accident when he was 24. Host and he features in your book. Guest he does. Host what do you remember about him . Guest i loved my older brother very much and i remember struggled as a young boy, he struggled in school academical academically. He struggled being jackie junior. He was named jac chuck robinson, junior. There was no a hiding place. He acted out as an early age and also didnt have the confidence you get from begins successful in school. He was a very good baseball player but he couldnt be himself, he was constantly being compared to say he dropped out of the bath and struggled in school, finally dropped out, went to vietnam, came through addiction, came out of it and got in a car accident so it was a very hard year for my family. In my book 1963, we are just beginning to see how his adolescence and how traumatic it was on the family as well. When i wrote the first scene of the book, which is my birthday, january 13, 1963, i wrote it and everybody was home. My dad was home, my brother was home. I thought wait a minute, and i go back and do my research. And a businessman so he is an incredible man and my mother and i used to travel to see him and is not an independent farmer but it goes back to how we were raised finding work that you love and it shows that kind of work. The next call is from maryland to. Caller thank you for the opportunity. My sister used to go years ago in the seventh grade and one of her friends who was goddaughter to your dad and i often wondered whatever happened to mary lou. Although she died from pancreatic cancer but i remember her playing baseball. I was watching this that i thought this was the time to ask this question about mary lou. I have no idea who she is. This is in connecticut quick. Know on the east side ofas manhattan and that Robert Wagner Junior High School at the time. Wow. ti dont know because it seems that there is a Family Association i cannot help you. Next call or go ahead. Caller thank you for the opportunity. Next call or go ahead. Caller thank you for the opportunity. And watching the documentary and when i was growing up in mississippi so why are all these people from new york coming down . With that sacrifice. And i am always curious to know and why those celebrities like your dad what about that apprehension down toto alabama . Thank you. Those are great points. For the Civil Rights Movement and traveling the country but the whole point to help bring visibility to the Civil Rights Movement. The only way was by getting them visibility. And then got the attention of president kennedy aftereo outrage all over the country with that march f peacefully so they needed visibility because they went to jail so they had to have bail money raised. And in new york city and for the jazz concert so yes i was apprehensive that they did what they had to do with quality and justice for america since. Host according to your book quick. Yes and it is interesting because with a jazz concert in it that of the movement but didnt think about children dying. Neighbor with the baptist church. So my dad sat with me. So he just sat with me and said heres what i will do you have to make a choice in life essentially do you get back up or do you folder a given quick. How many of these. All of these are posed. When i went to look for photographs some more about this big. Then they said no those our ours. To that happen a lot quick. Yes. Or they say we need a family picture. O the one that got me is the one of when i was born. And im sitting there looking very posed and my brother is drinking a glass of milk and then he takes the glass over and i said right on. [laughter] that is an everyday occurrence at the robinson. Not every day. We were a public family and photographs are part off that publicity. Good afternoon. Thank you for this opportunity. I am fascinated to be speaking with you for a couple reasons i am an aspiring writer but i am from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and through that process and then to see your dad play but then there are so many special memories even in my lif life. Yes i did very well. But the question is a little different in society in the country so we learn of how that applies. Thank you. Great question i am also close to that family i like to hear about roberto. Because as they move forward inng life so im hoping that children who read are adults who read with that development i started to lift my voice with everything from womens issues to apartheid and south africa. Hoping children would be encouraged to lift their voice and building selfconfidence to know that somebody is listening to them and that they arey growing up in a very different time and also when there is diversity in their experience. That we had that and our childhood. So these people are from different religions and to feel more comfortable and then adults are not as threatened by people who did not look like them. So encourages all of us not to accept troubling times in the status quo but we have to fight back with an ongoing process and things have changed that we have to continue to believe and have hope and to move forward again. The next call from florida. Caller hello. And we are Family Friends that living on the horse farm in ocala i have been there many m m ttimes. Well i was changing channels and i saw you up there. And she told us that Jackie Robinson was her first cousin. Did you have an uncle named james . My father was from georgia. I dont know where he ended up playing. That doesnt matter but. But youve met a goddaughter and now you have an uncle. [laughter] my family. So another part of your book. Yes. That was actually given to my brother but i was wanting a horse for a long time. So david and i worked so well together and then we had to share the horse but that was also my freedom. And gave me the confidence that a lot of people dont have and diamond gave me that i rode diamond bareback he was very important to us. Do you still ride today quick. I wish i u could it is not worth it it took me a week to recover. As you age is harder on your back. I just want to share the story with you brief one briefly. But then i just found out my brother and i were raised by ournt grandparents but i always tell the story. We have to cut you off. Thank youok for calling. Host i apologize he could until his whole story. And our guest from book tv. Thank you for your time. It has been wonderful. Thank you to the callers who had interesting comments. [inaudible conversations] good evening friends