tagged w/ Jackie Robinson
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CNN...
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Civil rights leader Patricia Stephens Due dies at 72
By the CNN Wire Staff
updated 9:40 PM EST, Tue February 7, 2012
Dr. Patricia Stephens Due died Tuesday at age 72.
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Due played a leading role in student sit-ins more than half a century ago
She and other activists were arrested at a Woolworth lunch counter
The activists spent 49 days in jail rather than pay fines
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(CNN) -- Civil rights leader Dr. Patricia Stephens Due died Tuesday at age 72, nearly 52 years after she played a leading role in student sit-ins in Tallahassee, Florida, her family said.
Due's death followed "a determined and courageous fight against cancer," her family said.
In 1960, as a 20-year-old college student and founding member of the local chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality, Due, her sister, Priscilla, and three other Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University students were arrested for sitting at a Woolworth lunch counter.
Their decision to spend 49 days in jail rather than pay fines marked one of the first "jail-ins" during the civil rights movement, according to Johnita Due, one of the civil rights leader's three daughters and a lawyer for CNN.
During her time in jail, Due received a telegram of encouragement from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. "Going to jail for a righteous cause is a badge of honor and a symbol of dignity," it said. " I assure you that your valiant witness is one of the glowing epics of our time and you are bringing all of America (to) the threshold of the world's bright tomorrows."
Jackie Robinson, who broke major league baseball's racial barrier, sent Due a diary so that she could record her experiences while in jail, the family said.
Due's involvement with civil rights, which included leading rallies and marches throughout Tallahassee and elsewhere, came with a price, her family said. She was arrested for protesting in Florida and New York and the FBI had built up a 400-page file on her because of her activities, according to the family.
During one incident in 1960, Due was injured by a tear gas bomb used by police. The incident left her sensitive to light, requiring that she wear dark glasses throughout her life.
Her activism also jeopardized her college education at FAMU. Due's parents feared for her safety and wanted her to focus on her college education, according to Johnita Due.
Due tried to balance school and her protests against segregation, but according to the family, FAMU administrators were ultimately pressured by Florida officials to suspend Due.
Due was allowed to re-enroll and earned her degree in 1965. "I was determined that nothing was going to stop me from getting my degree," Due later said.
In 2006, FAMU gave Due an honorary doctorate in human letters and formally acknowledged the five decades she spent as a social activist. In response, Due said then, "At our ages when entering college, we were still children and FAMU was our surrogate parent, and time after time, we were punished for our 'behavior,' and now, they are embracing us and saying, 'well done, well done.'"
Due co-authored a book in 2003 with her daughter Tananarive Due called "Freedom In The Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights." Due wanted the stories of the Florida civil rights movement and its key players to be remembered for their contributions to the fight against social injustice. According to the family, Due remarked, "Stories live forever. Story tellers don't."
The book was honored by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.
In 2006, The History Channel's award-winning series "Voices of Civil Rights" profiled Due.
She was recently honored by Tallahassee Mayor John R. Marks, who issued a proclamation declaring May 11, 2011, "Patricia Stephens Due Day."
Florida Gov. Rick Scott praised Due in a private letter last year recognizing her "impact as a civil rights pioneer" and commending her for her "lifetime of advocacy and commitment to achieving racial justice in America."
Scott called Due's actions "a significant moment in our country's history and ... an incredible source of inspiration still today."
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Civil rights leader Patricia Stephens Due dies at 72
By the CNN Wire... more
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Latest News Updates Many will celebrate the memory of Ms Rosa Parks today. Fifty-five years ago, Ms Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus – an act that challenged the moral conscience of an entire nation.Latest News Updates Many will celebrate the memory of Ms Rosa Parks today. Fifty-five... more
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Recently News Updates Ms Rosa Parks refused to listen to the bus driver when she was told to give up her seat for a white passenger. On this day 55 years ago, a woman named Ms Rosa Parks kick-started ....Recently News Updates Ms Rosa Parks refused to listen to the bus driver when she was... more
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Kevin Blackistone - As the Chicago White Stockings warmed up to take the field against the Toledo Blue Stockings in 1884, so the baseball story goes, one of the White Stockings, star Cap Anson, didn't like something he saw on the other side. It was the catcher, a fellow named Moses Fleetwood Walker.
Anson was white, as was just about every pro baseball player then. Walker was black.
Anson, who was so influential in baseball then that his name was on brands of candy, cigars and bats and he charged to sign it, refused to play the game if it meant going up against a man who a generation earlier would've been thought of only as human chattel. Anson's protest was upheld, Walker was not allowed to play and the most-despicable chapter in pro sports in this country -- the 59-year-long racial segregation of baseball -- began to be written.
If you don't know that tale, it is, in part, because six years ago that most-disgusting chunk of Americana met a most-remarkable whitewashing of American history -- baseball invented Jackie Robinson Day.
"Jackie Robinson's incredible legacy continues to impact our society today," baseball commissioner Bud Selig stated Wednesday in anticipation of Thursday's remembrance of the next black major leaguer after Fleetwood Walker. "Baseball's proudest moment was when Jackie took the field in 1947, so it is important to always remember him and his achievements."
Baseball planned to do so Thursday by having every player, coach and umpire once again wear Robinson's No. 42 to honor the 63rd anniversary of the game finally allowing a black man to play again.
For the second year, Selig also invited personnel on the field to wear Robinson's number to further show the game's reverence for Robinson. It is yet another coat of paint.
Baseball should be congratulated, for what it has pulled off is one of the greatest public relations and marketing campaigns of all time. Every college or school of public communications should do a case study. It is right up there with the Swift Boat group that during the 2004 presidential campaign turned Sen. John Kerry, who served in Vietnam, into a virtual war deserter in an effort to support the re-election of President George W. Bush, who it all but turned into a war hero despite his never stepping out of the Texas National Guard. P.T. Barnum would appreciate and approve.
What baseball did in 2004 with the introduction of Jackie Robinson Day was co-opt truth and its consequences. It pulled the wool over the eyes of an increasing philistine public. It created a national amnesia.
After all, baseball told us we should celebrate on Jackie Robinson Day everything that Robinson stood for and did for our country. What he did, however, was agree to swallow his immense pride and keep his cheek turned the other way in order to have men of color who came after him not have to endure the broken hearts and shattered dreams of the generations of men of color who came before him and weren't allowed the opportunity to play baseball simply because of their parentage.
Jackie Robinson Day doesn't remind us of that. It doesn't recount that as a 25-year-old Army lieutenant at Fort Hood, Texas, Robinson refused to go to the back of a bus as black riders were expected to do in the Jim Crow South and opted to get arrested and court-martialed instead.
It doesn't recall the mythical, but fathomable, tragedy of black baseball slugger Josh Gibson, who suffered a stroke in a movie theater, was taken unconscious to his mother's house and died there a few hours later. It was 1947, the offseason before Robinson's maiden voyage in the big leagues. Gibson was just 38. He'd suffered from depression that was said to spark fits of rage and rambling outbursts. But a teammate and friend of Gibson's, Jimmie Crutchfield, always said Gibson died of a broken heart at having been born the wrong color to play in the major leagues.
There were countless Gibsons between Fleetwood Walker and Robinson. That is what shouldn't be forgotten; instead, it has been all but covered up. (It is good to know, however, that years after the Jackie Robinson Foundation was started in 1973 by Jackie's widow Rachel a few months after Jackie's death, baseball finally got around to contributing to it.)
More at the link...
http://kevin-blackistone.fanhouse.com/2010/04/15/jackie-robinson-day-whitewashes-baseballs-sordid-history/?icid=main|main|dl4|link4|http://kevin-blackistone.fanhouse.com/2010/04/15/jackie-robinson-day-whitewashes-baseballs-sordid-history/Kevin Blackistone - As the Chicago White Stockings warmed up to take the field against... more
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KSirys
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1 year ago
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Would somebody please get Jesse Jackson a new playbook? When he's reduced to comparing Michael Vick to Jackie Robinson, the strategy is for the dogs.
Jackson has started campaigning for Vick to get back into the NFL. No surprise there. The surprise is that he'd drag Robinson's good name into the fight.Would somebody please get Jesse Jackson a new playbook? When he's reduced to... more
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why is jesse jackson ALWAYS trying to be "the black voice" in every issue?? his latest mouth fart involves comparing michael vick’s attempt to re-enter the national football league to jackie robinson’s entering major league baseball:
'although their situations were drastically different, jackson said, the challenge was the same: which owner would have the courage to make a controversial signing?'
riiiiiiiiiight. i disagree, but what do you think?
side note: further down article makes good point on hunting, and asks "who is worse: someone who tortures in the name of sport and then apologizes, or the one who kills in the name of sport and continues to hunt?'why is jesse jackson ALWAYS trying to be "the black voice" in every issue??... more
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1Q1B
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2 years ago
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Classic Quotes by Jackie Robinson (1919-1972) American baseball player
A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.
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Above anything else, I hate to lose.
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Baseball is like a poker game. Nobody wants to quit when he's losing; nobody wants you to quit when you're ahead.
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How you played in yesterday's game is all that counts.
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I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me... All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.Classic Quotes by Jackie Robinson (1919-1972) American baseball player
A life is... more
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People around the world have been watching the US elections closely to see the outcome. So how did some of them feel when the results came in on Tuesday night? This pod shows a variety of reactions across the globe when news of Obama's win spread.People around the world have been watching the US elections closely to see the... more
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What do the first black major league baseball player and the first black presidential nominee have in common?What do the first black major league baseball player and the first black presidential... more
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April 15, 2007 marked the 60th Anniversary of the day Jackie Robinson took the field for first time as a Brooklyn Dodger, effectively breaking Major League Baseballs color barrier. It was the single greatest day in the history of American sports and an event that was certainly before its time. Jackie's accomplishments on and off the field changed the landscape of sports forever and brought the issue of segregation to every city he played in. Fans, players and organizations around the country paid tribute last Sunday to a true American hero.April 15, 2007 marked the 60th Anniversary of the day Jackie Robinson took the field... more
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AROC
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4 years ago
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