Jackie Robinson Foundation

Two years ago today, Rachel Robinson cut the ribbon to open the doors to the Jackie Robinson Museum, realizing her long-held dream of a fixed tribute to her husband. Attracting a bustling crowd from across the world, the Museum celebrates the trailblazing achievements of an iconic American hero. ——— Have you visited the Jackie Robinson Museum yet? Click the link below for reservations. We also invite you to revisit the piece “Jackie Robinson’s Enduring Legacy Gets a New Home” by Charlie Vascellaro, which is also available via the link below. #JRFoundation #JRMuseum Reservations https://tr.ee/EosjEfLA3D Jackie’s Enduring Legacy https://tr.ee/wtlJxyxtb0

#OnThisDay July 23, 1962—Fifteen years after his racial barrier breaking major league debut and five years after his retirement as a player, Jackie Robinson is inducted to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility on the ballot garnering votes on 77.5% (124 of 160) of all ballots cast. Robinson summed up his brief two-minute and 43 second speech stating: “But I want to thank all of the people throughout this country who were just so wonderful during those trying days. I appreciate it at no end. It’s the greatest honor any person could have, and I only hope that I’ll be able to live up to this tremendously fine honor. It’s something that I think those of us who are fortunate, again, must use in order to help others -- because it’s such a tremendous honor that we should be able to go out and do things to help. I’m just grateful and I’m sorry I’ve taken so long, but I just wanted to you know that I appreciate it so much.” In 2008, Robinson’s Hall of Fame plaque was amended, in a ceremony attended by his widow, Rachel Robinson, to include Robinson’s pioneering act of having broken baseball’s color barrier in 1947. The updated language reads: JACK ROOSEVELT ROBINSON “JACKIE” BROOKLYN, N.L., 1947-1956 A PLAYER OF EXTRAORDINARY ABILITY RENOWNED FOR HIS ELECTRIFYING STYLE OF PLAY. OVER 10 SEASONS HIT .311, SCORED MORE THAN 100 RUNS SIX TIMES, NAMED TO SIX ALL-STAR TEAMS AND LED BROOKLYN TO SIX PENNANTS AND ITS ONLY WORLD SERIES TITLE IN 1955. THE 1947 ROOKIE OF THE YEAR, AND THE 1949 N.L. MVP WHEN HE HIT A LEAGUE-BEST .342 WITH 37 STEALS. LED SECOND BASEMEN IN DOUBLE PLAYS FOUR TIMES AND STOLE HOME 19 TIMES. DISPLAYED TREMENDOUS COURAGE AND POISE IN 1947 WHEN HE INTEGRATED THE MODERN MAJOR LEAGUES IN THE FACE OF INTENSE ADVERSITY.

Happiest of birthdays to Mrs. Rachel Robinson…102 years young!!! #visionary #legend

Today we celebrate Rachel Robinson’s 102nd birthday and cherish a legacy of excellence through and through! From the start of her lifelong partnership with her husband Jack until this day, Rachel Robinson’s worldview has always been twofold: one part attaining a level of personal accomplishment, the other ensuring hers and Jack’s shared values are realized through action. Like her husband, her achievements would meet or surpass her own early ambitions to help others through nursing. She kicked down doors for a generation of Black women in the fields of Health Care, Real Estate Development, Philanthropy and Sport.    “Giving back is an essential part of life and it’s not when you get rich and famous that you start giving back. You start giving back right away.” – Rachel Robinson   Happy Birthday, Rachel!   #CheersTo102

This week, JRF reflects on Rachel Robinson’s extraordinary life as we approach her 102nd birthday this Friday. Take a journey with us down memory lane. __________ In 1965, Rachel Robinson became director of nursing at the Connecticut Mental Health Center in New Haven, a collaboration between Yale University and the State of Connecticut. There, she used methodologies and experience learned in previous positions to develop new forms of treatment in Connecticut. She was simultaneously an assistant professor of nursing at Yale, also realizing her long-held desire to teach. She held this dual role until Jackie’s death in 1972. #CheersTo102

This week, JRF reflects on Rachel Robinson’s extraordinary life as we approach her 102nd birthday this Friday. Take a journey with us down memory lane. __________ Anxious to fulfill her own professional goals, Rachel Robinson enrolled in graduate school at New York University and earned a master’s degree in psychiatric nursing in 1961. She became a pioneering practitioner in the movement to deinstitutionalize psychiatric patients. In her first job at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, she was promoted to head of nursing and worked on a study that demonstrated that patients who were able to remain at home and visit a day hospital had good outcomes. #CheersTo102

This week, JRF reflects on Rachel Robinson’s extraordinary life as we approach her 102nd birthday this Friday. Take a journey with us down memory lane. __________ During her husband’s professional baseball career, Rachel devoted herself to her family—supporting her beloved Jack through his trials on and off the field and nurturing their growing family. Their first child, Jack Roosevelt Robinson, Jr., was born on November 18, 1946, followed by daughter Sharon, born January 13, 1950, and son David, born May 14, 1952. #CheersTo102

This week, JRF reflects on Rachel Robinson’s extraordinary life as we approach her 102nd birthday this Friday. Take a journey with us down memory lane. __________ Jackie Robinson and Rachel Isum met at UCLA in the fall of 1940, they were quick to fall in love and, but they took their time with their courtship over the next five years marrying in February 1946. Immediately they were tested, enduring the scrutiny and trials of Jackie’s debut in professional baseball. This outside stress cemented their relationship, Rachel said, “It was almost like two against the world. We became solid.”   “My most profound instinct as Jack’s wife was to protect him – an impossible task. I could, however, be a consistent presence to witness and validate his realities, love him without reservation, share his thoughts and miseries, discover with him the humor of the ridiculous behavior against us, and most of all, help him maintain our fighting spirit.” - Rachel Robinson   #CheersTo102

This week, JRF reflects on Rachel Robinson’s extraordinary life as we approach her 102nd birthday this Friday. Take a journey with us down memory lane. __________ Rachel Isum joined millions of Americans who stepped up to serve their country when the U.S. entered World War II. As a college student, she worked part time supporting wartime production at Lockheed Aircraft in Los Angeles and joined the Cadet Nurse Corps to help care for returning soldiers. Demonstrating a keen sense of duty, she was inspired in part by her father, who sacrificed his health as a combat soldier in World War I, and her older half-brother, Charles Williams, an Army Air Corps 2nd Lieutenant who had gone missing in action in Eastern Europe. #CheersTo102

This week, JRF reflects on Rachel Robinson’s extraordinary life as we approach her 102nd birthday this Friday. Take a journey with us down memory lane. __________ Rachel Isum entered UCLA in 1941 and completed an undergraduate nursing degree and clinical work with honors at the University of California San Francisco Hospital in 1945. She was awarded the Florence Nightingale Award as the most outstanding clinical nurse in her graduating class. She immediately started her first nursing job at Los Angeles General Hospital in the infant nursery. #CheersTo102 years