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taylornye · 4 years

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Thermo

Claims swirl around toxic dirt, acid waters and a negligent city manager. A News-Telegram investigation reveals more.

February 3, 2020

The waters of the Thermo mine Area H property pond are translucent and turquoise in color. That’s because they’re acidic. Sulphur Springs city manager Marc Maxwell will admit as much, although he says it reminds him of the Caribbean.

“There’s a coal seam at the bottom that’s causing that color,” Maxwell told the News-Telegram in September 2019. “Luminant is essentially dumping baking soda in it to combat the acidity.”

From Maxwell’s perspective, the city was given the keys to the kingdom when the coal mining company handed over a nearly 5,000-acre piece of land just 3 miles outside the city limits in late November. Yes, there were some ongoing ecological issues, Maxwell concedes, but nothing a socially responsible company and a forward-thinking city can’t work out together.

Then, on Oct. 30, 2019, the Texas Tribune published an article about what the city is designating as “Helfferich Hill,” stating it “contains toxic heavy metals and minerals that can turn into acid when exposed to air and water,” and the plan to cover the hill with approximately 4 feet of dirt is insufficient even against a gentle rain.

“Rain would simply wash away the new dirt, exposing the toxic materials again,” the Tribune claimed.

In 1996, environmental supervisor for the Luminant mine John Denman told the News-Telegram, “We’ve never mined any land we did not reclaim.” Yet that’s exactly what the

Yet that’s exactly what the Tribune contends the city would now prefer to do.

Maxwell repeatedly called these claims “entirely fabricated,” and “sensationalistic.”

The truth about Thermo’s ecological health, and who has the responsibility to maintain it, are much murkier than the crystal-clear waters of the Thermo pond.

HISTORY

Thermo is the name of one of Hopkins County’s small communities — one of more than 50 such communities with populations ranging from 50 to 777. The area has a history of heavy industry: up until approximately 1925 it was known by a different name — Crush — and was home to a brick manufacturing plant that operated from 1910 to 1954. The clay found in the soil is formed into bricks by a firing process. To reflect this, the company changed its name from the Crush Brick and Tile Company to the Thermo Fire Brick Company, and as such, the Thermo community was born.

Lignite coal mines have long been common in Hopkins County, which sits atop several rich veins of the “soft coal.” Prospectors tried to open a vein north of Como in 1905, but found the lignite was too deep to mine. They had more luck in 1918 when the Alla-Malakoff mine was founded in Como. This mine stayed operational until 1938. There was also a smaller lignite mine operating in the Thermo area in 1922, approximately 3 miles outside Sulphur Springs proper.

Aerial photographs of the Thermo property from 1949 and 1958 show bucolic undeveloped farm and pastureland. Residences do not even appear near the property until 1964 aerial photographs. In 1976, Luminant Mining company purchased approximately 4,900 acres in the community, where it ran lignite coal mining operations until 2016.

In March 1978, Luminant broke ground at the Thermo site, and within their first two years of operation, the company reported they had covered about 300 surface acres. In 1980, site manager Kenneth Price told the News-Telegram the operation had about 22-24 years of extractions left before the site was no longer useful.

The Sulphur Springs plant had layoffs in both 1995 and 1997 due to an accident at the nearby Mount Pleasant plant, although in 1997 the Interstate Mining Compact Commission (IMCC) awarded Luminant national honors for its reclamation efforts at the Sulphur Springs operation.

Site manager Del McCabe told the News-Telegram at the time how Luminant had successfully re-routed portions of Rock Creek as well as preserved wetlands, pastures and wildlife. Luminant planted “several thousand trees a year,” to combat the 80-100 acres used in mining annually, McCabe boasted in 1997.

In 2014, Luminant’s parent company filed for bankruptcy, and in 2016, Luminant closed both its Thermo and nearby Mount Pleasant plants as it acquired coal from Wyoming.

Maxwell had his eye on the Thermo property since first taking office in 1995. What started his interest in the site was bird-dogging — both the sport and the persistence of local Roy Pelton. A field dog trainer, Pelton as well as daughter Julie and husband Frank Long traveled as far away as Oklahoma to compete with their canine, while hundreds of prime acres sat unused at Thermo.

“They wanted a place of their own, so we went up to Mount Pleasant to ask,” Maxwell said. “They said, ‘but doesn’t that involve guns?’ I had to admit they did. They told us, ‘Absolutely not.’ The company had a strict no-gun policy.”

So, Maxwell asked for the land outright, since the company was finished mining. Luminant’s answer?

“Don’t call us; we’ll call you,” Maxwell joked.

In October 2017, Luminant came before the Sulphur Springs city council in executive session with what Maxwell called a “grand plan.” It featured a 380-acre flyover animation of what is currently Area H, complete with an RV park, picnic tables, ponds and an apartment complex at its periphery.

“It’s really nice,” Maxwell told Luminant, “but we want the whole thing.

“My council wanted to crawl under the table and die,” Maxwell said.

Maxwell’s point to Luminant, he said, was that the city could not afford to maintain 380 acres of park lands. If given all 5,000 acres, the city could use the land for industrial development as well as recreation and the company would not have to tear down functional roads and could “write off” the donation on their taxes.

To everyone’s surprise, Luminant agreed.

Maxwell estimates that if the company were to sell the land, it could bring them as much as $25 million. In the end, the city only paid $100 for the whole parcel of 4,901.228 acres, according to the signed contract from both parties. According to calculations, that’s a 99.99% discount.

SCRAPERS CHOMP UP COUNTY SITE

Lignite coal is made by the fossilization of ancient peat moss from prehistoric times and is found few places in the world: China, Russia, Germany and Texas, according to a 2015 German national raw materials report. The coal is composed of approximately 60-70% carbon with the remainder composed of moisture with traces of other materials.

The principal endeavor of the Thermo site was mining, specifically, although other activity occurred there, such as shipping the coal to nearby Mount Pleasant on the Kansas City Southern rail line. Although lignite mining operations may find coal as shallow as 30 feet below the surface, they may also attempt extraction as deep as 130 feet below the earth’s surface, according to an independent February 2019 study of the Thermo site by the company Wood.

Lignite mining has the capacity to significantly disrupt biological organisms, plant life and soil distribution, according to a 2005 study by the Brandenburg University of Technology. A problem lignite coal sites may experience is acidification of soil and water. The carbon that makes coal — both hard and soft — can release acid into its surroundings when it dissolves, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

In addition, after mining operations are completed, groundwater and soil may experience pollution of heavy metals or other toxic chemicals if other facilities to convert lignite coal to energy were also housed at the mining facilities, according to a 1998 study by the University of Concepcion. These may remain for “as much as decades or centuries” if proper protocol to neutralize them is not followed, the study read.

Although facilities to convert coal to energy existed in Mount Pleasant, no conversion facilities were housed at Thermo, which was an extraction-only operation, according to the 2019 Wood survey.

Thermo’s operations were not just moving dirt, though. This much digging restructures ground levels, which are layers of sand, silt and clay deposits. It also has the ability to impact the structure of groundwater and aquifers, and wells dug on the property were documented to be as much as 322 feet deep. A February 2019 independent study undertaken by the city noted that deep digging and installation of wells had disturbed the water table, but with only approximately 20 years of water data about the specific area, environmentalists cannot say exactly how lignite mining has changed the course of water — only that it has.

Water below the ground is not the only water impacted by mining operations. At the Thermo site, surface water flows into White Oak and Rock Creeks, which eventually flow into the South Sulphur River. Luminant was required to maintain compliance with these waterways with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).

In 2012, the TCEQ found that groundwater had been contaminated by a diesel leak from a burst underground pipe, but after Luminant took corrective action, TCEQ found no further steps were necessary by the company.

It’s not just water issues that confront a property when a coal mining operation stakes its claim. When the scrapers dig for lignite below the earth’s surface and move approximately 6 million cubic feet of dirt per year, according to a 1980 News-Telegram estimate, they must uproot everything on its surface, from water oak to opossum.

Although since 1978 the company has been replacing everything on the land and water — replanting loblolly pines and restocking ponds with crappie and bass — the vacuum created by the absence of a functioning ecosystem has unintended consequences.

Citizen Christopher Hanson appeared before the city council during a public hearing on the annexation of Thermo lands to voice his concerns over invasive species — mosquitoes and hogs — which proliferated after the property was left in a “wild” state once the company left, Hanson said.

“They [hogs] will actually come up in the yard very, very close at night,” Christopher Hanson said. “One come out from underneath my truck. … There’ll be 25 or 30 of them at a time.”

In Texas, feral hogs can reach as much as 400 pounds, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPWD) and can be aggressive towards humans.

Maxwell told the News-Telegram the city has already been in contact with TPWD to try to figure out what to do about the hog problem.

Christopher Hanson also expressed concern about “major-like mosquitoes, … [are] just extreme because it’s a swamp out there.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, mosquitoes are the major carrier for diseases such as malaria, West Nile virus and dengue fever. Maxwell told Hanson the city “would have to do something about that.”

The Wood Report also outlines concerns with the soil itself in one specific area: the old machine shed area, where Luminant kept its equipment and vehicles. In that location, The Wood Report found the earth to have measurable volatile organic compounds such as benzene, with a visual hydrocarbon sheen. To any Hopkins County farmer, mechanic or freight hauler, ground contaminated with diesel or unleaded is a familiar workplace condition. However, under the strict environmental standards of mine reclamation, it must be cleaned up. The Wood Report recommends the city follow through with another independent assessment of the machine shed area after Luminant does its reclamations.

Also located near the machine shed area are visible coal material, standing buildings and storage tanks. While The Wood Report and reclamation plans call for the coal to be removed — which is thick and black with tire tracks running through it — Maxwell would like to keep the buildings if the Railroad Commission will let them. He wants to use them and their infrastructure — electricity, plumbing, wiring and all — to save the city money on what for months he has told citizens is a steep cost for taxpayers.

“When you’re talking about industry, it’s a whole different ball game,” Maxwell said. “If we end up with big industry out here, we’re going to be able to afford roads, water lines, sewer lines and a whole lot more.”

The property also has two non-toxic landfills Luminant used that will need monitoring, the Wood Report reads. One has Class 2 materials — plant trash — and the other has Class 3 materials — inert materials like glass and bricks that will not decompose over time.

“It’s not as if there’s no impact, environmentally, when they’re scraping 30 feet off the ground,” Maxwell said. “Hence all of the hoops they make them [mining companies] jump through when they remit it.”

DUE DILIGENCE

The issue central to the Texas Tribune article is what its authors perceive as a lack of follow-through by the city of Sulphur Springs to hold Luminant accountable for “acid/toxic-forming materials” in Helfferich Hill.

When the News-Telegram followed up with Tribune co-author Kiah Collier, Collier stated in a phone call that the Tribune had based its story on a specific concern raised in a Railroad Commission document from 2017.

In the document from Sept. 5, 2017, titled “Staff Technical Comments,” the Railroad Commission wrote: “The approximately 100-foot high temporary stockpile … contains acid/toxic-forming materials.”

Luminant wrote back on Sept. 21, 2017, stating they “disagreed with staff’s unsubstantiated characterization … and are unaware of any factual basis for that assertion.”

“That sounds very Trumpian to me,” Collier said in the phone call. “How does that pit look Caribbean? How does that pit not have anything growing in it? That’s mining 101. There’s toxic materials in that pile, and the Railroad Commission found that.”

However, Collier admitted over the phone, “We didn’t see any Railroad Commission or Luminant documents listing specific substances.”

In fact, documents collected by the Tribune and Collier herself seem to suggest the opposite.

A May 2018 independent environmental report compiled by Keith Wheeler of Pastor, Behling and Wheeler hydrologic engineers found that, in fact, the pond did have acidic pH of approximately 3.9.

The document specifically outlines: “Are low pH seeps emanating from the soil stockpile? No, low pH has not been observed at the base of the soil stockpile.”

This was a document given to the News-Telegram by Collier.

Wheeler saw lignite coal laying on the ground surrounding the pond and concluded they were a contributing factor to the pond’s acidity.

Maxwell and Luminant, however, contend that the major source of the pond’s acidity is that it sits atop an exposed coal seam.

“Can he prove to you that the water in the pit is blue because of a coal seam?” Collier asked the News-Telegram via Twitter direct message. “Shouldn’t he have to prove that to the taxpayer?” (emphasis hers).

The Wheeler Report found that the major source of the pond’s acidity was “exposed seams and associated carbonaceous materials inside the pond.”

This is the same report Collier gave the News-Telegram.

The Wheeler Report found that the pH of the pond would likely improve to normal once Luminant covered its sides with at least 4 feet of suitable material and its bottom with at least 10 feet of suitable material. It noted that other ponds on the Thermo land had normal acid levels.

To test the claims of the Wheeler Report, News-Telegram brought a soil sample from Helfferich Hill for examination to the City of Sulphur Springs Water Plant at 825 Hillcrest Drive. The sample was taken from the base of the hill on Jan. 27.

Water plant scientists prepared a sample for pH testing by adding distilled water to the sample and stirring in a 250 ml beaker. At first, they were unable to obtain a reading, but after straining out live plant material, obtained a pH reading of 5.98.

With a pH of 7 being true neutral such as distilled water and a pH of 0 being a strong acid, such as stomach acid, the acidity of the soil of Helfferich Hill is similar to that of milk.

The News-Telegram also brought a soil sample from Helfferich Hill for examination to Dr. Mario Villarino of Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Office. The sample was taken from the base of the hill on Jan. 27 at the same time as the previous sample. Villarino determined the soil to be a clay-sand soil characteristic of the region.

“The tectonic origin of our soil is acidic,” Villarino said. “It would not be uncommon for our soil to be even as low as [pH] 4.5.”

In fact, according to Villarino, it’s for this reason that many area farmers put lime, which is alkaline, on their fields, to bring pH to 6.5 and improve crop yields.

“There are things growing on it. It can’t be that acidic,” Villarino said while inspecting the soil sample and finding grass roots and stems. “It’s a shame that people can’t understand something just because it looks different.”

The city sent soil cores for independent testing through AnaLab in Kilgore on Jan. 28 to obtain applicable data on any pollutants present in Helfferich Hill including (but not limited to) cadmium, arsenic and pesticides. The city is currently awaiting results.

The Railroad Commission did not respond to questions about how they came to believe there were acid forming/toxic materials in Helfferich Hill.

“It’s not anything like it’s been characterized,” Sid Stroud, environmental director for Luminant told the News-Telegram. “It’s been a misunderstanding, and it got a life of its own.”

The News-Telegram cannot locate any documentation or independent testing to substantiate the Railroad Commission’s original claim that Helfferich Hill contains “acid/ toxic-forming materials” or heavy metals of any type.

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thechasefiles · 5 years

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The Chase Files Daily Newscap 13/10/2019

Good Morning #realdreamchasers. Here is your daily news cap for Sunday, October 13th, 2019. There is a lot to read and digest so take your time. Remember you can read full articles via Barbados Government Information Service (BGIS), Barbados Today (BT), or by purchasing a Sunday Sun Nation Newspaper (SS).

BODY OF STABBING VICTIM DISCOVERED IN CEMETERY – Police are at Westbury Cemetery, Westbury Road, St Michael investigating the discovery of a man’s body with stab wounds. Lawmen said they received a report about 6:15 a.m. that a body was noticed in the cemetery with stabs wounds. Police are treating it as an unnatural death and their investigations are ongoing. (SS)

MAN DIES AFTER BEING SHOT – A St. Michael man is dead following a shooting incident at Golden Rock, The Pine last night. Lawmen say, 44-year-old Keron Anthony Hodge of #92 Midway Lane, Pinelands, St Michael was liming with other persons when a group of men passed by and opened fire about 11:45 p.m. last night. Hodge received gunshot wounds to his chest area and was transported by private vehicle to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for medical attention. He later succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead by medical personnel just after 12:00a.m. this morning. (SS)

UPDATE: MASS CASUALTY ACCIDENT ON BELMONT ROAD – Emergency personnel were called into action last night to respond to an accident which resulted in 13 people being injured. A minibus and a car were involved in the accident which occurred about 7:20 p.m. along Belmont Road, St. Michael. The minibus (B101) owned by Motor Haven, Black Rock, St Michael and was driven by 46-year-old Terry Hunte of Sealy Hall, St Philip and the car was driven by 42-year-old Terry Forde of Inch Marlow, Christ Church. The driver of the car and two of his passengers were transported to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for treatment. While the driver of the minibus and nine of his passengers were treated at the scene and discharged. None of the injuries were life-threatening. The minibus was moderately damaged while the car was extensively damaged. Police said the car was travelling west towards the city while the minibus was travelling in the opposite direction the exact reason for the crash has not yet been determined. (SS)

PORT OFFICIALS RESPOND TO SOCIAL MEDIA VIDEO ALLEGING THEFT – Barbados Port Inc (BPI) says it has been made aware of a video circulating on social media platforms, which shows people removing wheels from vehicles amidst a backdrop of cargo containers. “This is not a local video, but more importantly does not depict the plant of the Port of Bridgetown,” BPI said in a statement on Saturday. “Be advised that all BPI employees wear the required company branded uniforms and personal protective equipment (PPE) while in Port and on duty.” BPI is assuring all importers that it remains committed to the highest standards of service and security protocols at all levels of our operation. (BT)

HOPEFULS TO FACE-OFF TODAY – Whoever wins the Barbados Labour Party’s (BLP) St Michael West nomination this evening will likely be the next representative for that constituency after the next general elections, says political pollster Peter Wickham. He said it is to the credit of the BLP that they have been able to attract two quality candidates in Steven Leslie and Chris Gibbs, as both are young and intelligent and can bring an energy to the representation of a demanding urban constituency. Leslie, Director of Cricket at the Barbados Cricket Association, and Gibbs, an engineer and businessman, face-off for the nomination at the St Leonard’s Boys School, Richmond Gap at 4 p.m. The nomination is to replace Bishop Joseph Atherley as the ruling party’s representative in St Michael West after he parted company with the BLP to become Leader of the Opposition. (SS)

SHORTER WAIT FOR LIQUOR LICENSES – If changes to the Liquor Licence Act are approved, applicants will have to wait only a week to know if they are successful. Currently it can take up to four months for people to receive their licences, and Minister of Small Business, Entrepreneurship and Commerce Dwight Sutherland expressed concern about this situation. “To have you apply for a liquor licence, to sell liquor, which is a commercial activity that drives the economy, and for you to take three and four months . . . you apply and it goes to the police, magistrate and it goes back to the police. “When we did our mapping, we found some 1 000 liquor licences sitting down in the Holetown Court waiting to be approved, and when we dug further – and this is no fault of the clerk – we recognised the clerks were the ones approving those applications and not the magistrates, and that is a cause for concern,” Sutherland said. He was speaking at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre on Friday during a second national stakeholders consultation that was attended by Government officials, members of the private sector and officials from the National Council on Substance Abuse. The Liquor Licence Act has been in effect since 1957 and, for at least the past 20 years, both administrations have tried to make changes to the act. If the amendments are made, a Liquor Licensing Authority will police the legislation. “So with the repeal and replacement you have the process moving from some three months to some seven days and it will be done on a digital platform so you can apply online via credit card. “If you don’t have a credit card, we have set up the facility at the Post Offices throughout Barbados so you can pay. Once you can pay, you journey to the Ministry of Small Business, we have an arm called the Liquor Licensing Authority and I’m speaking assuming the legislation will come to books,” Sutherland said. (SS)

CALL FOR CLEAR POLICY ON WIFI IN SCHOOLS – A philanthropist is calling on the Ministry of Education to set clearly defined rules on the use of WiFi and electronic devices in schools. Founder of the Aron and Christina Truss Foundation, Aron Truss, made the call, noting that without it, innovation in schools could be hindered. “As far as we are aware, there still aren’t official policies on the use of devices in the classroom, or WiFi in schools, so schools can’t really push forward with technology and innovation until those things are dealt with. “So we’d really encourage the ministry to get on with it so that other projects like ours can start to take place in education,” he said. (SS)

ACE PROGRAMME HELPING BOYS AT ST LEONARD’S – It has only been five weeks but the Sandy Lane Charitable Trust/St Leonard’s Boys’ Alternative Curriculum & Entrepreneurship Programme is already reaping success. The programme is the brainchild of former Third Form Year Head, Winston Cumberbatch, who realized that some of the boys were going down the wrong path when they reached Third Form. To illustrate the problem, Cumberbatch disclosed that this year, 30 students were repeating Third form “for very poor academic performance due to general weakness, little effort and/or indiscipline”. He was speaking Thursday at the official launch of the SLCT/SLB’s Alternative Curriculum and Entrepreneurship Programme at the Richmond Gap, St Michael school. Cumberbatch, who is now the First Form Year Head, told the audience of parents, students and members of the stakeholder organizations that he recommended to the Principal that an additional Third Form be created for those boys. The curriculum, while offering a reduced number of academic subjects, has been enhanced with developmental and vocational subjects. The central focus, however, is business and entrepreneurship, he stated. The subjects include: English, Mathematics, Integrated Science, Social Studies, Principles of Accounts, Caribbean Vocational Qualifications, Reading, Home and Family Life Education, Business Craft and Life Skills, which will be taught by the Mentorship with Love organization. Cumberbatch reported that since the programme started this term, the boys have attended all of the classes and have shown enthusiasm towards the new curriculum. Previously, he noted, they were skipping classes and displaying a general lack of interest. Parents have also been reporting improvements in the attitudes of their sons. The Year Head said even the teachers were excited about the new programme. (BT)

MORE PRIZE MONEY FOR NIFCA – Greater rewards are in store for Barbados’ most talented through the National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA). Chief executive officer of the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) Carol Roberts-Reifer revealed yesterday that prize monies for all of the awards have increased, new award categories were being introduced, and competitors would also be able to gain developmental opportunities. Deeming the changes as an upgrade to the festival which will take effect from this year, Roberts-Reifer said the team was making adjustments based on the pleas of the general public and past NIFCA participants. “It was time to do an assessment of the festival, retain the excellence and take on board comments made by sponsors, the general public and from current and past participants,” she said. (SS)

SUKI WINS ONE, LOSES ONE – Former world champion Ronald “Suki” King was like a foreigner in his homeland yesterday during his World Three-Move Restriction draughts title match against reigning champion Sergio Scarpetta of Italy at the Usain Bolt Sports Complex. About a dozen supporters were on hand in the classroom setting for the morning session on a day dedicated to visionary educator Professor Sir Hilary Beckles of the University of the West Indies. King won the first game but lost the second to trail 3-1, as up to press time, neither of the two games in the evening session was completed. Trailing 0-2 overnight after the first eight games on Thursday and Friday, the wily King quickly reduced the deficit by winning the ninth game when play resumed on Day 3. (SS)

TRIDENTS LIFT CPL TROPHY WITH IMPRESSIVE VICTORY OVER WARRIORS – Barbados Tridents won their second Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) title as Guyana Amazon Warriors’ perfect season unravelled at the worst possible moment. The Warriors had won all 11 matches – including three against the Tridents – before the final, but came off second best in the face of an inspired performance from the Barbados outfit. After Jonathan Carter’s unbeaten 50 off 27 balls led a recovery from 108 for 6 in the 15th over to an imposing 171 for 6 from 20 overs, the Tridents bowled and fielded for their lives to defend the target by 27 runs, restricting the Warriors to 144 for 9 and break their hearts at the last.Raymon Reifer led the way with remarkable figures of four for 24 from his four overs. While the Tridents celebrate a well-deserved and comprehensive victory, the Warriors are left to reflect on a fifth Hero CPL final defeat in seven years. This will perhaps be the toughest to take of all given the flawless season that had preceded it. Chandrapaul Hemraj, apparently struggling with a hamstring injury, could have been run out twice before he was caught at short third-man off Reifer for just a single and things got worse for the Warriors when Shimron Hetmyer holed out to long-on for just nine to give Reifer a second wicket. Shoaib Malik then smashed a long-hop from leading 2019 Hero CPL wicket-taker Hayden Walsh Jr straight to Reifer on the midwicket boundary to leave his side in real trouble at 53 for three. When Brandon King yorked himself and was smartly stumped by Shai Hope off Ashley Nurse for 43, the game had swung decisively the Tridents’ way. Nicholas Pooran raced out of the blocks with two fours and a six, but Nurse and death-bowling specialist Harry Gurney strangled the life out of the Warriors’ run-chase. Just eight runs came from three overs after the loss of King, and it felt like something simply had to give as the required rate spiraled north of 14 per over. Pooran went after Nurse but only managed to pick out Alex Hales at long-on to leave the Warriors needing a miracle. Sherfane Rutherford hit back-to-back boundaries off Gurney but then failed in the daunting task of trying to clear Jason Holder at long-off. Reifer returned to take his third wicket when Romario Shepherd cue-ended a full, wide delivery through to Hope, and Keemo Paul’s 14-ball 25 was entertaining but futile. He, like Rutherford, fell to the hugely impressive Gurney having failed to get the ball over Holder. Reifer finished things off in the final over, having Chris Green caught behind for his fourth wicket and getting out of the over without any bother as the Tridents’ celebrations began. Hales and Johnson Charles had earlier got the Tridents innings off to a fine start before the England opener skied one high to midwicket where King steadied himself and made a tough catch look easy as Shepherd struck in his first over. Phil Salt, the England prospect who flew in at the last minute as an injury replacement for JP Duminy, fell soon after, given out caught behind attempting to pull a Ben Laughlin slower ball. Charles took up the charge and was absolutely flying when he became Imran Tahir’s 16th victim of the tournament. It was a wicket the Warriors desperately needed, Charles having plundered four fours and a six in his previous eight balls before Tahir’s extra bounce induced a top edge. The Tridents then wobbled for the only time in the match. Shai Hope was smartly caught by Hemraj at midwicket off Paul before the vastly experienced duo Jason Holder and Shakib Al Hasan were both run out in the space of three overs. (SS)

There are 81 days left in the year Shalom! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram for your daily news. #thechasefiles #dailynewscaps #bajannewscaps #newsinanutshell

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howwelldoyouknowyourmoon · 5 years

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Cult Maintenance and Expansion through Psychological Manipulation

This follows: Cult Indoctrination through Psychological Manipulation

Kimiaki Nishida (1995b) studied one cult’s method of maintaining and expanding its membership by means of psychological manipulation, or cult mind control. The results of factor analysis of his survey data revealed that cult mind-control techniques induced six situational factors that enhanced and maintained members’ belief-systems: (1) restriction of freedom, (2) repression of sexual passion, (3) physical exhaustion, (4) punishment for external association, (5) reward and punishment, and (6) time pressure.

Studies also concluded that four types of complex psychological factors influence, enhance, and maintain members’ belief systems: (1) behavior manipulation, (2) information-processing manipulation, (3) group-processing manipulation, and (4) physiological-stress manipulation.

Behavior Manipulation Behavior manipulation includes the following factors:

1 Conditioning. The target members were conditioned to experience deep anxiety if they behaved against cult doctrine. During conditioning, they would often be given small rewards when they accomplished a given task, but strong physical and mental punishment would be administered whenever they failed at a task.

2 Self-perception. A member’s attitude to the group would become fixed when the member was given a role to play in the group (Bem 1972; Zimbardo 1975).

3 Cognitive dissonance. Conditions are quite rigorous because members have to work strenuously and are allowed neither personal time nor money, nor to associate with “outsiders.” It seems that they often experienced strong cognitive dissonance (Festinger 1957).

Information-Processing Manipulation Information-processing manipulation factors include the following:

1 Gain-loss effect. Swings between positive and negative attitudes toward the cult became fixed as more positive than negative (Aronson and Linder 1965). Many members had negative attitudes toward cults prior to contact with their group.

2 Systemization of belief-system. In general, belief has a tenacious effect, even when experience shows it to be erroneous (Ross, Lepper, and Hubbard 1975). Members always associate each experience with group dogma; they are indoctrinated to interpret every life event in terms of the cult’s belief-system.

3 Priming effect. It is a cognitive phenomenon that many rehearsed messages guide information processing to take a specific direction (Srull and Wyer 1980). The members listen to the same lectures and music frequently and repeatedly, and they pray or chant many times every day.

4 Threatening messages. They are inculcated with strong fears of personal calamity by means of [illnesses such as cancer, accidents, influence of evil spirits, “restored after satan”], and so on.

Group-Processing Manipulation Group-processing manipulation components include:

1 Selective exposure to information. Members avoid negative reports, but search for positive feedback once they make a commitment to the group (Festinger 1957). It should also be added that many group members continue to live in the locale in which they exited their society. Even so, new members are forbidden to have contact with out-of-group people, or access to external media.

2 Social identity. Members identify themselves with the group because the main goal or purpose of their activity is to gain personal prestige within the group (Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, and Wetherell 1987). Therefore, they look upon fellow members as elite, acting for the salvation of all people. Conversely, they look on external critics as either wicked persecutors or pitiful, ignorant fools. This “groupthink” makes it possible for the manipulators to provoke reckless group behavior among the members (Janis 1971; Wexler 1995).

Physiological-Stress Manipulation It has been established that physiological stress factors facilitate this constraint within the group based on the following, as examples:

1 urgent individual need to achieve group goals, 2 fear of sanction and punishment, 3 monotonous group life, 4 sublimation of sexual drive in fatiguing hard work, 5 sleep deprivation, 6 poor nutrition, 7 extended prayer and / or [study sessions].

Post-Cult Residual Psychological Distress Over the past few decades, a considerable number of studies have been completed on the psychological problems former cult members have experienced after leaving the cult, as compared with the mind-control process itself.

It is important to note that most former members continue to experience discontent, although its cause remains controversial (Aronoff, Lynn, and Malinoski 2000). A few studies on cult phenomena have been conducted so far in Japan, notably by Nishida (1995a, 1998), and by Nishida and Kuroda (2003, 2004), who investigated ex-cultists’ post-exit problems, based mainly on questionnaires administered to former members of two different cults.

In a series of studies, Nishida and Kuroda (2003) surveyed 157 former members of the Unification Church and Aum Shinrikyō. Using factor analysis, the studies posited eleven factors that contribute to ex-members’ psychological problems. These factors can be classified into three main groups: (1) emotional distress, (2) mental distress, and (3) interpersonal distress. The eleven factors are (1) tendencies to depression and anxiety, (2) loss of self-esteem, (3) remorse and regret, (4) difficulty in maintaining social relations and friendships, (5) difficulty in family relationships, (6) floating or flashback to cultic thinking and feeling, (7) fear of sexual contact, (8) emotional instability, (9) hypochondria, (10) secrecy of cult life, and (11) anger toward the cult. These findings seem to have a high correlation with previous American studies.

Moreover, Nishida and Kuroda (2004) deduced from their analysis of variance of the 157 former members surveyed that depression and anxiety, hypochondria, and secrecy of cult involvement decreased progressively, with the help of counseling, after members left the cult. However, loss of self-esteem and anger toward the cult increased as a result of counseling.

Furthermore, Nishida (1998) found clear gender differences in the post-exit recovery process. Although female ex-cultists’ distress levels were higher than those of the males immediately after they left the cults, the women experienced full recovery more quickly than the men. The study also found that counseling by non-professionals works effectively with certain types of distress, such as anxiety and helplessness, but not for others, such as regret and self-reproof.

Conclusion It can be concluded from Japanese studies on destructive cults that the psychological manipulation known as cult mind control is different from brainwashing or coercive persuasion. Based on my empirical studies, conducted from a social psychology point of view, I concluded that many sets of social influence are systematically applied to new recruits during the indoctrination process, influences that facilitate ongoing control of cult members. My findings agree with certain American studies, such as those conducted by Zimbardo and Anderson (1993), Singer and Lalich (1995), and Hassan (1988, 2000). The manipulation is powerful enough to make a vulnerable recruit believe that the only proper action is to obey the organization’s leaders, in order to secure humanity’s salvation, even though the requisite deed may breach social norms. Furthermore, it should be pointed out that dedicated cult veterans are subject to profound distress over the extended period of their cult involvement.

This chapter is a reprint of an article originally published in Cultic Studies Review, 2005, Volume 4, Number 3, pages 215-232.

Read full article HERE

統一協会の伝道とマインド・コントロール

Kimiaki Nishida, Ph.D., a social psychologist in Japan, is Associate Professor at the Rissho University 立正大学 in Tokyo and a Director of the Japan Cult Recovery Council. He is a leading Japanese cultic studies scholar and the editor of Japanese Journal of Social Psychology. His studies on psychological manipulation by cults were awarded prizes by several academic societies in Japan. And he has been summoned to some courts to explain “cult mind control.”

Sun Myung Moon’s theology used to control members

Religious Trauma Syndrome

Fear is not a good reason to stay in the UC

How to become a cult leader

Charismatic Authority (authority is not the same as power)

Cult Indoctrination – and the Road to Recovery

#manipulation #FFWPU #Unification Church #Sun Myung Moon #Divine Principle

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safetycourses2022 · 2 months

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risingpakistan · 11 years

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Rashid Minhas

Rashid Minhas or Rashid Minhas Shaheed, NH, (Urdu: راشد منہاس شہید‎) (February 17, 1951 – August 20, 1971) was a Pilot Officer in the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) during the 1971 Pakistan-India War. Minhas, a newly commissioned officer at that time, is the only PAF officer to receive the highest valour award, the Nishan-e-Haider. He is also the youngest person and the shortest-serving officer to have received this award. He is remembered for his death in 1971 in a jet trainer crash while struggling to regain the controls from a defecting pilot: Matiur Rahman.

Early life and education

Rashid Minhas was born on February 17, 1951, in Karachi. He was born to a family that had settled in Gurdaspur from Jammu and Kashmir. After the creation of Pakistan, the family migrated there and lived near Sialkot. Minhas spent his early childhood in Lahore. Later, the family shifted to Rawalpindi. Minhas had his early education from St Mary's Cambridge School Rawalpindi. Later his family shifted to Karachi. Minhas was fascinated with aviation history and technology. He used to collect different models of aircraft and jets. He studied from Saint Mary's Cambridge School, Murree Road, Rawalpindi and completed his O Levels at the age of 16. He also attended St Patrick's High School, Karachi and then attended Karachi University where he studied military history and aviation history.[1]

Death

Having joined the air force, Minhas was commissioned on March 13, 1971, in the 51st GD(P) Course. He began training to become a pilot. On August 20 of that year, in the hour before noon, he was getting ready to take off in a T-33 jet trainer in Karachi, his second solo flight in that type of aircraft. Minhas was taxiing toward the runway when a Bengali instructor pilot, Flight Lieutenant Matiur Rahman, signalled him to stop and then climbed into the instructor's seat. The jet took off and turned toward India.

Minhas radioed PAF Base Masroor with the message that he was being hijacked. The air controller requested that he resend his message, and he confirmed the hijacking. Later investigation showed that Rahman intended to defect to India to join his compatriots in the Bangladesh Liberation War, along with the jet trainer. In the air, Minhas struggled physically to wrest control from Rahman; each man tried to overpower the other through the mechanically linked flight controls. Some 32 miles (51 km) from the Indian border, the jet crashed near Thatta. Both men were killed.[2]

Minhas was posthumously awarded Pakistan's top military honour, the Nishan-E-Haider, and became the youngest man and the only member of the Pakistan Air Force to win the award. Similarly, Rahman was honoured by Bangladesh with their highest military award, the Bir Sreshtho.[3]

Minhas's Pakistan military citation for the Nishan-E-Haider states that he "forced the aircraft to crash" in order to prevent Rahman from taking the jet to India.[2] This is the official, popular and widely known version of how Minhas died. Yawar A. Mazhar, a writer for Pakistan Military Consortium, relayed in 2004 that he spoke to retired PAF Group Captain Cecil Chaudhry about Minhas, and that he learned more details not generally known to the public. According to Mazhar, Chaudhry lead the immediate task of investigating the wreckage and writing the accident report.

Chaudhry told Mazhar that he found the jet had hit the ground nose first, instantly killing Minhas in the front seat. Rahman's body, however, was not in the jet and the canopy was missing. Chaudhry searched the area and saw Rahman's body some distance behind the jet, the body found with severe abrasions from hitting the sand at a low angle and a high speed. Chaudhry thought that Minhas probably jettisoned the canopy at low altitude causing Rahman to be thrown from the cockpit because he was not strapped in. Chaudhry felt that the jet was too close to the ground at that time, too far out of control for Minhas to be able to prevent the crash.[4]

Legacy

After his death, Minhas was honoured as a national hero. In his memory the Pakistan Air Force base at Kamra was renamed PAF Base Minhas, often called Minhas-Kamra. In Karachi he was honoured by the naming of a main road, Rashid Minhas Road[5][6] (Urdu: شاہراہ راشد منہاس‎). A two-rupee postage stamp bearing his image was issued by Pakistan Post in December 2003; 500,000 were printed.[7]

#Rashid Minhas #Pakistan Air Force #Pakistan #PAF Base Masroor #Nishan-e-Haider #Minhas #Matiur Rahman #Karachi

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blackkudos · 7 years

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Jackie Robinson

Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball second baseman who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when the Brooklyn Dodgers started him at first base on April 15, 1947. The Dodgers, by signing Robinson, heralded the end of racial segregation in professional baseball that had relegated black players to the Negro leagues since the 1880s. Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.

Robinson had an exceptional 10-year baseball career. He was the recipient of the inaugural MLB Rookie of the Year Award in 1947, was an All-Star for six consecutive seasons from 1949 through 1954, and won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949—the first black player so honored. Robinson played in six World Series and contributed to the Dodgers' 1955 World Series championship. In 1997, MLB "universally" retired his uniform number, 42, across all major league teams; he was the first pro athlete in any sport to be so honored. MLB also adopted a new annual tradition, "Jackie Robinson Day", for the first time on April 15, 2004, on which every player on every team wears No. 42.

Robinson's character, his use of nonviolence, and his unquestionable talent challenged the traditional basis of segregation which then marked many other aspects of American life. He influenced the culture of and contributed significantly to the Civil Rights Movement. Robinson also was the first black television analyst in MLB, and the first black vice president of a major American corporation, Chock full o'Nuts. In the 1960s, he helped establish the Freedom National Bank, an African-American-owned financial institution based in Harlem, New York. In recognition of his achievements on and off the field, Robinson was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Early life

Family and personal life

Robinson was born on January 31, 1919, into a family of sharecroppers in Cairo, Georgia. He was the youngest of five children born to Mallie (McGriff) and Jerry Robinson, after siblings Edgar, Frank, Matthew (nicknamed "Mack"), and Willa Mae. His middle name was in honor of former President Theodore Roosevelt, who died 25 days before Robinson was born. After Robinson's father left the family in 1920, they moved to Pasadena, California.

The extended Robinson family established itself on a residential plot containing two small houses at 121 Pepper Street in Pasadena. Robinson's mother worked various odd jobs to support the family. Growing up in relative poverty in an otherwise affluent community, Robinson and his minority friends were excluded from many recreational opportunities. As a result, Robinson joined a neighborhood gang, but his friend Carl Anderson persuaded him to abandon it.

John Muir High School

In 1935, Robinson graduated from Washington Junior High School and enrolled at John Muir High School (Muir Tech). Recognizing his athletic talents, Robinson's older brothers Mack (himself an accomplished athlete and silver medalist at the 1936 Summer Olympics) and Frank inspired Jackie to pursue his interest in sports.

At Muir Tech, Robinson played several sports at the varsity level and lettered in four of them: football, basketball, track, and baseball. He played shortstop and catcher on the baseball team, quarterback on the football team, and guard on the basketball team. With the track and field squad, he won awards in the broad jump. He was also a member of the tennis team.

In 1936, Robinson won the junior boys singles championship in the annual Pacific Coast Negro Tennis Tournament and earned a place on the Pomona annual baseball tournament all-star team, which included future Hall of Famers Ted Williams and Bob Lemon. In late January 1937, the Pasadena Star-News newspaper reported that Robinson "for two years has been the outstanding athlete at Muir, starring in football, basketball, track, baseball and tennis."

Pasadena Junior College

After Muir, Robinson attended Pasadena Junior College (PJC), where he continued his athletic career by participating in basketball, football, baseball, and track. On the football team, he played quarterback and safety. He was a shortstop and leadoff hitter for the baseball team, and he broke school broad-jump records held by his brother Mack. As at Muir High School, most of Jackie's teammates were white. While playing football at PJC, Robinson suffered a fractured ankle, complications from which would eventually delay his deployment status while in the military. In 1938, he was elected to the All-Southland Junior College Team for baseball and selected as the region's Most Valuable Player.

That year, Robinson was one of 10 students named to the school's Order of the Mast and Dagger (Omicron Mu Delta), awarded to students performing "outstanding service to the school and whose scholastic and citizenship record is worthy of recognition." Also while at PJC, he was elected to the Lancers, a student-run police organization responsible for patrolling various school activities.

An incident at PJC illustrated Robinson's impatience with authority figures he perceived as racist—a character trait that would resurface repeatedly in his life. On January 25, 1938, he was arrested after vocally disputing the detention of a black friend by police. Robinson received a two-year suspended sentence, but the incident—along with other rumored run-ins between Robinson and police—gave Robinson a reputation for combativeness in the face of racial antagonism. Toward the end of his PJC tenure, Frank Robinson (to whom Robinson felt closest among his three brothers) was killed in a motorcycle accident. The event motivated Jackie to pursue his athletic career at the nearby University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he could remain closer to Frank's family.

UCLA and afterward

After graduating from PJC in spring 1939, Robinson enrolled at UCLA, where he became the school's first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football, and track.

He was one of four black players on the 1939 UCLA Bruins football team; the others were Woody Strode, Kenny Washington, and Ray Bartlett. Washington, Strode, and Robinson made up three of the team's four backfield players. At a time when only a few black students played mainstream college football, this made UCLA college football's most integrated team.

In track and field, Robinson won the 1940 NCAA Men's Track and Field Championships in the long jump, jumping 24 ft 10 1⁄4 in (7.58 m). Belying his future career, baseball was Robinson's "worst sport" at UCLA; he hit .097 in his only season, although in his first game he went 4-for-4 and twice stole home.

While a senior at UCLA, Robinson met his future wife, Rachel Isum (born 1922), a UCLA freshman who was familiar with Robinson's athletic career at PJC. In the spring semester of 1941, despite his mother's and Isum's reservations, Robinson left college just shy of graduation. He took a job as an assistant athletic director with the government's National Youth Administration (NYA) in Atascadero, California.

After the government ceased NYA operations, Robinson traveled to Honolulu in fall 1941 to play football for the semi-professional, racially integrated Honolulu Bears. After a short season, Robinson returned to California in December 1941 to pursue a career as running back for the Los Angeles Bulldogs of the Pacific Coast Football League. By that time, however, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had taken place, drawing the United States into World War II and ending Robinson's nascent football career.

Military career

In 1942, Robinson was drafted and assigned to a segregated Army cavalry unit in Fort Riley, Kansas. Having the requisite qualifications, Robinson and several other black soldiers applied for admission to an Officer Candidate School (OCS) then located at Fort Riley. Although the Army's initial July 1941 guidelines for OCS had been drafted as race neutral, few black applicants were admitted into OCS until after subsequent directives by Army leadership. As a result, the applications of Robinson and his colleagues were delayed for several months. After protests by heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis (then stationed at Fort Riley) and the help of Truman Gibson (then an assistant civilian aide to the Secretary of War), the men were accepted into OCS. The experience led to a personal friendship between Robinson and Louis. Upon finishing OCS, Robinson was commissioned as a second lieutenant in January 1943. Shortly afterward, Robinson and Isum were formally engaged.

After receiving his commission, Robinson was reassigned to Fort Hood, Texas, where he joined the 761st "Black Panthers" Tank Battalion. While at Fort Hood, Robinson often used his weekend leave to visit the Rev. Karl Downs, President of Sam Huston College (now Huston-Tillotson University) in nearby Austin, Texas; Downs had been Robinson's pastor at Scott United Methodist Church while Robinson attended PJC.

An event on July 6, 1944 derailed Robinson's military career. While awaiting results of hospital tests on the ankle he had injured in junior college, Robinson boarded an Army bus with a fellow officer's wife; although the Army had commissioned its own unsegregated bus line, the bus driver ordered Robinson to move to the back of the bus. Robinson refused. The driver backed down, but after reaching the end of the line, summoned the military police, who took Robinson into custody. When Robinson later confronted the investigating duty officer about racist questioning by the officer and his assistant, the officer recommended Robinson be court-martialed. After Robinson's commander in the 761st, Paul L. Bates, refused to authorize the legal action, Robinson was summarily transferred to the 758th Battalion—where the commander quickly consented to charge Robinson with multiple offenses, including, among other charges, public drunkenness, even though Robinson did not drink.

By the time of the court-martial in August 1944, the charges against Robinson had been reduced to two counts of insubordination during questioning. Robinson was acquitted by an all-white panel of nine officers. The experiences Robinson was subjected to during the court proceedings would be remembered when he later joined MLB and was subjected to racist attacks. Although his former unit, the 761st Tank Battalion, became the first black tank unit to see combat in World War II, Robinson's court-martial proceedings prohibited him from being deployed overseas; thus, he never saw combat action.

After his acquittal, he was transferred to Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky, where he served as a coach for army athletics until receiving an honorable discharge in November 1944. While there, Robinson met a former player for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League, who encouraged Robinson to write the Monarchs and ask for a tryout. Robinson took the former player's advice and wrote to Monarchs' co-owner Thomas Baird.

Post-military

After his discharge, Robinson briefly returned to his old football club, the Los Angeles Bulldogs. Robinson then accepted an offer from his old friend and pastor Rev. Karl Downs to be the athletic director at Sam Huston College in Austin, then of the Southwestern Athletic Conference. The job included coaching the school's basketball team for the 1944–45 season. As it was a fledgling program, few students tried out for the basketball team, and Robinson even resorted to inserting himself into the lineup for exhibition games. Although his teams were outmatched by opponents, Robinson was respected as a disciplinarian coach, and drew the admiration of, among others, Langston University basketball player Marques Haynes, a future member of the Harlem Globetrotters.

Playing career

Negro leagues

In early 1945, while Robinson was at Sam Huston College, the Kansas City Monarchs sent him a written offer to play professional baseball in the Negro leagues. Robinson accepted a contract for $400 per month. Although he played well for the Monarchs, Robinson was frustrated with the experience. He had grown used to a structured playing environment in college, and the Negro leagues' disorganization and embrace of gambling interests appalled him. The hectic travel schedule also placed a burden on his relationship with Isum, with whom he could now communicate only by letter. In all, Robinson played 47 games at shortstop for the Monarchs, hitting .387 with five home runs, and registering 13 stolen bases. He also appeared in the 1945 Negro League All-Star Game, going hitless in five at-bats.

During the season, Robinson pursued potential major-league interests. The Boston Red Sox held a tryout at Fenway Park for Robinson and other black players on April 16. The tryout, however, was a farce chiefly designed to assuage the desegregationist sensibilities of powerful Boston City Councilman Isadore Muchnick. Even with the stands limited to management, Robinson was subjected to racial epithets. Robinson left the tryout humiliated, and more than fourteen years later, in July 1959, the Red Sox became the last major league team to integrate its roster.

Other teams, however, had more serious interest in signing a black ballplayer. In the mid-1940s, Branch Rickey, club president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, began to scout the Negro leagues for a possible addition to the Dodgers' roster. Rickey selected Robinson from a list of promising black players and interviewed him for possible assignment to Brooklyn's International League farm club, the Montreal Royals. Rickey was especially interested in making sure his eventual signee could withstand the inevitable racial abuse that would be directed at him. In a famous three-hour exchange on August 28, 1945, Rickey asked Robinson if he could face the racial animus without taking the bait and reacting angrily—a concern given Robinson's prior arguments with law enforcement officials at PJC and in the military. Robinson was aghast: "Are you looking for a Negro who is afraid to fight back?" Rickey replied that he needed a Negro player "with guts enough not to fight back." After obtaining a commitment from Robinson to "turn the other cheek" to racial antagonism, Rickey agreed to sign him to a contract for $600 a month, equal to $7,887 today. Rickey did not offer compensation to the Monarchs, instead believing all Negro league players were free agents due to the contracts' not containing a reserve clause. Among those Rickey discussed prospects with was Wendell Smith, writer for the black weekly Pittsburgh Courier, who according to Cleveland Indians owner and team president Bill Veeck "influenced Rickey to take Jack Robinson, for which he's never completely gotten credit."

Although he required Robinson to keep the arrangement a secret for the time being, Rickey committed to formally signing Robinson before November 1, 1945. On October 23, it was publicly announced that Robinson would be assigned to the Royals for the 1946 season. On the same day, with representatives of the Royals and Dodgers present, Robinson formally signed his contract with the Royals. In what was later referred to as "The Noble Experiment", Robinson was the first black baseball player in the International League since the 1880s. He was not necessarily the best player in the Negro leagues, and black talents Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson were upset when Robinson was selected first. Larry Doby, who broke the color line in the American League the same year as Robinson, said, "One of the things that was disappointing and disheartening to a lot of the black players at the time was that Jack was not the best player. The best was Josh Gibson. I think that's one of the reasons why Josh died so early – he was heartbroken."

Rickey's offer allowed Robinson to leave behind the Monarchs and their grueling bus rides, and he went home to Pasadena. That September, he signed with Chet Brewer's Kansas City Royals, a post-season barnstorming team in the California Winter League. Later that off-season, he briefly toured South America with another barnstorming team, while his fiancée Isum pursued nursing opportunities in New York City. On February 10, 1946, Robinson and Isum were married by their old friend, the Rev. Karl Downs.

Minor leagues

In 1946, Robinson arrived at Daytona Beach, Florida, for spring training with the Montreal Royals of the Class AAA International League (the designation of "AAA" for the highest level of minor league baseball was first used in the 1946 season). Clay Hopper, the manager of the Royals, asked Rickey to assign Robinson to any other Dodger affiliate, but Rickey refused.

Robinson's presence was controversial in racially charged Florida. As he was not allowed to stay with his teammates at the team hotel, he lodged instead at the home of a local black politician. Since the Dodgers organization did not own a spring training facility (the Dodger-controlled spring training compound in Vero Beach known as "Dodgertown" did not open until spring 1948), scheduling was subject to the whim of area localities, several of which turned down any event involving Robinson or Johnny Wright, another black player whom Rickey had signed to the Dodgers' organization in January. In Sanford, Florida, the police chief threatened to cancel games if Robinson and Wright did not cease training activities there; as a result, Robinson was sent back to Daytona Beach. In Jacksonville, the stadium was padlocked shut without warning on game day, by order of the city's Parks and Public Property director. In DeLand, a scheduled day game was called off, ostensibly because of faulty electrical lighting.

After much lobbying of local officials by Rickey himself, the Royals were allowed to host a game involving Robinson in Daytona Beach. Robinson made his Royals debut at Daytona Beach's City Island Ballpark on March 17, 1946, in an exhibition game against the team's parent club, the Dodgers. Robinson thus became the first black player to openly play for a minor league team against a major league team since the de facto baseball color line had been implemented in the 1880s.

Later in spring training, after some less-than-stellar performances, Robinson was shifted from shortstop to second base, allowing him to make shorter throws to first base. Robinson's performance soon rebounded. On April 18, 1946, Roosevelt Stadium hosted the Jersey City Giants' season opener against the Montreal Royals, marking the professional debut of the Royals' Jackie Robinson and the first time the color barrier had been broken in a game between two minor league clubs. Pitching against Robinson was Warren Sandel who had played against him when they both lived in California. During Robinson's first at bat, the Jersey City catcher, Dick Bouknight, demanded that Sandel throw at Robinson, but Sandel refused. Although Sandel induced Robinson to ground out at his first at bat, in his five trips to the plate, Robinson ended up with four hits, including his first hit, a three-run home run, in the game's third inning. He also scored four runs, drove in three, and stole two bases in the Royals' 14–1 victory. Robinson proceeded to lead the International League that season with a .349 batting average and .985 fielding percentage, and he was named the league's Most Valuable Player. Although he often faced hostility while on road trips (the Royals were forced to cancel a Southern exhibition tour, for example), the Montreal fan base enthusiastically supported Robinson. Whether fans supported or opposed it, Robinson's presence on the field was a boon to attendance; more than one million people went to games involving Robinson in 1946, an amazing figure by International League standards. In the fall of 1946, following the baseball season, Robinson returned home to California and briefly played professional basketball for the short-lived Los Angeles Red Devils.

Major leaguesBreaking the color barrier (1947)

The following year, six days before the start of the 1947 season, the Dodgers called Robinson up to the major leagues. With Eddie Stanky entrenched at second base for the Dodgers, Robinson played his initial major league season as a first baseman. On April 15, 1947, Robinson made his major league debut at the relatively advanced age of 28 at Ebbets Field before a crowd of 26,623 spectators, including more than 14,000 black patrons. Although he failed to get a base hit, he walked and scored a run in the Dodgers' 5–3 victory. Robinson became the first player since 1880 to openly break the major league baseball color line. Black fans began flocking to see the Dodgers when they came to town, abandoning their Negro league teams.

Robinson's promotion met a generally positive, although mixed, reception among newspapers and white major league players. However, racial tension existed in the Dodger clubhouse. Some Dodger players insinuated they would sit out rather than play alongside Robinson. The brewing mutiny ended when Dodgers management took a stand for Robinson. Manager Leo Durocher informed the team, "I do not care if the guy is yellow or black, or if he has stripes like a fuckin' zebra. I'm the manager of this team, and I say he plays. What's more, I say he can make us all rich. And if any of you cannot use the money, I will see that you are all traded."

Robinson was also derided by opposing teams. Some, notably the St. Louis Cardinals, threatened to strike if Robinson played, but also to spread the walkout across the entire National League. Existence of the plot was leaked by the Cardinals' team physician, Robert Hyland, to a friend, the New York Herald Tribune's Rutherford "Rud" Rennie. The reporter, concerned about projecting Hyland's anonymity and job, in turn leaked it to his Tribune colleague and editor, Stanley Woodward, whose own subsequent reporting with other sources protected Hyland. The Woodward article made national headlines. After the threat was exposed, National League President Ford Frick and Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler let it be known that any striking players would be suspended. "You will find that the friends that you think you have in the press box will not support you, that you will be outcasts," threatened Chandler. "I do not care if half the league strikes. Those who do it will encounter quick retribution. All will be suspended and I don't care if it wrecks the National League for five years. This is the United States of America and one citizen has as much right to play as another." Woodward's article received the E. P. Dutton Award in 1947 for Best Sports Reporting. New York Times columnist Red Smith turned to the Cardinals' 1947 racial strike in 1977, as a spate of commemorative articles appeared on the 30th anniversary of Robinson's signing with the Dodgers. Smith remembered his old Herald Tribune colleagues' part in exposing the players' strike conspiracy. It would have succeeded, wrote Smith, "…if Rud Rennie and Stanley Woodward hadn't exposed their intentions in the New York Herald Tribune."

Robinson nonetheless became the target of rough physical play by opponents (particularly the Cardinals). At one time, he received a seven-inch gash in his leg from Enos Slaughter. On April 22, 1947, during a game between the Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies, Phillies players and manager Ben Chapman called Robinson a "nigger" from their dugout and yelled that he should "go back to the cotton fields". Rickey later recalled that Chapman "did more than anybody to unite the Dodgers. When he poured out that string of unconscionable abuse, he solidified and united thirty men."

Robinson did, however, receive significant encouragement from several major league players. Robinson named Lee "Jeep" Handley, who played for the Phillies at the time, as the first opposing player to wish him well. Dodgers teammate Pee Wee Reese once came to Robinson's defense with the famous line, "You can hate a man for many reasons. Color is not one of them." In 1948, Reese put his arm around Robinson in response to fans who shouted racial slurs at Robinson before a game in Cincinnati. A statue by sculptor William Behrends, unveiled at KeySpan Park on November 1, 2005, commemorates this event by representing Reese with his arm around Robinson. Jewish baseball star Hank Greenberg, who had to deal with racial epithets during his career, also encouraged Robinson. Following an incident where Greenberg collided with Robinson at first base, he "whispered a few words into Robinson's ear", which Robinson later characterized as "words of encouragement." Greenberg had advised him to overcome his critics by defeating them in games. Robinson also talked frequently with Larry Doby, who endured his own hardships since becoming the first black player in the American League with the Cleveland Indians, as the two spoke to one another via telephone throughout the season.

Robinson finished the season having played in 151 games for the Dodgers, with a batting average of .297, an on-base percentage of .383, and a .427 slugging percentage. He had 175 hits (scoring 125 runs) including 31 doubles, 5 triples, and 12 home runs, driving in 48 runs for the year. Robinson led the league in sacrifice hits, with 28, and in stolen bases, with 29. His cumulative performance earned him the inaugural Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award (separate National and American League Rookie of the Year honors were not awarded until 1949).

MVP, Congressional testimony, and film biography (1948–1950)

Following Stanky's trade to the Boston Braves in March 1948, Robinson took over second base, where he logged a .980 fielding percentage that year (second in the National League at the position, fractionally behind Stanky). Robinson had a batting average of .296 and 22 stolen bases for the season. In a 12–7 win against the St. Louis Cardinals on August 29, 1948, he hit for the cycle—a home run, a triple, a double, and a single in the same game. The Dodgers briefly moved into first place in the National League in late August 1948, but they ultimately finished third as the Braves went on to win the league title and lose to the Cleveland Indians in the World Series.

Racial pressure on Robinson eased in 1948 as a number of other black players entered the major leagues. Larry Doby (who broke the color barrier in the American League on July 5, 1947, just 11 weeks after Robinson) and Satchel Paige played for the Cleveland Indians, and the Dodgers had three other black players besides Robinson. In February 1948, he signed a $12,500 contract (equal to $123,113 today) with the Dodgers; while a significant amount, this was less than Robinson made in the off-season from a vaudeville tour, where he answered pre-set baseball questions, and a speaking tour of the South. Between the tours, he underwent surgery on his right ankle. Because of his off-season activities, Robinson reported to training camp 30 pounds (14 kg) overweight. He lost the weight during training camp, but dieting left him weak at the plate. In 1948, Wendell Smith's book, Jackie Robinson: My Own Story, was released.

In the spring of 1949, Robinson turned to Hall of Famer George Sisler, working as an advisor to the Dodgers, for batting help. At Sisler's suggestion, Robinson spent hours at a batting tee, learning to hit the ball to right field. Sisler taught Robinson to anticipate a fastball, on the theory that it is easier to subsequently adjust to a slower curveball. Robinson also noted that "Sisler showed me how to stop lunging, how to check my swing until the last fraction of a second". The tutelage helped Robinson raise his batting average from .296 in 1948 to .342 in 1949. In addition to his improved batting average, Robinson stole 37 bases that season, was second place in the league for both doubles and triples, and registered 124 runs batted in with 122 runs scored. For the performance Robinson earned the Most Valuable Player Award for the National League. Baseball fans also voted Robinson as the starting second baseman for the 1949 All-Star Game—the first All-Star Game to include black players.

That year, a song about Robinson by Buddy Johnson, "Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?", reached number 13 on the charts; Count Basie recorded a famous version. Ultimately, the Dodgers won the National League pennant, but lost in five games to the New York Yankees in the 1949 World Series.

Summer 1949 brought an unwanted distraction for Robinson. In July, he was called to testify before the United States House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) concerning statements made that April by black athlete and actor Paul Robeson. Robinson was reluctant to testify, but he eventually agreed to do so, fearing it might negatively affect his career if he declined.

In 1950, Robinson led the National League in double plays made by a second baseman with 133. His salary that year was the highest any Dodger had been paid to that point: $35,000 ($344,239 in 2016 dollars). He finished the year with 99 runs scored, a .328 batting average, and 12 stolen bases. The year saw the release of a film biography of Robinson's life, The Jackie Robinson Story, in which Robinson played himself, and actress Ruby Dee played Rachael "Rae" (Isum) Robinson. The project had been previously delayed when the film's producers refused to accede to demands of two Hollywood studios that the movie include scenes of Robinson being tutored in baseball by a white man. The New York Times wrote that Robinson, "doing that rare thing of playing himself in the picture's leading role, displays a calm assurance and composure that might be envied by many a Hollywood star."

Robinson's Hollywood exploits, however, did not sit well with Dodgers co-owner Walter O'Malley, who referred to Robinson as "Rickey's prima donna". In late 1950, Rickey's contract as the Dodgers' team President expired. Weary of constant disagreements with O'Malley, and with no hope of being re-appointed as President of the Dodgers, Rickey cashed out his one-quarter financial interest in the team, leaving O'Malley in full control of the franchise. Rickey shortly thereafter became general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Robinson was disappointed at the turn of events and wrote a sympathetic letter to Rickey, whom he considered a father figure, stating, "Regardless of what happens to me in the future, it all can be placed on what you have done and, believe me, I appreciate it."

Pennant races and outside interests (1951–1953)

Before the 1951 season, O'Malley reportedly offered Robinson the job of manager of the Montreal Royals, effective at the end of Robinson's playing career. O'Malley was quoted in the Montreal Standard as saying, "Jackie told me that he would be both delighted and honored to tackle this managerial post"—although reports differed as to whether a position was ever formally offered.

During the 1951 season, Robinson led the National League in double plays made by a second baseman for the second year in a row, with 137. He also kept the Dodgers in contention for the 1951 pennant. During the last game of the regular season, in the 13th inning, he had a hit to tie the game, and then won the game with a home run in the 14th. This forced a best-of-three playoff series against the crosstown rival New York Giants.

Despite Robinson's regular-season heroics, the Dodgers lost the pennant on Bobby Thomson's famous home run, known as the Shot Heard 'Round the World, on October 3, 1951. Overcoming his dejection, Robinson dutifully observed Thomson's feet to ensure he touched all the bases. Dodgers sportscaster Vin Scully later noted that the incident showed "how much of a competitor Robinson was." He finished the season with 106 runs scored, a batting average of .335, and 25 stolen bases.

Robinson had what was an average year for him in 1952. He finished the year with 104 runs, a .308 batting average, and 24 stolen bases. He did, however, record a career-high on-base percentage of .436. The Dodgers improved on their performance from the year before, winning the National League pennant before losing the 1952 World Series to the New York Yankees in seven games. That year, on the television show Youth Wants to Know, Robinson challenged the Yankees' general manager, George Weiss, on the racial record of his team, which had yet to sign a black player. Sportswriter Dick Young, whom Robinson had described as a "bigot", said, "If there was one flaw in Jackie, it was the common one. He believed that everything unpleasant that happened to him happened because of his blackness." The 1952 season was the last year Robinson was an everyday starter at second base. Afterward, Robinson played variously at first, second, and third bases, shortstop, and in the outfield, with Jim Gilliam, another black player, taking over everyday second base duties. Robinson's interests began to shift toward the prospect of managing a major league team. He had hoped to gain experience by managing in the Puerto Rican Winter League, but according to the New York Post, Commissioner Happy Chandler denied the request.

In 1953, Robinson had 109 runs, a .329 batting average, and 17 steals, leading the Dodgers to another National League pennant (and another World Series loss to the Yankees, this time in six games). Robinson's continued success spawned a string of death threats. He was not dissuaded, however, from addressing racial issues publicly. That year, he served as editor for Our Sports magazine, a periodical focusing on Negro sports issues; contributions to the magazine included an article on golf course segregation by Robinson's old friend Joe Louis. Robinson also openly criticized segregated hotels and restaurants that served the Dodger organization; a number of these establishments integrated as a result, including the five-star Chase Park Hotel in St. Louis.

World Championship and retirement (1954–1956)

In 1954, Robinson had 62 runs, a .311 batting average, and 7 steals. His best day at the plate was on June 17, when he hit two home runs and two doubles. The following autumn, Robinson won his only championship when the Dodgers beat the New York Yankees in the 1955 World Series. Although the team enjoyed ultimate success, 1955 was the worst year of Robinson's individual career. He hit .256 and stole only 12 bases. The Dodgers tried Robinson in the outfield and as a third baseman, both because of his diminishing abilities and because Gilliam was established at second base. Robinson, then 37 years old, missed 49 games and did not play in Game 7 of the World Series. Robinson missed the game because manager Walter Alston decided to play Gilliam at second and Don Hoak at third base. That season, the Dodgers' Don Newcombe became the first black major league pitcher to win twenty games in a year.

In 1956, Robinson had 61 runs, a .275 batting average, and 12 steals. By then, he had begun to exhibit the effects of diabetes, and to lose interest in the prospect of playing or managing professional baseball. After the season, Robinson was traded by the Dodgers to the arch-rival New York Giants for Dick Littlefield and $35,000 cash (equal to $304,633 today). The trade, however, was never completed; unbeknownst to the Dodgers, Robinson had already agreed with the president of Chock full o'Nuts to quit baseball and become an executive with the company. Since Robinson had sold exclusive rights to any retirement story to Look magazine two years previously, his retirement decision was revealed through the magazine, instead of through the Dodgers organization.

Legacy

Robinson's major league debut brought an end to approximately sixty years of segregation in professional baseball, known as the baseball color line. After World War II, several other forces were also leading the country toward increased equality for blacks, including their accelerated migration to the North, where their political clout grew, and President Harry Truman's desegregation of the military in 1948. Robinson's breaking of the baseball color line and his professional success symbolized these broader changes and demonstrated that the fight for equality was more than simply a political matter. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that he was "a legend and a symbol in his own time", and that he "challenged the dark skies of intolerance and frustration." According to historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, Robinson's "efforts were a monumental step in the civil-rights revolution in America ... [His] accomplishments allowed black and white Americans to be more respectful and open to one another and more appreciative of everyone's abilities."

Beginning his major league career at the relatively advanced age of twenty-eight, he played only ten seasons from 1947 to 1956, all of them for the Brooklyn Dodgers. During his career, the Dodgers played in six World Series, and Robinson himself played in six All-Star Games. In 1999, he was posthumously named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

Robinson's career is generally considered to mark the beginning of the post–"long ball" era in baseball, in which a reliance on raw power-hitting gave way to balanced offensive strategies that used footspeed to create runs through aggressive baserunning. Robinson exhibited the combination of hitting ability and speed which exemplified the new era. He scored more than 100 runs in six of his ten seasons (averaging more than 110 runs from 1947 to 1953), had a .311 career batting average, a .409 career on-base percentage, a .474 slugging percentage, and substantially more walks than strikeouts (740 to 291). Robinson was one of only two players during the span of 1947–56 to accumulate at least 125 steals while registering a slugging percentage over .425 (Minnie Miñoso was the other). He accumulated 197 stolen bases in total, including 19 steals of home. None of the latter were double steals (in which a player stealing home is assisted by a player stealing another base at the same time). Robinson has been referred to by author David Falkner as "the father of modern base-stealing".

Historical statistical analysis indicates Robinson was an outstanding fielder throughout his ten years in the major leagues and at virtually every position he played. After playing his rookie season at first base, Robinson spent most of his career as a second baseman. He led the league in fielding among second basemen in 1950 and 1951. Toward the end of his career, he played about 2,000 innings at third base and about 1,175 innings in the outfield, excelling at both.

Assessing himself, Robinson said, "I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me ... all I ask is that you respect me as a human being." Regarding Robinson's qualities on the field, Leo Durocher said, "Ya want a guy that comes to play. This guy didn't just come to play. He come to beat ya. He come to stuff the goddamn bat right up your ass."

Portrayals on stage, film and television

Robinson portrayed himself in the 1950 motion picture The Jackie Robinson Story. Other portrayals include:

John Lafayette, in the 1978 ABC television special "A Home Run for Love" (broadcast as an ABC Afterschool Special).

David Alan Grier, in the 1981 Broadway production of the musical The First.

Michael-David Gordon, in the 1989 Off-Broadway production of the musical Play to Win.

Andre Braugher, in the 1990 TNT television movie The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson.

Blair Underwood, in the 1996 HBO television movie Soul of the Game.

Antonio Todd in "Colors", a 2005 episode of the CBS television series Cold Case.

Chadwick Boseman, in the 2013 motion picture 42.

Robinson was also the subject of a 2016 PBS documentary, Jackie Robinson, which was directed by Ken Burns and features Jamie Foxx doing voice-over as Robinson.

Post-baseball life

Robinson retired from baseball at age 37 on January 5, 1957. Later that year, after he complained of numerous physical ailments, his doctors diagnosed him with diabetes, a disease that also afflicted his brothers. Although Robinson adopted an insulin injection regimen, the state of medicine at the time could not prevent the continued deterioration of Robinson's physical condition from the disease.

In his first year of eligibility for the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962, Robinson encouraged voters to consider only his on-field qualifications, rather than his cultural impact on the game. He was elected on the first ballot, becoming the first black player inducted into the Cooperstown museum.

In 1965, Robinson served as an analyst for ABC's Major League Baseball Game of the Week telecasts, the first black person to do so. In 1966, Robinson was hired as general manager for the short-lived Brooklyn Dodgers of the Continental Football League. In 1972, he served as a part-time commentator on Montreal Expos telecasts.

On June 4, 1972, the Dodgers retired his uniform number, 42, alongside those of Roy Campanella (39) and Sandy Koufax (32). From 1957 to 1964, Robinson was the vice president for personnel at Chock full o'Nuts; he was the first black person to serve as vice president of a major American corporation. Robinson always considered his business career as advancing the cause of black people in commerce and industry. Robinson also chaired the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's (NAACP) million-dollar Freedom Fund Drive in 1957, and served on the organization's board until 1967. In 1964, he helped found, with Harlem businessman Dunbar McLaurin, Freedom National Bank—a black-owned and operated commercial bank based in Harlem. He also served as the bank's first Chairman of the Board. In 1970, Robinson established the Jackie Robinson Construction Company to build housing for low-income families.

Robinson was active in politics throughout his post-baseball life. He identified himself as a political independent, although he held conservative opinions on several issues, including the Vietnam War (he once wrote to Martin Luther King, Jr. to defend the Johnson Administration's military policy). After supporting Richard Nixon in his 1960 presidential race against John F. Kennedy, Robinson later praised Kennedy effusively for his stance on civil rights. Robinson was angered by conservative Republican opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, though a higher percentage of Democrats voted against it in both the House and Senate. He became one of six national directors for Nelson Rockefeller's unsuccessful campaign to be nominated as the Republican candidate for the 1964 presidential election. After the party nominated Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona instead, Robinson left the party's convention commenting that he now had "a better understanding of how it must have felt to be a Jew in Hitler's Germany". He later became special assistant for community affairs when Rockefeller was re-elected governor of New York in 1966. Switching his allegiance to the Democrats, he subsequently supported Hubert Humphrey against Nixon in 1968.

Protesting the major leagues' ongoing lack of minority managers and central office personnel, Robinson turned down an invitation to appear in an old-timers' game at Yankee Stadium in 1969. He made his final public appearance on October 15, 1972, throwing the ceremonial first pitch before Game 2 of the World Series. He gratefully accepted a plaque honoring the twenty-fifth anniversary of his MLB debut, but also commented, "I'm going to be tremendously more pleased and more proud when I look at that third base coaching line one day and see a black face managing in baseball." This wish was fulfilled only after Robinson's death: following the 1974 season, the Cleveland Indians gave their managerial post to Frank Robinson (no relation), a Hall of Fame-bound player who would go on to manage three other teams. Despite the success of these two Robinsons and other black players, the number of African-American players in Major League Baseball has declined since the 1970s.

Family life and death

After Robinson's retirement from baseball, his wife Rachel Robinson pursued a career in academic nursing. She became an assistant professor at the Yale School of Nursing and director of nursing at the Connecticut Mental Health Center. She also served on the board of the Freedom National Bank until it closed in 1990. She and Jackie had three children: Jackie Robinson Jr. (born November 18, 1946, died 1971, the year before Jackie), Sharon Robinson (born January 13, 1950), and David Robinson (born May 14, 1952).

Robinson's eldest son, Jackie Robinson Jr., had emotional trouble during his childhood and entered special education at an early age. He enrolled in the Army in search of a disciplined environment, served in the Vietnam War, and was wounded in action on November 19, 1965. After his discharge, he struggled with drug problems. Robinson Jr. eventually completed the treatment program at Daytop Village in Seymour, Connecticut, and became a counselor at the institution. On June 17, 1971, at the age of 24, he was killed in an automobile accident. The experience with his son's drug addiction turned Robinson Sr. into an avid anti-drug crusader toward the end of his life.

Robinson did not long outlive his son. Complications of heart disease and diabetes weakened Robinson and made him almost blind by middle age. On October 24, 1972, nine days after his appearance at the World Series, Robinson died of a heart attack in his home at 95 Cascade Road in North Stamford, Connecticut. Robinson's funeral service on October 27, 1972, at Upper Manhattan's Riverside Church adjacent to Grant's Tomb in Morningside Heights, attracted 2,500 mourners. Many of his former teammates and other famous baseball players served as pallbearers, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson gave the eulogy. Tens of thousands of people lined the subsequent procession route to Robinson's interment site at Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, where he is buried next to his son Jackie and mother-in-law Zellee Isum. Twenty-five years after Robinson's death, the Interboro Parkway was renamed the Jackie Robinson Parkway in his memory. This parkway bisects the cemetery in close proximity to Robinson's gravesite.

After Robinson's death, his widow founded the Jackie Robinson Foundation, of which she remains an officer as of 2015. On April 15, 2008, she announced that in 2010 the foundation will be opening a museum devoted to Jackie in Lower Manhattan. Robinson's daughter, Sharon, became a midwife, educator, director of educational programming for MLB, and the author of two books about her father. His youngest son, David, who has six children, is a coffee grower and social activist in Tanzania.

Awards and recognition

According to a poll conducted in 1947, Robinson was the second most popular man in the country, behind Bing Crosby. In 1999, he was named by Time on its list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. Also in 1999, he ranked number 44 on theSporting News list of Baseball's 100 Greatest Players and was elected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team as the top vote-getter among second basemen. Baseball writer Bill James, in The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, ranked Robinson as the 32nd greatest player of all time strictly on the basis of his performance on the field, noting that he was one of the top players in the league throughout his career. Robinson was among the 25 charter members of UCLA's Athletics Hall of Fame in 1984. In 2002, Molefi Kete Asante included Robinson on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans. Robinson has also been honored by the United States Postal Service on three separate postage stamps, in 1982, 1999, and 2000.

The City of Pasadena has recognized Robinson in several ways. Brookside Park, situated next to the Rose Bowl, features a baseball diamond and stadium named Jackie Robinson Field. The city's Human Services Department operates the Jackie Robinson Center, a community outreach center that provides health services. In 1997, a $325,000 bronze sculpture (equal to $479,079 today) by artists Ralph Helmick, Stu Schecter, and John Outterbridge depicting oversized nine-foot busts of Robinson and his brother Mack was erected at Garfield Avenue, across from the main entrance of Pasadena City Hall; a granite footprint lists multiple donors to the commission project, which was organized by the Robinson Memorial Foundation and supported by members of the Robinson family.

Major League Baseball has honored Robinson many times since his death. In 1987, both the National and American League Rookie of the Year Awards were renamed the "Jackie Robinson Award" in honor of the first recipient (Robinson's Major League Rookie of the Year Award in 1947 encompassed both leagues). On April 15, 1997, Robinson's jersey number, 42, was retired throughout Major League Baseball, the first time any jersey number had been retired throughout one of the four major American sports leagues. Under the terms of the retirement, a grandfather clause allowed the handful of players who wore number 42 to continue doing so in tribute to Robinson, until such time as they subsequently changed teams or jersey numbers. This affected players such as the Mets' Butch Huskey and Boston's Mo Vaughn. The Yankees' Mariano Rivera, who retired at the end of the 2013 season, was the last player in Major League Baseball to wear jersey number 42 on a regular basis. Since 1997, only Wayne Gretzky's number 99, retired by the NHL in 2000, has been retired league-wide. There have also been calls for MLB to retire number 21 league-wide in honor of Roberto Clemente, a sentiment opposed by the Robinson family. The Hispanics Across America advocacy group wants Clemente's number set aside the way the late Robinson's No. 42 was in 1997, but Sharon Robinson maintained the position that such an honor should remain in place for Jackie Robinson only.

As an exception to the retired-number policy, MLB in 2007 began honoring Robinson by allowing players to wear number 42 on April 15, Jackie Robinson Day, which is now an annual observance. For the 60th anniversary of Robinson's major league debut, MLB invited players to wear the number 42 on Jackie Robinson Day in 2007. The gesture was originally the idea of outfielder Ken Griffey, Jr., who sought Rachel Robinson's permission to wear the number. After receiving her permission, Commissioner Bud Selig not only allowed Griffey to wear the number, but also extended an invitation to all major league teams to do the same. Ultimately, more than 200 players wore number 42, including the entire rosters of the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets, Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, Milwaukee Brewers, and Pittsburgh Pirates. The tribute was continued in 2008, when, during games on April 15, all members of the Mets, Cardinals, Washington Nationals, and Tampa Bay Rays wore Robinson's number 42. On June 25, 2008, MLB installed a new plaque for Robinson at the Baseball Hall of Fame commemorating his off-the-field impact on the game as well as his playing statistics. In 2009, all uniformed personnel (players, managers, coaches, and umpires) wore number 42 on April 15.

At the November 2006 groundbreaking for a new ballpark for the New York Mets, Citi Field, it was announced that the main entrance, modeled on the one in Brooklyn's old Ebbets Field, would be called the Jackie Robinson Rotunda. The rotunda was dedicated at the opening of Citi Field on April 16, 2009. It honors Robinson with large quotations spanning the inner curve of the facade and features a large freestanding statue of his number, 42, which has become an attraction in itself. Mets owner Fred Wilpon announced that, in conjunction with Citigroup and the Jackie Robinson Foundation, the Mets will create a Jackie Robinson Museum and Learning Center, located at the headquarters of the Jackie Robinson Foundation at One Hudson Square, along Canal Street in lower Manhattan. Along with the museum, scholarships will be awarded to "young people who live by and embody Jackie's ideals." The museum hopes to open by 2015.

Since 2004, the Aflac National High School Baseball Player of the Year has been presented the "Jackie Robinson Award".

Robinson has also been recognized outside of baseball. In December 1956, the NAACP recognized him with the Spingarn Medal, which it awards annually for the highest achievement by an African-American. President Ronald Reagan posthumously awarded Robinson the Presidential Medal of Freedom on March 26, 1984, and on March 2, 2005, President George W. Bush gave Robinson's widow the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award bestowed by Congress; Robinson was only the second baseball player to receive the award, after Roberto Clemente. On August 20, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, announced that Robinson was inducted into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts in Sacramento.

A number of buildings have been named in Robinson's honor. The UCLA Bruins baseball team plays in Jackie Robinson Stadium, which, because of the efforts of Jackie's brother Mack, features a memorial statue of Robinson by sculptor Richard H. Ellis. The stadium also unveiled a new mural of Robinson by Mike Sullivan on April 14, 2013. City Island Ballpark in Daytona Beach, Florida was renamed Jackie Robinson Ballpark in 1990 and a statue of Robinson with two children stands in front of the ballpark. His wife Rachel was present for the dedication on September 15. 1990. A number of facilities at Pasadena City College (successor to PJC) are named in Robinson's honor, including Robinson Field, a football/soccer/track facility named jointly for Robinson and his brother Mack. The New York Public School system has named a middle school after Robinson, and Dorsey High School plays at a Los Angeles football stadium named after him. In 1976, his home in Brooklyn, the Jackie Robinson House, was declared a National Historic Landmark. Brooklyn residents want to turn his home into a city landmark. Robinson also has an asteroid named after him, 4319 Jackierobinson. In 1997, the United States Mint issued a Jackie Robinson commemorative silver dollar, and five dollar gold coin. That same year, New York City renamed the Interboro Parkway in his honor.

In 2011, the U.S. placed a plaque at Robinson's Montreal home to honor the ending of segregation in baseball. The house, on 8232 avenue de Gaspé near Jarry Park, was Robinson's residence when he played for the Montreal Royals during 1946. In a letter read during the ceremony, Rachel Robinson, Jackie's widow, wrote: "I remember Montreal and that house very well and have always had warm feeling for that great city. Before Jack and I moved to Montreal, we had just been through some very rough treatment in the racially biased South during spring training in Florida. In the end, Montreal was the perfect place for him to get his start. We never had a threatening or unpleasant experience there. The people were so welcoming and saw Jack as a player and as a man."

On November 22, 2014, UCLA announced that it would officially retire the number 42 across all university sports, effective immediately. While Robinson wore several different numbers during his UCLA career, the school chose 42 because it had become indelibly identified with him. The only sport this did not affect was men's basketball, which had previously retired the number for Walt Hazzard (although Kevin Love was actually the last player in that sport to wear 42, with Hazzard's blessing). In a move paralleling that of MLB when it retired the number, UCLA allowed three athletes (in women's soccer, softball, and football) who were already wearing 42 to continue to do so for the remainder of their UCLA careers. The school also announced it would prominently display the number at all of its athletic venues.

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MEET THE REPORTER WHO MADE AMERICA LISTEN TO THE CHILDREN AT THE BORDER

Because some of the most impactful stories in journalism are the ones that let the subjects speak for themselves.

At first, Ginger Thompson could hardly believe what she was hearing on the audiotape. What she could make out were several young children from Central America sobbing and crying out for “Mami” and “Papá.” One girl begs for somebody to phone her aunt. Then comes a grown-up male voice, a Border Patrol agent responding to the chaotic scene. “Well, we have an orchestra here,” he quips. “What’s missing is a conductor.”

A BORDER-TOWN ARMY BRAT

It was no accident that the impactful audio found its way to Thompson, 55, a senior reporter for ProPublica. She has spent her career following developments along the U.S.-Mexico border. Her whole life, really. An Army brat, she grew up in El Paso, Texas, the border city where her father was stationed. She learned Spanish at an early age and spent many weekends across the border in Ciudad Juárez with her friends and their families. “Living on the border,” says Thompson, “being a part of that school, and being a part of this very mixed community — military families, immigrant families, longtime Texan families — it was just a really interesting place to grow up.” Thompson fell in love with writing and telling other people’s stories, not as a journalist but as editor of her (award-winning) high school yearbook. “We really focused,” says Thompson, who ranked second in her class. “It was more like a local reporting organization.”

A love of storytelling and a desire to travel led her into journalism. Before joining ProPublica, Thompson, who has degrees from Purdue University and George Washington University, spent 15 years at The New York Times as the Mexico City bureau chief and as an investigative reporter. Among other things, her stories have uncovered U.S. support for a Honduran military unit that kidnapped and murdered hundreds of suspected political opponents, and Washington’s role in Mexico’s fight against drug traffickers. She doesn’t seek out danger, but it has found her, and on more than one occasion she has had to talk her way out of captivity from armed criminal gangs. And it was Thompson’s daring and meticulous work in Central America that brought her to the attention of someone else.

THE STORY OF A LIFTIME

In June 2018, someone came to Jennifer Harbury, an attorney and civil rights activist based in the border town of Weslaco, Texas, seeking legal advice about how to release a tape recording they had made of the children crying in the detention center. Harbury has never publicly disclosed the identity of that whistleblower for a variety of reasons, including attorney-client privilege, but she claims it is someone she has known for years who has “extremely high credibility.” Harbury took the individual on as a client and promised to act as a go-between with journalists to ensure the tape could be made public responsibly. And Harbury had one particular journalist in mind. “I’ve always really respected her courage,” Harbury says of Thompson, whose reporting in Central America she had long admired, even if she didn’t know Thompson personally. “She’s always been a top-notch writer who carefully checks out her stories and has tons of credibility. And she is fearless.”

After Thompson received the damning audiotape from Harbury, she immediately went into reporter mode. She knew that before the tape could be made public, it was critical to ensure that it was real and presented in the proper way. Thompson quickly set about verifying that the audio was authentic, including confirming the identity of the girl (by dialing the number the girl offers on the recording) as well as the identity of the source, that the source had access to the Border Patrol facility, and that the recording was unedited and representative of what was transpiring at the facility. Thompson, who describes herself as a perfectionist, recalls: "What was important was for me to analyze it, get the material I needed, and to get that tape up so that it might matter and mean something.”

She learned that the children on the recording are between 4 and 10 years old, and they had only just been separated from their parents. Their emotions are raw. Those working at the facility are doing their best to comfort the children and provide them with food and toys. According to Thompson’s reporting, even the officer making a joke about the “orchestra” is doing so in a vain attempt to lighten the mood. But he can’t. The kids are inconsolable.

Thompson worked most of the weekend on the story. She barely changed out of her pajamas. Shortly after her story was published, she recalls taking a shower when she heard the tape being played on television. She had listened to the tape a dozen times in order to write about it. But she hadn’t let it sink in. “It was the first time I really heard the tape as Ginger the human being, and not Ginger the reporter,” she says, “and that’s when the sounds of those voices began to really affect me.”

"ABSOLUTELY GUT-WRENCHING & BEYOND DISTURBING"

Thompson was not the only one stirred by the tape. “Heartbreaking,” New York Democratic Rep. Adriano Espaillat and Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner tweeted about the recording after the release of Thompson’s story. “Absolutely gut-wrenching & beyond disturbing,” said Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Nevada Democrat. Most Americans, including members of Congress, had known for weeks about the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy, which had separated more than 2,300 children from their parents since that April, and it had been condemned from all sides. The American Academy of Pediatrics argued the policy would cause the children “irreparable harm.” Former first lady Laura Bush called it “cruel” and “immoral.” But it wasn’t until Thompson’s story and the release of the audio that the horrifying human consequences of the border drama grabbed America by the collar. The resulting public sentiment and political pressure forced the administration to announce that it would end its child separation policy and attempt to reunify those who had already been separated. “I was very heartened that people on both sides of the political divide were horrified when they heard the tape,” says Harbury, “and stood up immediately and said, ‘No way. That’s going too far.’”

Administration officials responded quickly to the tape’s release. “We will not apologize,”

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told reporters regarding the child separation policy, claiming that the administration was only enforcing the law and it would be up to Congress to change it. One senior Homeland Security official told OZY on condition of anonymity that the detention centers were never meant to house so many immigrants. "They were meant to be wait-through stations," the official said, adding that Democratic lawmakers' refusal to approve additional funds for the department left them with few options once the number of daily migrant crossings rose. “We are doing the right thing. We are taking care of these children. They are not being abused,” former Attorney General Jeff Sessions told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham.

But, for many who work on the ground at the border, Thompson’s story was huge. The story “woke a different level of discussion about what is happening,” says Alejandra Y. Castillo, the CEO of YWCA USA, which works on issues related to the migrant crisis and protecting women and children.

Thompson’s journalism was also inspiring for many in the business, including students at Columbia University’s journalism school, where Thompson is an adjunct faculty member. “She is a role model for them, a journalist who nails the story and reflects all sides with intelligence and understanding,” says Sheila Coronel, an award-winning investigative journalist and dean of academic affairs at Columbia. The response to the story was gratifying for Thompson, who describes herself as generally pretty shy and “not a cheerleader type.” She was forced out of her comfort zone in the wake of the news-shattering headlines and found herself on the other side of the story as the subject of television and radio interviews. "I don’t love being in front of cameras, but I love telling the stories of other people,” she says. “When it comes to putting forth issues that are important, or standing up for issues involving other people, I am not at all afraid.”

CONTINUING SEPARATION ANXIETY

In some cases, as Thompson’s subsequent reporting confirmed, the Trump administration’s attempts at reunification were successful. The 6-year-old girl on the tape who wanted to phone her aunt, a Salvadoran immigrant named Jimena Valencia Madrid (see Jimena's story in the sidebar), was finally reunited with her mother, Cindy, at a Houston airport the next month.

But even where reunification occurs, separation can be a life-shattering event. According to Castillo, whose organization works with displaced families all the time, there is something even worse than children crying on tape: the children who don’t cry because the trauma is so deep. “My concern is that the infliction of the trauma will be lasting for many, many years, if not for a lifetime,” she says.

And, despite the public retreat from the policy, in the weeks and months since, border agents have continued to remove children from their parents as the administration remained committed to its goal of deterring asylum-seekers. According to Harbury, families are still being separated, and not reunited, despite the administration’s supposed pivot. Many times children are plucked from parents who are charged with mere misdemeanors. “It’s as if you get a parking ticket,” says Harbury, “and the police come by your house and take away your children.” Many in the Trump administration believe its tactics are working: Immigrants “in custody” fell from a stunning 20,000 in May to around 3,000 in December 2019, while daily apprehensions dropped from 4,600 to just 1,300 in that same period, acting U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan reported in January.

In recent days, activists have been trying to remind Americans of the outrage they felt in 2018 over the audiotape and the child separation policy. While performing “Born in the U.S.A.” during the Super Bowl half-time show, Jennifer Lopez was surrounded by children in cage-like enclosures. The following day, caucusgoers in Des Moines, Iowa, were confronted with dozens of chain-link cages holding fake children under signs reading “#Don’t Look Away.”

Still, it has been hard to re-create the impact of hearing from the children themselves, the ones who, as Thompson told NPR after the tape had been released, have the most at stake. “Unless we hear from the children, we don’t have a real understanding of what it is, of what this policy is and what it’s doing.”

AN “ALL-HANDS-ON-DECK MOMENT”

Thompson, who last year married her longtime partner, Tony Cavin, a deputy foreign editor at CBS News, continues to keep busy with her reporting. She doesn’t really have hobbies, she says, but loves reading a good book on the beach when she can get away. “I was on a train with a colleague who was going to take a guitar lesson recently. I was so jealous,” she jokes. Although Thompson loves her work and takes it very seriously, she demurs when confronted with how courageous others consider her to be. She feels the courage lies elsewhere: “The person who shared this tape with Jennifer, who was willing to talk to me about how they obtained the tape, people who are whistleblowers at the risk of losing their jobs,” she says. “I’m inspired by their courage.” Thompson plans to continue to report about hard places and vulnerable people and to speak truth to power, and she is constantly looking for new ways to tell stories, from documentaries to podcasts. “My plan is to keep finding big and important stories to tell,” she says. “In these times, with all that’s going on in the country and at the border, it feels almost like an all-hands-on-deck moment.”

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clydecwhitfield · 4 years

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