Ken Burns’ latest 4-hour gem ‘Jackie Robinson’ aired in two parts on PBS Monday and Tuesday night and gave us all the feels. The acclaimed filmmaker has had his fair share of stellar documentaries and has made an indelible mark on the film world (if you’ve ever seen a documentary where the camera zooms in and out of or pans across a photo, that’s known as the Ken Burns effect), but for some, this was some of his best work. There was so much about Jackie Robinson’s post baseball life that a large percentage of us didn’t know, and this film gave us all a glimpse into who Jackie was as a man outside of his baseball accolades. Check out the thoughts/emotions/lessons we all gained from watching ‘Jackie Robinson’.

1. From the very beginning, Jackie’s wife Rachel won our hearts and stole the show.

2. Not only because she was beautiful,

3. But also because of the love she obviously felt for Jackie.

Photo: Kyndal Wilson
Photo: pbs

4. In fact, their entire relationship was inspiring.

5. Jackie was an all-around athlete, earning varsity letters in baseball, football, basketball, AND track.

Photo: jackierobinson.org
Photo: jackierobinson.org

Pause

6. POTUS & FLOTUS made a surprise appearance.

7. And they reminded us that behind every good man is a great woman.

8. Jackie’s brother, Mack Robinson, won the silver medal in the 1936 Olympics, losing to Jesse Owens.

9. Then when Mack came back home the only job he could get was sweeping the streets.

10. But he did it with his Olympic jacket on!

Pause

11. Joe Louis and Jackie Robinson were bros, and Joe even made a phone call to help get Jackie into Officer Candidate School in the Armed Forces.

Photo: © Bettmann/CORBIS
Photo: © Bettmann/CORBIS

12. He was arrested and court-martialed during training in the Army for refusing to move to the back of a segregated bus and was eventually acquitted of the charges, receiving an honorable discharge. He signed with MLB soon after, becoming the first Black man to do so.

Photo: jackierobinson.org
Photo: jackierobinson.org

13. Jackie reluctantly testified against Paul Robeson to the HUAC when they suspected Robeson of communism.

14. By the way, Jackie Robinson didn’t take no mess.

15. And neither did Rachel. When Jackie objected to her joining a nursing program, she returned her engagement ring back to him through the mail so he wouldn’t think he could control her.

Pause

16. Eventually, their engagement was back on, and it took Rachel one year to pay off her wedding dress she had on layaway at Saks Fifth Avenue.

Photo: Archive Photos/Getty Images
Photo: Archive Photos/Getty Images

17. Jackie and Rachel spent their honeymoon fighting discrimination while traveling to spring training, but Jackie’s mother made sure she provided them with a shoebox of fried chicken.

Photo: Kyndal Wilson
Photo: pbs

18. New York mayor Fiorella LaGuardia was a progressive Republican who pushed for integration in baseball.

19. At the end of his first season, Robinson was named the Rookie of the Year and was named the NL MVP just two years later in 1949.

Photo: biography.com
Photo: biography.com

20. He was diagnosed with diabetes at 33.

21. Eventually, people began to resent Jackie’s outspokenness in the league.

22. And he slammed the Negro Leagues.

23. The seven-decade story about Pee Wee Reese embracing Jackie Robinson is false.

24. Rachel experienced subtle racism while trying to buy a house.

25. So the Robinson family had to move in with Carly Simon’s family for a while.

Pause

26. Of course there’s the moment when Jackie stole home in the 1955 World Series for the 19th time, giving the Brooklyn Dodgers the push to finally take the win that year.

27. But the stress of Jackie’s baseball career (including death threats) aged him tremendously.

28. The Dodgers wanted Jackie out, and he got traded to the Giants.

29. After the Major League’s, he helped found and direct a Black bank in Harlem called the Freedom National Bank and became VP of Chock full o’Nuts.

30. At first, he supported Nixon and was weary of Kennedy’s stance on civil rights, but he backed Kennedy in the end.

31. He was awarded the NAACP’s highest honor, the Spingarn Medal.

32. And was inducted into MLB’s Hall of Fame during his first year of eligibility.

Photo: baseballhall.org
Photo: baseballhall.org

Pause.

33. Jackie struggled with the militancy of the 1960’s.

34. During the 1964 election, the nomination of Barry Goldwater as the candidate for the GOP changed everything and showed us that not much has changed.

35. His eldest son, Jackie Robinson, Jr., went to Vietnam as a teenager, but when he came back he suffered from a drug addiction. Jackie Jr. and his father also had a strained relationship.

36. Jackie, Jr. went to rehab and got sober, reconnected with his father, but died in a car accident shortly afterwards at age 24.

Photo: philly.com
Photo: philly.com

37. One year later, Jackie’s health deteriorated, and he died in his wife’s arms at 53. There were 500 mourners an hour at his funeral to pay their respects.

38. Jackie Robinson was much more than a baseball player.

39. And his story is one we should all learn.

40. Because Jackie Robinson kept it real.

41. He fought for his people.

“If I had a room jammed with trophies, awards and citations, and a child of mine came into that room and asked what I had done in defense of black people and decent whites fighting for freedom, and I had to tell that child that I had kept quiet, that I had been timid, I would have to mark myself a total failure at the whole business of living.” ~Jackie Robinson

42. And inspired us all.

Photo: CBS Sports
Photo: CBS Sports

PBS has delivered excellent content on Black culture with the recent documentaries about Misty Copeland and the Black Panther Party. Now we can add ‘Jackie Robinson’ to the list. The entire film is chock full o’quotes and information about the legend a lot of us may not have known that much about. Information that–for many of us–was heart-wrenching. If you didn’t get a chance to watch the documentary live, you can check it out here until 4/26/16.

What did you think of #JackieRobinsonPBS? What new things did you learn about the first Black man to play Major League Baseball?

Photo: giphy
Photo: giphy

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