ABSTRACT
Nineteen ninety-seven marked the fiftieth anniversary of Jackie Robinson's courageous triumph over baseball's apartheid system. In 1997, almost every major newspaper and magazine in the nation featured stories about Robinson, often using the anniversary as an occasion to examine the current state of race relations in baseball and American sports in general. Martin Luther King once told Dodgers pitcher Don Newcombe, we will never know what you and Jackie and Roy did to make it possible to do his job. By hiring Robinson, the Dodgers earned the loyalty of millions of black Americans from across the country. The essence of America's troubled race relations can be summarized by the following observation: corporate America has learned to live with affirmative action and laws against racial discrimination, but it steadfastly opposes policies to promote full employment, universal health care, and affordable housing for all.
