Editor’s Note: Next week marks the 78th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s breaking of baseball’s color line — the real start of the Civil Rights movement, seven years before Brown v. Board of Education. Just weeks ago, the Defense Department, under former Fox News talking head Pete Hegseth, tried to disappear public commemoration of Robinson’s military service, during which he’d been court-martialed for refusing to be relegated to sitting in the back of a military bus.

Hegseth’s administration quickly reversed itself after public outcry. They should have known that Robinson’s moral rectitude still resonates. He retired from baseball in 1957 and took a position as vice president of the Chock Full O’Nuts company, though his perch in corporate America didn’t silence him. Robinson was as hard on Republicans as Democrats, as evidenced by this letter to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, penned May 13, 1958, a copy of which I recently mysteriously found in my files.

“17 million Negroes cannot do as you suggest and wait for the hearts of men to change. We want to enjoy now the rights that we feel we are entitled to as Americans. This we cannot do unless we pursue aggressively goals which all other Americans achieved over 150 years ago.” — Jackie Robinson

The Context: Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus — in defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court — had utilized the Arkansas National Guard to prevent nine African American children from attending Little Rock’s Central High School. Eisenhower had responded with federal intervention, but Robinson felt the president was dithering on a civil rights bill. His letter raises the question: Where is today’s Robinson, bellowing truth to power?

Jackie Robinson, a specimen of a man, died at all of 53 in 1972. The cause of death was said to be heart disease, but, really, he was killed by the virus of racism, which, recent events sadly confirm, still dots our land. — Larry Platt

May 13, 1958
The President
The White House
Washington, D.C.

My Dear Mr. President:

I was sitting in the audience at the Summit Meeting of Negro Leaders yesterday when you said we must have patience. On hearing you say this, I felt like standing up and saying, “Oh no! Not again.”

I respectfully remind you sir, that we have been the most patient of all people. When you said we must have self-respect, I wondered how we could have self-respect and remain patient considering the treatment accorded us through the years.

17 million Negroes cannot do as you suggest and wait for the hearts of men to change. We want to enjoy now the rights that we feel we are entitled to as Americans. This we cannot do unless we pursue aggressively goals which all other Americans achieved over 150 years ago.

As the chief executive of our nation, I respectfully suggest that you unwittingly crush the spirit of freedom in Negroes by constantly urging forbearance and give hope to those pro-segregation leaders like Governor Faubus who would take from us even those freedoms we now enjoy. Your own experience with Governor Faubus is proof enough that forbearance and not eventual integration is the goal the pro-segregation leaders seek.

In my view, an unequivocal statement backed up by action such as you demonstrated you could take last fall in dealing with Governor Faubus if it became necessary, would let it be known that America is determined to provide – in the near future – for Negroes – the freedoms we are entitled to under the constitution.

Respectfully yours,
Jackie Robinson

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