Jackie Robinson and His Presidents: Political Endorsements and Civil Rights Advocacy

Abstract

Political and civil rights advocacy have become commonplace among today’s athletes. Embodying the nexus between presidential campaign endorsements and rights-based advocacy was the Brooklyn Dodger star Jack Roosevelt “Jackie” Robinson, who broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947 and then broke into politics when he backed Richard Nixon’s presidential bid in 1960. Robinson promoted the principles and fortunes of the Grand Old Party and, even more important, justice for Black Americans. Partially named for Republican president Theodore Roosevelt, Robinson espoused the egalitarian ideals of the GOP’s first president, Abraham Lincoln. Robinson was wary of Democrats John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, whom he saw as political shapeshifters on civil rights. And his relations with Nixon cooled after 1960, as Nixon increasingly wooed conservative white southerners and suburbanites. This chapter situates the evolution of Robinson’s involvement in presidential politics within the context of the changing Civil Rights Movement and of partisan realignments during the 1960s. It considers the opportunities Robinson opened to, and the troubles he caused for, presidents and would-be presidents as they either approached or evaded the issue of civil rights. It analyzes his emerging, then declining, influence with White House occupants and aspirants.