Bright Spot: Jackie Robinson and tax day share some history

April 15 was more than income tax day. It also was the 76^th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball.

As George Will wrote for the 60^th anniversary of Robinson’s debut, “[Babe] Ruth reshaped baseball; Jackie Robinson’s life still reverberates through all of American life.”

Martin Luther King Jr. said of him, “Robinson was a sit-inner before sit-ins, a freedom rider before freedom rides.”

Robinson’s story is history-altering and has Christ at its center; a little bit like the Easter event we just celebrated.

Many don’t know how many reservations Brooklyn’s manager Branch Rickey had about signing Robinson. His pastor did. He recalls how Rickey knocked at his door late one night in 1945 and paced back and forth endlessly, because of his doubts.

The other unknown is how much Rickey was influenced by the fact he and Robinson were both devout followers of Jesus. The fact Robinson was a stellar player also helped erase some of his fears.

Another fact of history is Robinson’s mother, Mallie, instilled the faith that made it possible for her son to become an American icon. She “taught her kids to get down on their knees and pray each night before bed, a habit that would strengthen and sustain Jackie when bigotry would barrage him on and off the field. Persistent prayer was a practice Robinson continued all through his days as a famous baseball player.”

Then there was the part the Rev. Karl Downs played. He was the pastor at the church Robinson’s family attended. One day, while Robinson and his friends were hanging out on a Pasadena street corner, Downs pulled up in his car and asked “Is Jack here?”

When no one, including Robinson, answered, Downs said “Tell him I want to see him at junior church.”

Thus began a relationship that led to “a spiritual awakening for Robinson.” In the short term, the relationship gave him purpose and direction, and in the long term, it helped him to “figure out how to persevere over Jim Crow” and constant stigmas and slurs because he was black.

All this history-making was made possible by two very different men who had something super significant to them in common – a shared relationship with Jesus.

Rick Sams is pastor emeritus of Alliance Friends Church.

This article originally appeared on The Alliance Review: Bright Spot: Jackie Robinson and tax day share some history