Sarah Gibbard Cook
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Mack Robinson

1/24/2022

4 Comments

 
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Strolling in Pasadena last week, soaking up southern California sunshine, I happened on a pair of nine-foot-tall bronze sculptures across from City Hall. I knew of baseball legend Jackie Robinson but not his older brother, Mack (right).

Born to Georgia sharecroppers, the boys grew up in Pasadena. Mack set junior college records in track and field. After local businessmen paid his train fare to the trials in New York, Mack became one of eighteen Black athletes on the 1936 U.S. Olympic team in Berlin. He broke the previous Olympic record in the men’s 200-meter event, finishing just four-tenths of a second behind Jesse Owens. He said of his silver medal, “It’s not too bad to be second best in the world at what you’re doing.”

Mack came home to little acclaim. “If anybody in Pasadena was proud of me, other than my family and close friends, they never showed it,” he said. He campaigned for neighborhood improvement and supported his family by sweeping Pasadena streets. That job ended when the city fired its Black workers, allegedly in reprisal for a court order to desegregate public pools.

Popular history highlights a few big names and tends to forget the rest. Jackie Robinson and Jesse Owens deserve their fame in the annals of athletics and race. I’m glad Olympic medalist Mack Robinson is finally getting some recognition too, at least in his hometown.
4 Comments
Pat Groenewold
1/24/2022 08:37:39 am

Thanks for sharing this. There is a parallel history of the United States that rarely, if ever gets taught or talked about. It might be called "Black" history, but in truth it is an integral part of US history, not some subset thereof. It is a rich and interesting thread that is woven into the fabric of our nation and deserves to be recognized and celebrated by all Americans. We also need to recognize the role that racism has played in supprssing this part of our story.

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Sarah Cook link
1/24/2022 06:43:35 pm

Good point; this is part of all our history - what our nation was like. When Jesse Owens came back from that same Olympics with a stack of gold medals, he was honored with a reception at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. Because of his race, he had to take the freight elevator to his own reception.

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Connie Gill
1/24/2022 11:07:14 am

Thank you, Sarah, for sharing this important story of two brothers and their impact. It has made me curious about their early lives and the racism experienced in the Southwest.

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Sarah Cook link
1/24/2022 06:06:00 pm

Apparently Jackie Robinson, after leaving Pasadena as an adult, swore he would never go back because the city was so racist. Mack did go back and live most/much of his adult life there, and became a thorn in the side of the city council speaking up on issues affecting the Black community such as street crime.

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    I'm a historian who writes novels and literary nonfiction. My home base is Madison, Wisconsin. 

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