Jackie's legacy celebrated by Roberts, Robinson's son

April 15, 2022, will mark 75 years since Jackie Robinson permanently broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier. The celebration got off to an early start on Monday at Dodger Stadium.

On what would have been Robinson’s 103rd birthday, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts hosted 60 students from the baseball and softball teams of John Muir High School in Pasadena, Calif., Robinson’s alma mater, also announcing a donation from the Dodgers to the school.

In addressing the group, Roberts acknowledged the direct impact Robinson had on his own career as a biracial man in baseball. Roberts, whose father was Black and mother is Japanese, is the first person of color to manage the Dodgers, and understands the specific significance of Robinson’s contributions to the African American community. He added, though, that Robinson’s story has broader implications for a wide range of barriers that still exist in any number of fields.

“[Robinson’s legacy is] about equality for everybody,” said Roberts.

• 10 significant moments from Jackie's life

Those students then had the opportunity to take part in a Q&A session with David Robinson, Jackie’s son and member of the board of directors of the Jackie Robinson Foundation (founded in 1973, the year following Jackie’s death). According to its site, the foundation “administers one of the nation’s premier scholarship and leadership development programs for minority college students.”

David, who has also spent the past three decades working as a coffee farmer in his adopted home of Tanzania, treated his audience to stories about Jackie’s youth, family life and retirement years. In some ways, he has a different view of Jackie than most.

To David and his siblings, Jackie isn’t some larger-than-life figure -- he was “Dad,” a warm, caring figure who “showed his love [to his children] every opportunity he got.” The guy who made his family grits every morning, and who made a hobby of hitting golf balls over the house for David to catch with a baseball glove. A man who couldn’t have done what he did without the unwavering support of his wife, Rachel.

But Jackie was also someone who taught David -- and countless others -- through the way he lived his life. He instilled in his children the value of service, and constantly reminded them of their place on the continuum of humankind.

“Every generation can have and should have a dream, and a path to follow,” said Robinson. “But if you look closely at the dream and the path, you might see the dream of your ancestors within your own dream. … The dreams of humanity have yet to be realized, and that is an inheritance that we all are both rewarded with and have the responsibility to attempt to achieve. Because we are here because of what others have gone through.”

In one particularly resonant anecdote, David detailed a time when his father was approached by a stranger who told him that the day Jackie was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame would be the happiest day of his own life. Jackie found this interesting, but understood it as something that comes with the territory of being part of something so much bigger than one’s own self.

“Your life can be so integrated into the lives of your fellow human beings that they are you, and you are they,” said David Robinson. “The unity and joy that can be achieved by being a person of the people is huge.”