Teaching With Documents:
Beyond the Playing Field -
Jackie Robinson, Civil Rights Advocate
LETTERJACKIE ROBINSON TO ROLAND L. ELLIOTT
APRIL 20, 1972
Time had taken its toll upon Jackie Robinson. Failing health
contributed to the pessimistic tone of this letter to Presidential assistant
Roland L. Elliott. In addition to suffering from diabetes, hypertension, and
the effects of several heart attacks, his hair had turned almost white, he had
lost most of his vision, and he was forced to walk with use of a cane. In addition,
the deaths of his baseball mentor, Branch Rickey; his mother; and his first son,
Jackie Robinson, Jr., together with the assassinations of Medgar Evers, Malcolm
X, Martin Luther King Jr., and John and Bobby Kennedy weighed heavily on him.
Further, the escalation of violence on all sides, and the growing radicalization
of the civil rights movement , made him fear that wholesale bloodshed between
the races was imminent. He died at the age of 53, scarcely 6 months after writing
this letter.
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