Call Him Jack: The Story of Jackie Robinson, Black Freedom Fighter
About this ebook
According to Martin Luther King, Jr., Jackie Robinson was "a sit-inner before the sit-ins, a freedom rider before the Freedom Rides." Hank Aaron declared Robinson a leader of the Black Power movement before there was a Black Power movement. To his wife, Rachel Robinson, he was always Jack, not Jackie—a diminutive bestowed by white sports writers. Throughout his life, Jack Robinson fought tirelessly for justice, equality, and civil rights, becoming an inspiration far beyond the baseball diamond.
In Call Him Jack, prominent Robinson scholars Yohuru Williams and Michael G. Long deliver an exciting biography that reclaims the real person behind the legend. Reanimating Robinson's legacy for new generations, this book widens the focus from the sportsman to the man as a whole, deepening our appreciation for his achievements on the playing field and his lasting impact on the ongoing struggle for racial justice and social change.
About the author
Yohuru Williams is Distinguished University Chair and Professor of History and founding director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. The former chief historian of the Jackie Robinson Foundation, he appeared in Ken Burns’s Jackie Robinson and was one of the hosts of Sound Smart, the History Channel’s popular YouTube program. His educational videos on civil rights, social movements, and other historic events have garnered over 1 million views. He is the author of numerous books, including Teaching Beyond the Textbook, and he has appeared on a variety of media outlets, including ABC, CNN, MSNBC, HISTORY, BET, CSPAN, and NPR.
Michael G. Long is the author or editor of books on civil rights, religion, and politics, including Jackie Robinson: A Spiritual Biography, which was selected as a best book of the year by Publishers' Weekly; Gay Is Good: The Life and Letters of Gay Rights Pioneer Franklin Kameny; Beyond Home Plate: Jackie Robinson on Life after Baseball; Martin Luther King, Jr., Homosexuality, and the Early Gay Rights Movement; and Marshalling Justice: The Early Civil Rights Letters of Thurgood Marshall. Long also served as an expert historian for Ken Burns's documentary on Jackie Robinson. He lives in Pennsylvania with his family.
