Rachel Robinson

Rachel Robinson. . , Rachel Isum and Jack Roosevelt Robinson met in 1941, when she was a freshman-nursing student and he a senior and star athlete at the University of California, Los Angeles. They became engaged as Jackie went into the Army as a private and left as a commissioned officer and a tank commander. Rachel finished her five years of college and nursing school and graduated in June 1944 with the Florence Nightingale Award for clinical excellence. Rachel and Jackie were married on February 10, 1946. Mrs. Robinson is credited with providing the capacity to Jackie to endure the physical and emotional trials in his career. Rachel and Jackie had three children, Jackie, Jr. (tragically killed in an automobile accident), Sharon, and David. Rachel is the founder of the Jackie Robinson Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that provides scholarship and leadership skills programs for minority and underprivileged youths., Caption: , “I soon learned that all the books in the world cannot really make one understand what it means to be a Negro with dignity and self-respect in an area where segregation is entrenched by custom and supported by a maze of laws. These were painful for me, but particularly painful for Jackie, because he was such an assertive person and was very sure of his manhood… to have seen him kowtow and submit to these indignities was abominable.” , Rachel Robinson, Jackie and Rachel Robinson, Jim Crow seating area, City Island/Jackie Robinson Ball Park 1946 , Photo courtesy Rachel Robinson