Question. How many black people were living in stanford, connecticut in 1963. It was north stanford, so thats where it had more land. So it was our family. In 63 there may have been more, two or three in that section of town, but pretty much segregated ourselves in stanford, connecticut. What do you remember about that segregation. About being one of the few africanamericans. I remember in elementary school, children asking me if i bathed and you know, and me feeling very insecure, very shy, not didnt speak at all. I wouldnt ask questions, i wouldnt wear my glasses because i didnt want to be different in any other way and i didnt understand that that was part of my experience there, being the only black child in the fifth grade. So, until fifth grade i was the only black child in the school. Why did mom and dad want you to have that, want you to live there . I dont think they wanted us to have that level of isolation nor lack of, you know, overly they werent sitting us out there as an experiment. It was really that my father was still plague for the brooklyn dodgers. Wanted to live on land and have privacy, thought it would be better for the family, and stanford was 45 minutes from new york city. So he could get in for games and practice easily, and so thats really set us up there. And we they actually ran into housing discrimination when they were looking for land and a house. So, it was actually with the help of andrea simon from Simon Schuster family, because she lived in a community during the summertime, that we were able to even find this particular piece of property. Were you aware that you were Jackie Robinsons daughter . I was. We had a trophy room in our house. Our friends were very enamoured of all the trophies and plaques and whenever we went in public there was a different experience. We were a public family and we could go up on weekends and walk into the dining room and everyone would turn and look. And so, we were very much aware that we were had a public side, but the privacy at homes so it balanced it out. From your book, child of the dream, you write, this is something somebody told you maybe your older brother. Not easy being a robinson, it comes with such High Expectations and not enough praise. What does that mean . Well, it wasnt even so much from our family, it comes from everyone else. So, people, for example, my brother who was a played Little League baseball and babe ruth baseball, was compared to my father. You cant do is as well as jackie. Youre constantly told youre not doing it as well. Thats jackies experience and sort of set him up for a number of failures, in school and in life because he was compared all of the time. For us, you know, we didnt know how to measure success. You know, we had this super dad and really, a super mom as well, and so, we werent sure how you measure success, my dad told us its not about trophies and awards, its about how you live your life. And kind of how you change our peoples lives, but we werent there yet so we werent kind of achieving at that level yet. Who is Rachel Robinson . She is my extraordinary mother now 97 and i will see her on sunday. She is, you know, she was my dads partner, they had a wonderful marriage, and he died relatively early in his life and in her life as well and she moved right in from the career so she could take over something that he had begun in housing and that gave her a new career model and she founded the Jackie Robinson foundation. So shes had both a number of successful careers as a nurse as an educator, and then in housing and then with the Jackie Robinson foundation. Sharon robinson, 1963 was kind of a benchmark year in this country. Yes. And also for your family. What were activities that happened . The most important they think was birmingham, alabama, thats where dr. King had centralized his activity, birmingham was considered the most segregated city in america at that point and dr. King had a Birmingham Campaign and during that year, the beginning of that year, just after i turned 13, we had this governor, George Wallace announced segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever. And for me, it set a tone of i thought he just declared war, you know, we were talking about war anyway and i was like, well, is this another form of war . But it also stepped the country up to understand what we were what our battle was. And that was sort of like a battle cry for us. And dr. King had organized in birmingham, alabama after coming out of georgia. And they were marching and you could sort of learn from albany, georgia, what theyre marching for and what their expectations were. They had been organizing with adults, but by april they werent able to mobilize enough adults any longer and turned to children. For me the whole inspiration of this book was the childrens march because as a child, watching it on television every night, you know, and having my dad go down to birmingham, it became i wanted to march with the children, i wanted to join the movement in a more substantial way, and not just be sort of isolated in stanford, connecticut. So my dad found a way to bring us into the Civil Rights Movement that him and floyd patterson. Back then, it was the boxer that would travel with my dad. It wasnt the baseball players. They needed people to bring this ability to the movement and floyd was one of the great guys that went down. And that picture there is at the motel where dr. King was staying. Up there by my finger . Right. And my dad and patterson went down the next day to bring money for the children who had been jailed during the marches and they just went to the site and they also stayed at that motel. So where it had been bombed. Where it had just been bombed. Martin luther king is trend of the friend of the family . Yes, friend of the family. As a family we started doing jazz concerts and our first jazz concert was also to raise money in june. At the house . At the house, at our house, yes and my brothers and i sold hot dogs and sodas and we turned in 1,000 our first jazz concert and then we had a second one after the after the march on washington and we had gone to the march in washington as a family, and that was our first time as a family actually participating in the Larger Movement. And it was just an amazing experience because this is what we were asking for. We used to ask dad, can we go with you to birmingham . And he said, no, ill figure this out. And he figured it out by bringing us with him to the march in washington. And then just after the march on washington, we had our second jazz concert and dr. King actually came to our house and it was amazing. We are talking with Sharon Robinson, the author of this book child of the dream, a memoir of 1963 talking about the Civil Rights Movement, her childhood during that time and of course, she is the daughter of Jackie Robinson. 7488 748 7488200. 8201 for those of you in the mountain and pacific time zone. And Sharon Robinson, the daughter of until the end. Do you get tired of hearing that . No, i dont get tired of it. You know, i as long as its, you know, in a business world. I do get tired of it where i live because i want to come home and just be sharon and i dont want to be the daughter of, i just want to be me, and i feel like thats where i should have privacy. So im working on my community to let them know, okay, now we know this, lets go on and realize, im a neighbor. [laughter] do you work with major League Baseball today . I still do, yes. We do we do an Incredible Program for 24 years which started in 1997 called breaking barriers in sports and life. It essentially helps kids understand that barriers are a part of life,give them my dads story and give them values that i social with his success on and off the field. They eventually tell their story in a National Essay con tense of a barrier theyve had to overcome and how that process, including which values they use. I go out and select national winners, we get between 11,000 to 15,000 essays each year from kids all over the united states. I go out and visit with the winners in their classrooms, bring them to local Major Minor League parks if we can and then the grand Prize Winners are honored at allstar game or the world series. Its been an Incredible Program and ive been working with kids on the importance of finding their voice and i tell them to me, voice is confidence. And by telling, writing it down and showing what theyve overcome, helping to build confidence and helping to build inner strength and thats what ive thats, my work has been incredible. Ive met some amazing children and you know, we stay in touch. And its 56 years ago, i believe, if ive got that right. Just about right now. Since the march on washington happened. Yes. Two miles from where were sitting. Yes. What do you remember about those august, 1963 days . Well, i remember that it was hot, and very, very crowded and people came from all over. There were buses all over the city. I remember us going as a family because, again, this is our first time going on a march and we had only seen the marches in birmingham on television. So, you know, we didnt quite know what to expect. And 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 carted off to the medical tent. And they, you know, got us coming back together. And then we went and met up with my dad and we were able to hear dr. King speak. So, it was, you know, an experience that i wanted to be part of the Larger Movement and so this is my First Experience of really participating as a being an activist on that level. I started being an activist on a lower level in terms of, you know, my School Papers and just, you know, activating and advocating for myself and school. But now i felt the energy and the excitement of being in this mass, mass of people that were all striving for equality and justice. What do you think of the movies that have been made of your dad and your family . Loved 42, after it, i felt they understood determination versus i felt the original Jackie Robinson story, which was made in 1950. On my dad plays himself in that movie. Black and white, of course. And even as a child, and i was a child when this was made and watching it in day camp, i didnt recognize my dad because of the way he was directed. So it was, you know, you can direct somebody to sort of people came away, well, he had the personality that he could handle that adversity as opposed to someone so determined in terms of the Larger Mission and is pushing forward and sort of holding back some Natural Instincts for some of the reactions. So, i loved 42 because chad was such a strong actor and he understood Jackie Robinson and showed him as a powerful, strong man who was on a mission. Sharon robinson is our guest. The first call for her comes from laura in ellicott city, maryland. Hi, laura. Hi. Thank you so much. Im thrilled to be able to talk to you. Here is my question, youre talking about the 63 march. I was 16 in 1959 and went on the youth march for integrated schools then and im 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 get in touch with your mom, but now i have you, so do you remember anything . Well, i remember that my dad did a youth march in 1959, but i also would like to hear your memory. So you can reach me through the Jackie Robinson foundation, were based in new york city and please call and leave a message if youre trying to reach me and ill well talk. Sharon from dublin, ohio, go ahead. Hi, i was just wondering. Hi. Did it take to you write your book and where do you live now . Oh, thank you, sharon. You know, as an author you very much, you know, write books in your head for a long time before you actually start writing them down so i wanted to write a book around the childrens march and started doing research for several years before i actually started writing this book. It was scholastic, my editor is scholastic and a publicist who convinced me to tell the story within a memoir format. So the actual writing process id say i did about two years of research, about a year and a half to write and be edited, and then, you know, so it ends up being a to the end, but its a number of years to think about the childrens march and how it effected me in 1963. So i actually live in delray beach, florida and you know, float back and forth between del ray and new york city. My mom lives in new york and connecticut so i am with her every month. Im a writer who works best with structure, a desk, a laptop, walls plastered with timelines and story art. Quiet, perched in her bed on my desk. And shes right now at the motel, hotel. She travels with me still. Shes a dog . Shes a dog. Shes a five pound yorkie. [laughter] and you edit. You like to edit on the beach . Well, i like noise. So actually i go to a diner and this particular restaurant is right across the street from the beach and they allow me to sit there for hours and i theres a table i like where i can see the water and sit at the upper level and look up and see the water and do my editing. I like voices around me when i edit. I dont know why that is. Next call to Sharon Robinson. Larry macon, georgia. Hawai hi, larry. Hi, larry. Hi there. Macon is my home and as you probably know, they filmed 42 here. Yes. And i enjoyed watching them film and it was just a wonderful experience because i have been down to Luther Williams ballpark so many times and lived tloo all the integration and so many good ball players that had been at that stadium so many times and just had some wonderful experiences there and i enjoyed seeing the filming and not only the ballpark, but in the downtown area, also. And i guess Jackie Robinson has always been one of my heroes, so, i just want to say thank you for that good movie and everything and i know it was you said, i think, previously that troises very accurate. Yes, it was. And i thought it was, too, yeah, so, but i really enjoyed watching them and everything. And i remember the integration of the stadium. At one time. Johnnie pitched here and there were so many africanamericans that came to watch him pitch they really didnt have any choice, but to integrate the stadium because theyd previously been made to sit on the third base side a small section. Larry. Yes. Larry, do you remember hearing from people who were opposed to the integration of baseball and the integration of the stadium, et cetera, et cetera . Oh, yes, yes, yes. Very much so, yeah. What were some of the comments . Well, you know, as they went through, you know, they got the now, theyve started with the schools and they protested that and then they would make comments like, you know, you know, they cant be happy, you know . Now they want to integrate our baseball park. Now they want to integrate them through the army and all of this stuff like that, you know, it was really sad. But i like to say were over that now, but we did go through that period of time here in macon. It wasnt a good time, but it was, you know, a dark part of macons history and the whole nation. American history. And two final questions, what kind of work do you do and how old are you . Im 72 and im a librarian, or a retired librarian. Oh. Thank you, sir, i appreciate your time. Sharon robinson had a little chat with larry. I heard that times have changed and have been that he experienced that change and that there was you know, didnt say that white people didnt want to sit next to black people in a stadium and you know, unfortunately, you know, we are experiencing similar attitudes today. I mean, one of the things my dad told me is that in the 60s, in the Civil Rights Movement, we were fighting to change laws. He said, but you, you know, you cant legislate hate, you know . Hate will be around and it will be a constant struggle and we certainly are seeing that today, that the country is very divided. So i dont think that he was he wanted to say that schools are resegregated and in manile places in america, and you know, its there are lessons we can learn from 1963 or the Civil Rights Movement from the mid 60s when we passed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, but were still living in a very divided world. Now, Sharon Robinson, you talked about the private family and the Robinson Family had a very public face. Yes. Did your parents have to walk that line quite a bit, knowing in a sense that they were cultural icons, at least that your father was a cultural icon and yet, they had personal feelings as well . You know, i wouldnt say that they stayed online, you know . My dad wrote columns, he wrote letters, he never stopped advocating for equality and justice. He did his even when he did it around politics and he was always a voice out there. So, once he retired from major League Baseball, he worked as a activism was in his blood and the movement was heating up and he jumped right in there and found every way he could to continue to use his voice. What about his endorsement of Richard Nixon in 1960 . Well, it was a mistake. [laughter] and i told him i was 10 years old and i it was my first discussion with him about politics. My fifth grade teacher asked us to go home and find out who our father was voting for. And i knew who my father was voting for. I didnt have enough selfconfidence to say it doesnt matter who my father is voting for, i would vote for kennedy. I went home and had that discussion with my dad and i learned about integrity and commitment. He had made a commitment to Richard Nixon, but he thankfully did not support him the second time around, and he learned that he wasnt nixon wasnt going to listen to him very early in the campaign, but he stuck with him. But he said he met with kennedy. Kennedy did not look him in the eye and explained to me about trust, and how you, you know, establish trust with somebody. And also, he said kennedys voting record was not, you know he had a chance to work on equality and justice issues as a senator and he hadnt done it, so, you know, that was so we continued to have those discussions right until the goldwater 64. My family went out to san francisco. Republican. The republican convention, the entire family went and dad was there with rockefeller and they lost and they had to regroup and we literally we drove back across country and we literally stopped off at rockefellers ranch so he and dad could sit on the porch and say the Republican Party is going in a different direction and they met and regrouped. And then my dad, you know, from that point on kind of, well, he didnt live that much longer, but he voted for candidates or supported people that he felt regardless of party, were who he could support. What year did he pass . 1972. At what age. In october, he was actually 53. And the reason . My dad had had type one diabetes and Heart Disease and runs in the males on his side. Adult onset type 1 and he had a massive heart attack. Sharon robinson, you had two brothers. Yes. What happened to jackie, jr. . Jackie died in a car accident when he was 24 on the parkway. And he features in your book. He does. And what do you remember about him . Oh, i remember that he was i loved my older brother very much and i remember he struggled. He struggled from a young boy, he struggled in school academically. Did he struggle being jackie, jr. . He struggled jackie, jr. He was named there was no hiding place for him. He acted out and struggled from an early age and he also didnt have the confidence you get from being successful in school. So, i was telling you about his baseball. He was actually a very good baseball player, youth baseball player, but he couldnt be himself. You know, he was constantly being compared so he dropped out of that and he struggled in school, finally dropped out and went to vietnam. You know, came through addiction and came out of it and then died in a car accident. So, it was a very hard, hard years for my family. So in 1963 were just beginning to see how adolescence, his adolescence and how traumatic it was on the family as well. So its funny because when i wrote my first scene of the book, which is my birthday, january 13th of 1963, i wrote it and i everybody was home. And my dad was home, my brothers were home from high school, now, wait a minute and i go back and do my research, you have to do Research Even though its your own story and you have to go back and research and thats when i found that my dad was not home. He was in the hospital, and jackie was home, he had come back from boarding school. So, you know, i had to rewrite that scene, but it showed me right then, that the trauma that was happening in our family. So jackie literally ran away to california the day my father went home from the hospital. Younger brother . Younger brother davis, he lived in tanzania, and is a father of 10. Hes a coffee grower, businessman, does some work with baseball as well. Hes doing some Work International for the dodgers. Hes an incredible man. We see him two to three times a year. We no longer go my mother and i use today travel to see him, but now he comes to new york and spends time with us and you know, he and i he works hes not an independent farmer, he is part of a cooperative and you know, it all goes back to how we were raised and the kind of work we selected, our dad because us 63, find work that you love and stay committed to your family and have a mission. Weve been Mission Driven from our childhood and it shows in the kind of work that each of us selected. Next caller for Sharon Robinson is jenny. Hi, my freiend went to school with Marylou Robinson who happened to be god daughter to your dad. Whatever happened to marylou, i was a tom boy and loved baseball and i thought this is the time to ask a question about marylou. I have no idea who marylou is. So this is in connecticut . No, we actually we lived on the east side of manhattan and my sister and marylou were at robert wagner, jr. High school on 76th street at the time. And this is going back a Long Distance ago because they would have been around 74 years of age. Wow. I dont know because, you know, it seems like we would have had some Family Association and i dont recognize the name at all. I cant help you, i dont know. Lets see if pamela in peters burg, virginia has a god daughter friend as well. Hi, thank you for the opportunity. Loved the book and im an actually a summer of 64 baby, and an on one side, played in the negro league and i watched the documentary. And when i was growing up in mississippi we worked with Lee Bennett Hopkins a poet from new york. Okay. And we always asked his children why are all of these people from new york coming down to mississippi . We appreciate your parents, we appreciate what you and your siblings sacrificed being in a celebrity family and im just always curious, my friends from the north are afraid of mississippi now. So why did you and why did celebrities like your dad, why did black new yorkers so connect to the south and did your father ever feel apprehension coming down to alabama because, again, my friends are afraid of these states now . Yeah. Thank you, pamela. You this, pamela, all great points, you know, my dad was a fundraiser for the Civil Rights Movement and he traveled the country. And then what the activities, the whole point of them going down south was to help bring visibility to the Civil Rights Movement. The only way we had a change for the country was by them, the childrens mark and activities in birmingham that got the attention, finally got the attention of president kennedy and that was after outrage from people all over the country who watched dogs being unleashed on or at least being threatened with children that were marching peacefully and fire hoses that were knocking those children, you know, over, tumbling into each other and some went over cars. So they needed visibility. So they used they tried to get celebrities to, one, help give it visibility so we could actually have change in this country and also, the celebrities helped raise money because all of these marches, you know, they were they went to jail and there had to be bail money raised and like my dad and in new york city, they would host things to raise money for the jazz concerts that we talked about that we had in our house. Yes, i had i was apprehensive about my dad going down south, but they did what they had to do in order to change laws and bring equality and justice to american citizens. Sharon robinson, according to your book, the Birmingham Church bombing where the little girls were killed really hit you hard . Yeah, it did. You know, again, i was very invested in these children who were marching and you know, its interesting because i told you dr. King came to our house for the jazz concert and in his speech he talked about sacrifice, including introduced the ideas and i understood why kids had to go to jail and why marchers went to jail and how that raised the visibility of the movement, but you didnt think about children dying, you know . And children died. They were going to sunday school and they died. You know, they were it was a childrens day at the baptist church. So, that was devastating to me and my dad sat with me. My dad was always my sounding board, i mean, he allowed me to talk about anything and he just sat with me and he said, you know, here is what im going to do, you know, and you have to make a choice in life potentially when something happens, do you get back up or do you fold . Do you give in . Now, there are several photos in your book of your family, just going to hold these up quickly, to really see them youll need to get the book. Yeah. How many of these are posed photos, publicity photos . Are these natural . All of those are posed. I was telling you, we didnt when i went to look for photographs, i have some that were back then we had the photographs were about this big, you know, so i have some this big and those are ours, those are really ours. But those were actually posed. Did this happen a lot in your childhood . Yeah. Life magazine or the dodgers or somebody would want to say. Yeah. We need a family pictures. Absolutely. Yeah, that was part of our the with one that got me, before i was born, in brooklyn my parents are on the stoop looking beautiful and posed and my brother jackie, a toddler acting out against the photographs, hes drinking a glass of milk and just, you know, as the photographer takes the shot he takes the glass over so it covers half of his face and im like, right on, jackie. And a posed photograph . Yeah, sort of an everyday occurrence in the Robinson Family . Yes, it was not every day, but it was, you know, like i said, we understood we were a public family and photographs were part of that publicity. Lets hear from arletta in charlotte, north carolina, hi, arletta. Good afternoon, and thank you so much, sharon, for this opportunity and congratulations on your new book. Thank you. I am just absolutely fascinated to be speaking with you for a couple of reasons. One im an aspiring writer, but in pittsburgh, pennsylvania as an avid baseball fan, back when Roberto Clemente was playing and they were talking about the pittsburgh and spoke so highly of your dad. So, although i didnt get to see your dad play, just knowing his legacy and how it changed in so many memories in my life and in fact, grandson, shaun gibson, you may know i know him very well, yes. A wonderful young man. Yes, absolutely. My question to he is a little different. Looking at your thoughts on our society and you talked a couple of questions ago about divisiveness in our country. And your memoir how it applies to Society Today . Well, thank you. Great questions and im also very close to the clemente family so i love hearing about roberto again. And i think the most important thing i tell children is that, one, to get a offer them options as they move forward in life, but the other thing is, we talk a lot about voice and finding your voice. And hoping that children who read this or adults who read, and watch development of voice at age 13. I started to lift my voice and i was part of the protest generation, so i certainly marched in everything doctor womens issues to apartheid in south africa. So, im hoping that children will be encouraged to continue to lift their voice, you know, and building selfconfidence and know that someone is listening to them and that theyll fight against this division that we have in the country and theyre growing up in a very different time where there is a lot of division, but these kids are also growing up at a time when theres a lot of diversity in their experience, more so than we had in our childhood. So, im hoping that diversity will help them get to meet people that are from different cultures and religions and speak different languages and you know, theyll feel more comfortable. So as adults they will not be as threatened by people that dont look like them. So, really, its about how the treem is encouraging all of us to not just accept status quo and not just accept troubling times, but to fight back. And thats what my parents told us, you know, we have to fight back and its an ongoing process, you know, just because it hasnt things have changed and things have gone back, what do we have to continue to believe and have hope that we can continue to move forward as a country, or move forward again. Juanita in ocala, florida. I have friends in ocala. You do . Statler, he just died, steve, did a book. Were Family Friends going back to brooklyn so they live they have a horse farm in ocala so ive visited, many, many times. That makes me happy. Well, im calling because i was changing channels and i saw you up there and my mother used to always tell us a story and she told us that Jackie Robinson was her first cousin. Now. Oh. Her husbands name was james bryant. You know, i have a lot of relatives in the south and in florida and my father was from georgia, and so come from jacksonville. Ocala, i dont remember any but that doesnt matter, we have a lot of robinsons out there in our family and i dont know. So youve met a god daughter and an uncle and a first cousin now. And part of my family. I have a very large robinson contingency. So, there is another part of your book that i do want to mention since you mentioned your family friend, but a big part of your life. Diamond was a horse that was given to my brother, and, but i had been researching and wanting a horse for a long time. He so he was given to both of us and we shared him. I tell people today, you know, we worked so well together around my mother today because we had to share a horse and be responsible totally responsible for a horse when we were kids. And so, i he was also my freedom, you know, he was my movement and he gave me the confidence that, you know, a lot of preteens dont have. And diamond gave me that. I rode diamond bare back, i rode diamond with a saddle. But he was very important to us. Do you still ride today . I wish i could. I used to go to we finally gave up. I finally called steve after with i went riding with him and i said, steve, its not worth it. It took me a week to recover. Riding gets a lot harder as you age, on your back. [laughter] ralph from louisiana, you have 30 seconds to talk to Sharon Robinson. Hi, ralph. Hi. Yeah, i just wanted to share the story with you briefly. I grew up in the country right out of baton rouge, louisiana. Yes. And my mother lived in new orleans, so he came down to bring us to see your father, Jackie Robinson, and i just found out. Wow. Recently right before she passed, she passed in 2013, but he was coming down there to pick my brother and i up, raised oby our grandmother and had a story found out before she died. And ralph, we have to cut you there. Ralph, thanks for calling. Any comments for ralph . Well leave it there. Yeah, he didnt get to tell his whole story. I know, i know, i apologize. Sharon robinson is the book child of the dream, a memoir of 1963 and shes been our guess here on book tv. Thank you for your time. Thank you, peter, its been wonderful. I loved all the callins. Great calls. Interesting comments and questions, yeah. Youre watching did book tv on cspan2, for a complete Television Schedule visit book tv. Org and follow on social media, twitter, instagram and facebook. Next, doctor David Shulkin recounts his time at the secretary of the Veterans Affairs department for the trump administration. Hes interviewed by jeremy butler. After words is a weekly interview all after words are available to listen to as podcasts. Host dr. Shulkin thank you for being with us today. Its an honor to have you here. The v. A. Is an important subject to talk about, one of the areas are government where people hear about but dontes