Like Jackie Robinson, Becknell has weathered some storms

Apr. 14—They're clustered together. Photos, mismatching frames and all, fill the edges of a corner in a small office in Rio Rancho. Some hang crooked. Some barely fit their frame. All tell a story.

For instance, a signed photograph of Muhammad Ali standing over Sonny Liston. Rev. Dr. Charles Becknell Jr., met him in passing on a flight from Albuquerque to Los Angeles, Ali returning from a spell in Santa Fe.

"I said, 'Thanks for the memories, champ,' " he said.

At the top, closest to the corner, a sepia-toned illustration of Jackie Robinson. Bat over his shoulder. Blue Dodgers cap. Blue Dodgers script.

Becknell, 81, turns over his right shoulder, motions to it and then the other side of the wall filled by black and white glossy prints or newspaper clippings, faded by time.

He points to one of them: a basketball player in the 1950s, shooting a free throw for now-shuttered College of St. Joseph's. The ball hovers above the basket, a white dot in the flash.

Go on, he says. Look at the jersey number.

42.

"It just happened," Becknell said of his number. "It wasn't until recently that I made the connection."

Jackie Robinson Day is Saturday, marking 76 years since Robinson broke the color line with the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. Every player and coach in Major League Baseball will wear the league-wide retired 42 in honor of Robinson, one of the game's most iconic and enduring figures.

And on Tuesday, the Albuquerque Isotopes will celebrate Robinson in a way of their own against Oklahoma City. Becknell will be honored with the second Jackie Robinson "Making a Difference" Award after years of service as a civil rights activist, public official and pastor in and around Albuquerque and New Mexico as a whole.

Robinson and Becknell's shared numbers were coincidental. Their shared experiences were not. Becknell was born in Levelland, Texas and raised in segregation-era Hobbs, a seventh grader when Brown v. Board of Education passed in 1954.

Laws changed. Attitudes didn't. "That's what shaped a lot of who I am today," he said.

Becknell was only five or so years old when Robinson made his debut, making a minimal impact. Time passed and his appreciation for Robinson only grew.

"I started to admire his ability to endure the hardships, the taunts, the name calling — even from his own teammates. It showed me that, if we're gonna make a change, we have to put up with racism. Because it's bigger than we are."

Becknell moved from Hobbs to Albuquerque to attend St. Joseph's on a basketball scholarship before earning his bachelor's in history and education and master's in secondary education, with further studies completed at Duke, Columbia and the University of New Mexico.

Then, a series of landmark achievements. Becknell taught the first (and only) Black history class at Albuquerque High School before starting the Afro-American studies program at UNM.

An appointment as New Mexico's Cabinet Secretary of Criminal Justice in 1974 followed. Then, a second act in life as a pastor, a calling he said he couldn't ignore.

None of it was easy. Like Robinson, Becknell found his own way to endure as he worked to affect change.

"If we have the ability, we need to step out there and take the hits," he said. "Man, I took my hits over the years. Not only the name calling but the hate mail and phone calls."

These days, Becknell still works with a nonprofit. He's a "retired" pastor, handing the reins over to his son, Charles Becknell Jr., at Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church long ago, but admits you never really retire from it.

He'll take the field prior to Tuesday's game. A plaque will be presented. He'll speak, likely for as long as he wants.

"You can't give a preacher five minutes," he laughed.

He's not sure how he'll feel. One last time, Becknell turned back to the picture clustered in the corner.

"It's got to be overwhelming," he said, "when you look at it from that respect. Not just the man himself, but what he stood for. The example he set for the rest of us.

"He did it with dignity. He was a proud man and he had to submit that pride and hold it down — in order to make things better."

Tuesday

Oklahoma City Dodgers at Albuquerque Isotopes 6:35 p.m., 610 AM/95.9 FM