Jackie Robinson Day
Photo: Bettmann Corbis
Happy Jackie Robinson Day, Massive! Today in 1947 the pioneering athlete broke Major League Baseball’s color line in the 20th century, when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Despite constant racist abuse from fans and players (even some hatin’-ass Brooklyn Dodgers signed a petition against Robinson joining the team), he won 1947’s Rookie of the Year, set a league record by stealing home base 19 times during his career, and eventually became the highest-paid athlete in Dodgers history.
But did you know that Robinson, seen here leaving Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field after his MLB debut, also co-founded a Black-owned-and-operated bank in Harlem? Robinson opened Freedom National Bank in 1964 with economist and organizer Dunbar McLaurin, serving as the institution’s first chairman of the board. Offering generous loans for homes and businesses, Freedom National Bank grew to be the largest Black-owned bank in New York State before it closed in 1990.
“I’m grateful for all the breaks and honors and opportunities I’ve had. But I always believe I won’t have it made until the humblest Black kid in the most remote backwoods of America has it made.”
“I’m grateful for all the breaks and honors and opportunities I’ve had,” Robinson wrote in his autobiography. “But I always believe I won’t have it made until the humblest Black kid in the most remote backwoods of America has it made.”
