What are they teaching kids in school these days?

April 17, 2020

From the San Jose Mercury News on the day after the anniversary of the event…

“Oops! ‘Jeopardy’ contestant thinks Babe Ruth broke baseball’s color line.”

“Jeopardy” is in the middle of its annual “College Tournament” and we’re getting the feeling that some of these kids need to be hitting their history books a little bit harder.

Jackie Robinson - The Official Licensing Website of Jackie Robinson

The headline says it all, so I won’t go into that here.

I don’t know which is more disturbing. The College Tournament should be reserved for the best and the brightest among that demographic (I wonder if a 60-year-old who returned to school to finish his degree might qualify or if there are age restrictions?).

Colleges are increasingly offering courses in baseball, considering it a part of American pop culture. But more important than that: Jackie Robinson’s breaking the color line goes beyond sports. Not only did it open the door for the hundreds of African-Americans who followed (Vince Coleman, I’m looking at you), but it’s arguably the beginning of the whole civil rights era.

 

0Shares

Tagged as: Jackie Robinson

Comments on this entry are closed.

Previous post:

Next post:

script type="text/javascript"> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-5496371-4']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();