No one could have blamed Robinson for taking his many awards and retiring into the corporate world that had first beckoned through the efforts of William Black, the Chock Full O' Nuts chief who made Jack a vice president.
Rampersad's quotes from the letters between Jack and Rachel show a man aware of his weaknesses, proud of his strengths and--hard to believe in these spongy, poll taking, spin-doctoring days--prepared to sacrifice everything but his family for his principles.
He was, in fact, in a curiously archaic phrase, a man of honor. Weakening illness did not stop him nor the constant betrayal by the politicians to whom he disastrously gave his trust.
Sometimes his straight-arrow outlook was forced to waver, as when glumly he remarked, "I wouldn't fly the flag on the Fourth of July or any other day. When I see a car with a flag pasted on it, I figure the guy behind the wheel isn't my friend."
He had come a long way from the day when he criticized Paul Robeson before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Of course, Jack didn't agree with Robeson's politics, but finally Robeson didn't agree with Stalin's. Each of these men did all the Horatio Alger, hard work, honest effort things that America is supposed to admire, but each was hurt again and again by an unfairness that cannot be covered by a shoulder patch.
Readers of Rampersad's "Jackie Robinson" may find Jack to be a kindred spirit to old William Lloyd Garrison, a 19th century fighter for the rights of all, who said, "I will be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice."
