Amazing ALS signed “Jackie,” one page on a 5.75 x 3.25 card, no date but bears a collector’s notation of November 1958 on the reverse. Response to a letter asking what he considered to be his greatest accomplishment. In full: “I believe my greatest accomplishment was my ability to accept the racial abuse I did early as it was certainly not my nature to do so.” In very fine condition. An exceptional letter in its succinct retelling of how it was Robinson that came to break Major League Baseball’s color barrier. When Brooklyn Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey explained that he was looking for a black player who could ignore any racial antagonism that came his way, Robinson asked if he was ‘looking for a Negro who is afraid to fight back’—Rickey responded with a subtle change of phrasing, saying he needed black ballplayer ‘with guts enough not to fight back.’ As Robinson notes in this letter, meek acquiescence wasn’t something in his nature—he had even been court-martialed after refusing to move to the back of an Army bus—but he overcame this and went on to have a Hall of Fame career on the baseball diamond while historically impacting the civil rights movement. An altogether remarkable letter with ideal content. Pre-certified Steve Grad/PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
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