Editing Jackie Robinson (section)

==Post-baseball life==
Robinson once told future Hall of Fame inductee [[Hank Aaron]] that "the game of baseball is great, but the greatest thing is what you do after your career is over."<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Patrick|first=Dan|title=Just My Type|magazine=[[Sports Illustrated]]|date=November 7, 2016|url=https://vault.si.com/vault/2016/11/07/just-my-type}}</ref> Robinson retired from baseball at age 37 on January 5, 1957.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.baseballlibrary.com/ballplayers/player.php?name=Jackie_Robinson_1919&page=chronology |title=Jackie Robinson Career Chronology |access-date=May 4, 2009 |publisher=BaseballLibrary.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120108063012/http://www.baseballlibrary.com/ballplayers/player.php?name=Jackie_Robinson_1919&page=chronology |archive-date=January 8, 2012 }}</ref> Later that year, after he complained of numerous physical ailments, he was diagnosed with [[diabetes mellitus|diabetes]], a disease that also afflicted his brothers.<ref>[[#Rampersad|Rampersad]], pp. 319–320.</ref> Although Robinson adopted an insulin injection regimen, the state of medicine at the time could not prevent the continued deterioration of Robinson's physical condition from the disease.<ref>[[#Rampersad|Rampersad]], p. 320.</ref>

In October 1959, Robinson entered the [[Greenville Downtown Airport|Greenville Municipal Airport]]'s whites-only waiting room. Airport police asked Robinson to leave, but he refused. At a [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]] (NAACP) speech in [[Greenville, South Carolina]], Robinson urged "complete freedom" and encouraged black citizens to vote and to protest their second-class citizenship. The following January, approximately 1,000 people [[New Year's Day March (Greenville, 1960)|marched on New Year's Day]] to the airport,<ref name="Zinn Education Project">{{cite web|url=https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/greenville-airport-protest/|title=Jan. 1, 1960: Greenville Airport Protest|publisher=Zinn Education Project|access-date=June 19, 2020}}</ref><ref name="Greenville News (Archive)">{{cite news|url=https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/2019/07/12/archive-jackie-robinson-visits-greenville-speaks-sc-naacp-complete-freedom/1702929001/|access-date=May 24, 2020|title=Jackie Robinson urged blacks to work toward 'complete freedom' during 1959 Greenville visit|newspaper=[[The Greenville News]]|date=July 12, 2019}}</ref> which was desegregated shortly thereafter.<ref>{{cite news|title=History museum exhibit explores Greenville's civil rights struggles, successes|newspaper=[[The Greenville News]]|date=January 17, 2014|url=https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/entertainment/2014/01/12/history-museum-exhibit-explores-greenvilles-civil-rights-struggles-successes/4437311/|access-date=June 19, 2020}}</ref>

In his first year of eligibility for the [[National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum|Baseball Hall of Fame]] in 1962,<ref name="loc"/> Robinson encouraged voters to consider only his on-field qualifications, rather than his cultural impact on the game.<ref name=newplaque>{{cite web |url=https://www.espn.com/espn/wire?section=mlb&id=3460774&campaign=rsssrch&source=dodgers |title=Robinson honored with new Hall of Fame plaque |access-date=October 31, 2008 |date=June 25, 2008 |work=[[ESPN]]}}</ref> He was [[1962 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting|elected]] on the first ballot, becoming the first Black American player inducted into the [[Cooperstown, New York|Cooperstown]] museum.<ref name="SABRbio"/><ref>{{cite web|title=Robinson, Jackie |website=National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum|url=http://www.baseballhall.org/hof/robinson-jackie|access-date=September 2, 2023}}</ref>

[[File:Jackie robinson abc sports announcer 1965.jpg|left|thumb|upright|Robinson as an ABC sports announcer, 1965|alt=An aging black man in front of a microphone]]

In 1965, Robinson served as an analyst for [[Major League Baseball on ABC|ABC]]'s ''[[Major League Baseball Game of the Week]]'' telecasts, the first Black American to do so.<ref name=voices>{{cite book |title=Voices of Summer: Ranking Baseball's 101 All-Time Best Announcers |last=Smith |first=Curt |year=2005 |location=New York |publisher=Carroll & Graf |isbn=978-0-7867-1446-9 |chapter=The New Kids in Town (Cable's Rise, 1980–89) |page=316}}</ref> In 1966, Robinson was hired as general manager for the short-lived [[Brooklyn Dodgers (Continental Football League)|Brooklyn Dodgers]] of the [[Continental Football League]].<ref name="si660509">{{cite magazine |magazine=[[Sports Illustrated]] |title=A Roundup of the Sports Information of the Week |url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1078525/2/index.htm |date=May 9, 1966 |access-date=May 5, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112094901/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1078525/2/index.htm |archive-date=January 12, 2012 |url-status=dead |quote=Hired: Jackie Robinson, 47, former Brooklyn Dodger baseball star, as general manager of the new Brooklyn Dodger professional football team of the Continental League.}}</ref><ref name="si660516">{{cite magazine |magazine=[[Sports Illustrated]] |title=People |url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1078543/index.htm |date=May 16, 1966 |access-date=May 5, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112094820/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1078543/index.htm |archive-date=January 12, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1972, he served as a part-time commentator on [[Montreal Expos]] telecasts.<ref>{{cite news|title=Expos on English TV: The picture clears up|last=Snyder|first=Brodie|newspaper=[[Montreal Gazette]]|date=June 3, 1972}}</ref>

From 1957 to 1964, Robinson was the vice president for personnel at [[Chock full o'Nuts]]; he was the first Black American to serve as vice president of a major American corporation.<ref name=SABRbio/><ref name="memory1"/> Robinson always considered his business career as advancing the cause of [[black people]] in commerce and industry.<ref>[[#Long|Long]], p. 174.</ref> He also chaired the NAACP's million-dollar Freedom Fund Drive in 1957, and served on the organization's board until 1967.<ref name="memory1"/> In 1964, he helped found, with [[Harlem]] businessman Dunbar McLaurin, [[Freedom National Bank]]—a Black-owned and operated commercial bank based in Harlem.<ref name="memory1">{{cite web |url=http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/robinson/jr1957.html |title=Robinson's later career: 1957–1972 |work=Baseball, the Color Line, and Jackie Robinson |access-date=November 22, 2015 |publisher=[[Library of Congress]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090903061250/http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/robinson/jr1957.html |archive-date=September 3, 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref> He also served as the bank's first chairman of the board.<ref>[[#Robinson2|Robinson, Rachel]], p. 190.</ref> In 1970, Robinson established the Jackie Robinson Construction Company to build housing for low-income families.<ref name=memory1/><ref>[[#Falkner|Falkner]], p. 340.</ref>

Robinson was active in politics throughout his post-baseball life. He identified himself as a political independent,<ref>[[#Robinson|Robinson]], p. 139.</ref><ref>[[#Long|Long]], p. 43.</ref> although he held conservative opinions on several issues, including the [[Vietnam War]] (he once wrote to Martin Luther King Jr. to defend the [[Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson#Foreign affairs|Johnson Administration]]'s military policy).<ref>[[#Long|Long]], pp. 255–257.</ref> After supporting [[Richard Nixon]] in his [[1960 United States presidential election|1960 presidential race]] against [[John F. Kennedy]], Robinson later praised Kennedy effusively for his stance on civil rights.<ref>[[#Long|Long]], pp. 171–172.</ref> Robinson was angered by the [[1964 United States presidential election|1964 presidential election]] candidacy of conservative Republican Senator [[Barry Goldwater]] of [[Arizona]], who had opposed the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Burns|first=Sarah|chapter=Seeking a More Authentic Jackie Robinson|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GPh2DgAAQBAJ&pg=PT29|editor-last=Simons|editor-first=William M.|title=The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, 2015–2016|publisher=McFarland|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|year=2017|isbn=978-1-4766-2886-8}} (Unpaginated version consulted online via [[Google Books]])</ref> He became one of six national directors for [[Nelson Rockefeller]]'s unsuccessful campaign to be nominated as the Republican candidate for the election.<ref name="memory1"/> After the party nominated Goldwater instead, Robinson left the party's convention commenting that he now had "a better understanding of how it must have felt to be a Jew in Hitler's Germany".<ref>{{cite book|last=Greenberg|first=Cheryl Lynn|title=Troubling the Waters: Black-Jewish Relations in the American Century|page=235|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-691-14616-4}}</ref> He later became special assistant for community affairs when Rockefeller was re-elected governor of New York in 1966 and in 1971 was appointed to the [[New York State Athletic Commission]] by Rockefeller.<ref name="memory1"/><ref>{{cite news |title=Robinson Is Appointed To Athletic Commission |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=May 6, 1971 |via=TimesMachine |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/05/06/archives/robinson-is-appointed-to-athletic-commission.html}}</ref> In 1968, he broke with the Republican party and supported [[Hubert Humphrey]] against Nixon in [[1968 United States presidential election|that year's presidential election]].<ref name=mlb.com/>

Robinson protested against the major leagues' ongoing lack of minority managers and central office personnel, and he turned down an invitation to appear in an [[Old-Timers' Day|old-timers' game]] at Yankee Stadium in 1969.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/12/sports/baseball/12baseball.html?_r=1&hpwl |title= Baseball's Praised Diversity Is Stranded at First Base|access-date=August 12, 2010 |last1=Schmidt|first1=Michael S. |last2=Keh|first2=Andrew |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=August 11, 2010}}</ref> He made his final public appearance on October 15, 1972, nine days before his death, throwing the [[ceremonial first pitch]] before Game&nbsp;2 of the [[1972 World Series|World Series]] at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.<ref>{{cite web|title=Remembering Jackie|website=National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum|url=https://baseballhall.org/discover-more/stories/baseball-history/remembering-jackie|access-date=April 1, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Walker |first1=Rhiannon |title=Jackie Robinson's final public appearance: 50 years ago at 1972 World Series |url=https://theathletic.com/3702849/2022/10/21/jackie-robinson-world-series-1972/ |magazine=[[The Athletic]] |date=October 21, 2022}}</ref> He gratefully accepted a plaque honoring the twenty-fifth anniversary of his MLB debut, but also commented, "I'm going to be tremendously more pleased and more proud when I look at that third base coaching line one day and see a Black face managing in baseball."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.espn.com/mlb/jackie/news/story?id=2828584 |title=Robinson would have mixed view of today's game |access-date=October 7, 2008 |last=Helyar |first=John |work=[[ESPN]] |date=April 9, 2007}}</ref><ref>[[#Linge|Linge]], p. 148.</ref> This wish was only fulfilled after Robinson's death: following the 1974 season, the [[Cleveland Indians]] gave their managerial post to [[Frank Robinson]] (no relation to Jackie), a Hall of Fame-bound player who would go on to manage three other teams. Despite the success of these two Robinsons and other Black players, the number of Black American players in Major League Baseball has declined since the 1970s.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.seattletimes.com/sports/mariners/the-changing-face-of-baseball-african-american-players-on-the-decline/ |title=The changing face of baseball: African-American players on the decline |access-date=May 6, 2017 |last=Stone |first=Larry |newspaper=[[The Seattle Times]] |date=August 28, 2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.espn.com/mlb/news/story?id=6401971 |title= Less than 9 Percent of Players Black |access-date=April 21, 2011 |work=[[ESPN]] |date=April 21, 2011}}</ref>