A panel of professors and community members gathered Thursday night at Hillel to discuss baseball legend Jackie Robinson and his effects on race relations, their personal lives and achieving the American dream.
The presentation was the third in a Jackie Robinson lecture series sponsored by GW's Multicultural Student Services Center and the student-run Jackie Robinson Society. According to event organizers, the series aimed to demonstrate the relationship between race and sports in the civil rights movement.
The panel included Christopher Lamb, a communication professor at the College of Charleston, Stephen Butler, a professor of sociology and anthropology at Earlham College, Ernell Graham, a retired school counselor, and Barry Zamoff, an expert on Robinson's time with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Lamb spoke about Robinson's constant struggles against racism, from his experiences on a segregated military bus ride before World War II to his work with the civil rights movement subsequent to his baseball career.
"The civil rights movement didn't start with Brown v. Board of Education. It didn't start with Martin Luther King. It started with Jackie Robinson," Lamb said.
Butler spoke about a common "If Jackie can do it, so can I" mentality that many of Robinson's fellow Brooklyn, N.Y. inhabitants adopted because of his example. Butler, a former Brooklyn resident, added that Robinson's peers learned to turn the other cheek to racial prejudices.
"We as a community were moved by the momentum of Jackie Robinson's struggle to begin the fight of civil rights," Butler said. "He taught the world there was no such thing as no and nothing that can't be done."
Graham also grew up in Brooklyn at the height of Robinson's baseball career.
"He was a hero to the people in my neighborhood," Graham said. "All blacks became instant Brooklyn Dodger fans because of Jackie Robinson."
Graham recalled watching one of Robinson's white teammates, Harry Henry Reese, put his arm around Jackie's shoulders after a fan had thrown trash and racist remarks in Robinson's direction.
The presentation was the third in a Jackie Robinson lecture series sponsored by GW's Multicultural Student Services Center and the student-run Jackie Robinson Society. According to event organizers, the series aimed to demonstrate the relationship between race and sports in the civil rights movement.
The panel included Christopher Lamb, a communication professor at the College of Charleston, Stephen Butler, a professor of sociology and anthropology at Earlham College, Ernell Graham, a retired school counselor, and Barry Zamoff, an expert on Robinson's time with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Lamb spoke about Robinson's constant struggles against racism, from his experiences on a segregated military bus ride before World War II to his work with the civil rights movement subsequent to his baseball career.
"The civil rights movement didn't start with Brown v. Board of Education. It didn't start with Martin Luther King. It started with Jackie Robinson," Lamb said.
Butler spoke about a common "If Jackie can do it, so can I" mentality that many of Robinson's fellow Brooklyn, N.Y. inhabitants adopted because of his example. Butler, a former Brooklyn resident, added that Robinson's peers learned to turn the other cheek to racial prejudices.
"We as a community were moved by the momentum of Jackie Robinson's struggle to begin the fight of civil rights," Butler said. "He taught the world there was no such thing as no and nothing that can't be done."
Graham also grew up in Brooklyn at the height of Robinson's baseball career.
"He was a hero to the people in my neighborhood," Graham said. "All blacks became instant Brooklyn Dodger fans because of Jackie Robinson."
Graham recalled watching one of Robinson's white teammates, Harry Henry Reese, put his arm around Jackie's shoulders after a fan had thrown trash and racist remarks in Robinson's direction.
