Religion & Jackie Robinson and the Long Shadow of Integration
Religion & Jackie Robinson and the Long Shadow of Integration
Panelists:
Randal Maurice Jelks, Professor of African and African American Studies at the University of Kansas
Carmen M. Nanko-Fernández, Professor of Hispanic Theology and Ministry at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago
Cohosts:
Chris Lamb, Chair of Journalism and Public Relations and Professor of Journalism at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Mike Long, Author and former Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Conflict Studies at Elizabethtown College
Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers played his first game in the major leagues on April 15, 1947, ending the “color line” in baseball and forever changing sport and society. Robinson famously promised Branch Rickey, the team’s president, that he would turn the other cheek when confronted with the hostilities of racial bigotry. How did Robinson’s faith prepare him for the trauma he endured and the sacrifices he made? Moreover, how have the presumed obligations of religious faith and nationalism haunted professional athletes, especially athletes of color, ever since? Major League Baseball will commemorate the 75th anniversary of Robinson’s first game on April 15. However, it will do so once again within the lens of white America alongside the ways in which religion, capitalism, and sport intersect. “Turning the other cheek becomes an expectation of subsequent Black and Brown players,” Professor Carmen Nanko-Fernandez writes, “and martyrdom is a way of domesticating dangerous memories and complicated inconvenient prophets such as Jackie Robinson.” In this episode, the panelists will not only discuss the complicated history and memories of Robinson’s integration of baseball, but they also will address the ways in which American sport has been an especially compelling case to theorize the relationship between race and religion. Join humanities scholars and journalists for a timely and thoughtful conversation at the intersection of American studies, religion, and sport.