Small wonder in that they had to do with Jackie Robinson.
Robinson’s teammate, Don Newcombe, recalled ameeting between the two iconic figures for a piece in Time Magazine in 2007:
Do you know what Jackie’s impact was? Well, let Martin Luther King tell you. In 1968, Martin had dinner in my house with my family. This was 28 days before he was assassinated. He said to me, “Don, I don’t know what I would’ve done without you guys setting up the minds of people for change. You, Jackie, and Roy will never know how easy you made it for me to do my job.” Can you imagine that? How easy we made it for Martin Luther King!
Robinson devoted an entire chapter to “The Influence of Martin Luther ing, Jr.” in his 1972 autobiography, I Never Had It Made.
The photo below appeared in the June 8, 1957 edition of The Sporting News:
CALL HIM DR. ROBINSON -- Jackie Robinson, former Brooklyn Dodgers infield, now a New York restaurant chain executive, is followed by the Rev. Martin Luther King, of the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott, as they walk in Howard University's academic procession Friday in Washington, D.C. Both men received honorary doctorates of law from the university.
Frank Staley, Jr., Jackie Robinson, and Martin Luther King, Jr. meet with Kentucky Governor Edward Breathitt at the Jan. 1966 signing of the Kentucky Civil Rights Act.
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