42 Today: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy (Washington Mews Books)

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Roosevelt Robinson stepped onto the field as the first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers, forever changing baseball. Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, becoming the first Black athlete in America’s pastime, single-handedly integrating the sport.

42 Today: Jackie Robinson and his Legacy dives into the unvarnished truth about the legendary athlete, beyond his impact on baseball. Editor Michael G. Long curated thirteen essays written by insightful writers who explore critical moments from Robinson’s youth and career, as they explicate Robinson’s long-lasting impact on the ethos of American sports. The book explores Robinson’s faith, politics, and civil rights activism, making it an enlightening read for anyone who values the lessons of hard-fought racial integration in American society.

Renowned sports writers, journalists, professors, and activists who contributed to the volume do not breeze over the racism that Robinson endured during his career. Howard Bryant explores the legend’s “uncompromising sense of equality” in “The Owner.” Yohuru Williams examines Robinson’s contributions to the Black freedom movement in “I’ve Got To Be Me.” Jonathan Eig’s “Telling it the Right Way” dispels the myth that Robinson was wholeheartedly welcomed and supported by his White teammates. Collectively, the essays offer an intimate and complex portrait of Jackie Robinson as a sports legend and a political actor: an outspoken voice in the civil rights movement, practicing nonviolence, and advocating for racial justice.