Thank you everybody for tuning in tonight. Hello everyone. Thank you so much for joining us. Im marcia eli from the Brooklyn Public Librarys center for brooklyn history and the arts and culture team bpl presents. This year Brooklyn Public Library celebrates, its 125th anniversary. Our birthday is a chance to talk about all the library does and one important part of that work is stewarding the extraordinary special collections at the center for brooklyn history. These are archives are the combined materials from the brooklyn Public Libraries special collections. And those of the former Brooklyn Historical society, and they are literally the most comprehensive collection of brooklyn related materials in the world. So we are celebrating these amazing collections and a 125th Anniversary Series titled out of the box. Five programs that put just few of the most important or most frequently used or beloved Materials Center stage clearly the dodgers and robinson have to be part of that lineup so tonight were bringing together a really fantastic panel of experts to dip into just some of what the center for brooklyn history has especially as it relates to the groundbreaking player Jackie Robinson. Were going to kick off with an overview of our dodgers holdings presented by cbh archivist sarah quick, but before turning this over to sarah, i want to share two important notes for all of you. First you do have the option for closed captioning tonight. Just click that live transcript button at the bottom of your screen. And very importantly, i hope youll share your questions for our incredible panel tonight to do that type into the q a box, which is also at the bottom of my screen of your screen now, it is my great pleasure to turn this over to sarah quick. All right. Thanks marsha. My name is sarah and im an archivist at the center for brooklyn history, and im going to talk for just a few minutes about the dodgers items that we have in our archival collections at cbh. We have about 11 collections. So this is going to be just a general overview with a few examples to give you an idea of whats in our collections and if they could be helpful to your research or just your general interest. I should also mention that we also have a large selection of books, which im not going to talk about tonight, but they can be accessed through our catalog. Next slide please. So several of our collections include programs and score cards from the various parks and a lot of them have handwritten notes or tallies from the original owners. Ive also come across a few that have little sketches of them. Another thing i want to note is that these have a lot of advertisements for local businesses. So the Research Value can really extend. Yeah baseball. Next slide please. The Walter Omalley brooklyn dodgers records include a large amount of correspondence regarding you know, what you might expect the example on the left is a note from omalley to robert moses mentioning the major league opportunities in los angeles and the example on the right is mayor Robert Wagner basically echoing the thoughts and feelings of a lot of brooklynites asking omalley not to take the dodgers out of brooklyn next slide, please. Another really interesting series in the omalley collection is maps of the proposed sites for a new stadium in brooklyn, which of course never came to be including one fairly close to cbh down in dumbo and this is another collection that i think goes really beyond just baseball history beyond basal history and has a lot of Research Potential in urban planning and development politics. I mean you name it. Next slide please. And of course we have baseball cards covering nearly every decade and a really wide variety of players and for tonight. I didnt scan the backs of the cards, but you can typically expect player stats or an advertisement for the company that produced the cards. And next slide, please. We also have a really nice variety of professionally produced and recorded music and some printed sheet music, but we also have some original chance which were composed by fans or fan clubs, and these are really fun and they can be like kind of sassy and some of them are better than others, but i think the one ive included here is a really good example and really interesting so you can sort of see the editing process. Next slide please. And thats a really good segue into my favorite items from these collections which are items made by fans. So we have scrapbooks fan Club Newsletters stories things like that. And these are really just one of a kind items that demonstrate the loyalty their creativity and the sense of community that people really got are just a still get from being a daughters fan their firsthand accounts of what bands were feeling and thinking and what they want it to share and i think these are just great next fight, please. So my last example is our collection of tickets and signed baseballs. We have a really large amount of tickets, especially from the 40s and 50s and the baseballs which date to about the same time and i would say that these are items that dont get a lot of requests but theyre there and theyre available. So please keep them in mind next slide, please. So thats gonna wrap up my portion of the program and i just wanted to remind everyone that the center for brooklyn history is a public library, and were not just for the serious researcher. This is your library, please use it and marsha. Im going gonna send it back to you. Thanks sarah. That was great. Now im very excited to introduce three incredibly accomplished sports experts to talk about the dodgers and Jackie Robinson. Let me tell you a little bit about each of them and welcome them to join. Ill start with joe dorenson. Joe. Dorenson is a retired professor in the History Department at Long Island University where he began to teach in 1966, joe coedited the prizewinning book Jackie Robinson race sports and the american dream. His latest book the black athlete as hero american barrierbreakers in nine sports. Well be published this summer by mcfarland. Welcome joe. And back is one of the nations best known sports authors bums his book on the brooklyn dodgers is considered a classic. He has written 10 New York Times bestsellers and has two books out right now valentines way with Bobby Valentine and whispers of the gods tales from baseballs golden age told by the men who played it out. Just last month. Welcome peter. You so much. My pleasure. And our moderator tonight is bill roden. Bill is a columnist and editor at large for the undefeated espn. Its news excite about sports week and culture. For almost three decades he was known as the awardwinning sports columnist for the New York Times and a regular guest on espns sports reporters. He is the author of several books including 40 Million Dollar slaves the rise fall and redemption of the black athlete and third in a mile the trials and try and of the black quarterback bill has won a peabody award is writer of the hbo documentary journey of the africanamerican athlete and he also wrote the Emmy Awardwinning documentary breaking the huddle the integration of college football. And finally, i really want to mention that in collaboration with the undefeated espn and the Walt Disney Company bill established the road and fellowship now and its sixth year the road and fellowship. Trains and supports aspiring africanamerican journalists from historically black colleges and universities i want to thank you all so much for being here. I am really looking forward to your conversation and bill i turn this over to you. Thank you so much marsha, and this is really a very special. These are two two writers and two folks. Ive ive just had so much respect for peter and joe our past of intersected and i really respect what you guys have done and represented for for years and every time i hear about the books that you youve written i say god, what have i been doing with my life . But really it is a pleasure and honor to be on this panel in particularly. You know, this is april and that always means a lot of stuff means baseball is in the air, but it also means Jackie Robinson and what were gonna do theres six lies that were going to look at and were gonna riff on, you know, both of you have written extensively about the dodgers and about robinson and the team and i want you to put a you know, the dodges and robinson and and context but one question i want to ask you before we go to the slides. Is a question question for each of you. Why is robinson so continued to be so enduring . I mean, this is remember were talking about 75 years after he broke into baseball and and 50 years after his death. He still vibrant he still. A fresh. Hes still part of the american psyche and i guess i want from each of you maybe start with you joe and then you peter why is this, you know a particularly in our field in athletics where youre only as good as your stats as soon as you retire, you know, an athletes find this out the hard way, i think tom brady found out that moments after he retired you realize he was yesterdays news, but here we have somebody whos been whos been there for five decades and who broke into baseball 75 years old. Why does Jackie Robinson joe . Why does he continue the resume . Bill, i am having problems with i hope can you see me now . Can you hear me now . Youre right. Okay, thank you. I was ready to press the panic button. Jackie robinson is a man for all seasons. And i want to thank you and and peter. For being the giants which i stand to to make my my pitch for Jackie Robinson, i would like to point out that my introduction to the new book was largely derived from bill rodens work and peter golombachs work. So i am honored to be in their company. They are true giants and the giant in dodger uniform is Jackie Robinson. He is unquestionably the most transformative athlete of the 20th century. He was a fourletter man. A uniquely at ucla and ironically baseball was probably his weakest sport. Football being his best. Nevertheless because of the barriers racial barriers deeply embedded in american culture. Jackie was unable to join Major League Baseball until he was a very old rookie at 27 playing for montreal and the dodgers one year later. Jackie presented a an image of moderation for the first two years but in 1949. Branch ricky remove the reins and jackie had a season to remember unmatched by many other ball players in the hall of fame. He hit 342. He knocked in over 120 runs. He stole 37 bases. He led the dodgers to the pennant and unfortunately god proved to be a dodger yankee fan and the dodgers lost despite having a much better lineup except for pitching robinson was able finally to be his own person. And doing that he set the stage for integration of Hotels Restaurants businesses, and he was able as we mentioned earlier before the telecast he moved from supporting nixon in 60 to supporting humphrey and 68. So hes a man who changes with the times but he remains a permanent fixture in the american pantheon. Joe and you you put him in context perfectly my question remains peter again in terms of his longevity. I mean we both seen many many athletes who are great in the moment and who we could barely remember them, but here it is. Uh, Jackie Robinson become so endurance and and i just want to get a position from from you. Why is that . Why is he so in continues to be so enduring . There are a handful of athletes in American History babe ruth certainly is one Jackie Robinson is one muhammad. Ali is one. Very very few of that pantheon of importance. Greatness what they mean to the American Public i mean ruth ruth came out of the 1919 black sox scandal and started hitting home runs for the yankees and in effect save baseball. Jackie robinson in 1947 in a country where African Americans were supposed to never be seen and never be heard. And never have an important job. And never the influential he joined the brooklyn dodgers and he became the rookie of the year. Despite the cat calls the pitchers who threw it him despite players who tried to injure him by spiking him despite all of that. Jackie robinson became a star baseball player a few years later. He became the most valuable player. But more than that. More than that he told the black community that if i can be a success you can be a success too. Dont forget brown vs board of education that that famous Ruling Supreme Court ruling that that that did away with separate but equal. That was in 1954 robinson came along in 1947 and i do believe something i said in my book bums that robinson allowed Martin Luther king the success that he had if Jackie Robinson had been a failure who knew how many years it would have taken to to build up what Jackie Robinson himself had done to the society in america. After jackie came players like Roy Campanella players like don newcomb players like larry doby and it just kept going on and on and on to the point where nobody could say. Africanamericans dont have what it takes because these players showed them. They had every every bit as much as you know any of the white players and and robinson was the first and he will always be the first and and as far as im concerned he is probably i would say certainly the most important american athlete in our history and and you dont forget a guy like that. I mean we talk about babe ruth. Still do to this day. We talk about Jackie Robinson to this day. We talk about muhammad ali to this day and theres a fourth one and thats billie jean king. She was responsible for title nine who allowed women to have the same rights as men in sports and life. Right, and so well said and you said something i want to go back to im gonna stay on script because im immediately getting ready to improvise. I dont want to do that. But but both. Oh peter you and joe please remind me because theres something you said about how his success open doors and when we end our discussion, i want to ask you both about why that has not translated into other aspects of baseball as it relates to managers, you know, the idea is that but ill ask you the question when we get in but but just lets keep that in mind. Yeah, lets keep that money. So but right now why dont we go to the video take weve got some great slides and can we show the first first this is an article from the Brooklyn Eagle dated, march 1st, 1946 and his title fair play is rickys plea and this is when robinson was going to report to famous sanford, florida, and i think peter you youre read this letter. Forest and then were going to kind of chop it up, but lets put the letter in in context of why so significant whats so interesting about this piece of journalism. Is that takes you back to 1947 and takes you back to that world. Bailey you listen to the language of and it begins over at sanford 40 miles away. Jackie robinson the space to face with his baseball destiny the first boy of his race in 50 years to enter professional baseball. That has been a white mans game ever since the Young Californian will have his first workout with the dodgers montreal farm hands when he reports to manager clay hopper either today or tomorrow. President Branch Rickeys last morning lecture to his sanford kindergarten class yesterday was a plea for fair play for robinson and pitcher john wright who was purchased primarily to keep jackie from becoming homesick with none of his own race around. We didnt sign these two boys because of any political pressure began the deacon soon warming up to a subject we did sign them because its our desire to have a winning team in brooklyn. I would have signed an elephant to play shortstop if the elephant could have done better than anybody else. You have carried yourselves like gentleman here at camp. I want you to continue to be gentleman. All i ask of you is that you be yourselves. I would further remind you that clay hopper robinsons manager in montreal is himself a mississippian. And im going to interrupt myself for a second. Because understand that when robinson was coming to the dodgers clay hopper who was indeed a, mississippi. Came to branch ricky and he said to them. Is this man a human being . Upper had no. Interest in managing Jackie Robinson and branch ricky said to hopper you better do exactly as i want you to do or youre going to be gone. And harpers career was more important than his racism and harper kept his mouth shut and and did a decent job with robinson. Though the rest of the year. Yeah tonight comment something that really rubbed me the wrong way as enlightened as ricky was in this statement. He refers to them as colored boys, which is degrading and its part of the systemic racism that pervaded american even infected rickys rhetoric colored boys. Hes a man and he proved that on the field and off the field. Thats why i wanted to read this article to show just that. That White America but did not look kindly upon africanamerican men. Not at all. And as you read that as you as you pick up where you left just just you know, whenever i read Something Like this in particularly when im talking to younger people younger africanamericans and you read this type of thing. And you know you let them know this was pa