First Class Citizenship: The Civil Rights Letters of Jackie Robinson

Robinson, Jackie / Michael G. Long, ed.

ISBN 10: 0805087109 / ISBN 13: 9780805087109

Published by Times / Henry Holt, NY, 2007

About this Item

359 pages + section of b/w photos; contents clean; corners bumped; shelf wear to edges of dj.

Seller Inventory # 175393

Bibliographic Details

• Title: First Class Citizenship: The Civil Rights Letters of Jackie Robinson
• Publisher: Times / Henry Holt, NY
• Publication Date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0805087109
• ISBN 13: 9780805087109
• Binding: Hard Cover
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Condition: vg-
• Dust Jacket Condition: vg-
• Book Type: Hardcover (dj)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Americana,History,Black Hist/Lit,Biographical

About this title

Synopsis

Never-before-published letters offer a rich portrait of the baseball star as a fearless advocate for racial justice at the highest levels of American politics
 

Jackie Robinson's courage on the baseball diamond is one of the great stories of the struggle for civil rights in America, and his Hall of Fame career speaks for itself. But we no longer hear Robinson speak for himself; his death at age fifty-three in 1972 robbed America of his voice far too soon.

In First Class Citizenship, Jackie Robinson comes alive on the page for the first time in decades. The scholar Michael G. Long has unearthed a remarkable trove of Robinson's correspondence with--and personal replies from--such towering figures as Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Hubert Humphrey, Nelson Rockefeller, and Barry Goldwater. These extraordinary conversations reveal the scope and depth of Robinson's effort during the 1950s and 1960s to rid America of racism.

Writing eloquently and with evident passion, Robinson charted his own course, offering his support to Democrats and to Republicans, questioning the tactics of the civil rights movement, and challenging the nation's leaders when he felt they were guilty of hypocrisy--or worse. Through his words as well as his actions, Jackie Robinson truly personified the "first class citizenship" that he considered the birthright of all Americans, whatever their race.

About the Author

Michael G. Long is an assistant professor of religious studies at Elizabethtown College and is the author of several books on religion and politics in mid-century America, including Against Us, but for Us: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the State and Billy Graham and the Beloved Community: America's Evangelist and the Dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. He lives in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.