[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 44 (Tuesday, April 15, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S3230]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            JACKIE ROBINSON

 Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, today, all of America celebrates 
the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's courageous entry into major 
league baseball, an event which foreshadowed and indeed paved the way 
for the wider integration of American society in the 1950's and 1960's. 
For the people of Georgia, this celebration has special significance 
because Jackie Robinson was born in Cairo, GA, 78 years ago. Last year, 
his Georgia roots were honored when the Cairo High School named its 
baseball stadium Jackie Robinson Field.
  The son of a sharecropper and grandson of a slave, Jackie Robinson 
knew poverty, adversity, and the most overt forms of discrimination. He 
knew especially the lonely burden of having to break the color line in 
baseball all by himself. Apart from remarkable athletic abilities, 
Jackie Robinson possessed extraordinary personal qualities which 
enabled him to embody the hopes and challenge the prejudices of an 
entire generation of Americans. He truly met the classic definition of 
courage--the demonstration of grace under pressure.
  Georgians and all Americans honor the history which Jackie Robinson 
made 50 years ago today. It is clear in retrospect that he did more 
than open the door of the national pastime to African-Americans. He 
also helped to open the door of a genuine opportunity society to all 
Americans. Jackie Robinson believed passionately in the promise of the 
American dream. Through a lifetime of hard work, personal sacrifice, 
and commitment to racial harmony, he did as much as any American over 
the past half century to help make that noble dream a reality.

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