Jackie Robinson

“I cannot possibly believe that I have it made while so many black brothers and sisters are hungry, inadequately housed, insufficiently clothed, denied their dignity as they live in slums or barely exist on welfare.”

“When I look back at what I had to go through in black baseball, I can only marvel at the many black players who stuck it out for years in the Jim Crow leagues because they had nowhere else to go.”

“If I had been white with the things I did, they never would have allowed me to get out of baseball.”

“I want everybody to understand that I am an American Negro first before I am a member of any political party.”

“I have always been grateful to Colonel Longley. He proved to me that when people in authority take a stand, good can come out of it.”

“Blacks have had to learn to protect themselves by being cynical but not cynical enough to slam the door on potential opportunities. We go through life walking a tightrope to prevent too much disillusionment.”

“I guess you'd call me an independent, since I've never identified myself with one party or another in politics. I always decide my vote by taking as careful a look as I can at the actual candidates and issues themselves, no matter what the party label.”

“The old Dodgers were something special, but of my teammates overall, there was nobody like Pee Wee Reese for me.”

“I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me... All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.”

“A new breed of Republicans has taken over the GOP. It is a new breed which is seeking to sell to Americans a doctrine which is as old as mankind - the doctrine of racial division, the doctrine of racial prejudice, the doctrine of white supremacy.”

“In all my years of baseball, I have always expected to be traded. I never liked the idea.”

“The right of every American to first-class citizenship is the most important issue of our time.”

“I speak to you only as an American who happens to be an American Negro and one who is proud of that heritage. We ask for nothing special. We ask only that we be permitted to compete on an even basis, and if we are not worthy, then the competition shall, per se, eliminate us.”

“My protest about the post exchange seating bore some results. More seats were allocated for blacks, but there were still separate sections for blacks and for whites. At least I had made my men realize that something could be accomplished by speaking out, and I hoped they would be less resigned to unjust conditions.”

“The way I figured it, I was even with baseball and baseball with me. The game had done much for me, and I had done much for it.”

“Baseball is like a poker game. Nobody wants to quit when he's losing; nobody wants you to quit when you're ahead.”

“After two years at UCLA, I decided to leave. I was convinced that no amount of education would help a black man get a job.”

“I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world. In 1972, in 1947, at my birth in 1919, I know that I never had it made.”

“The black press, some liberal sportswriters, and even a few politicians were banging away at those Jim Crow barriers in baseball. I never expected the walls to come tumbling down in my lifetime.”

“It would make everything I worked for meaningless if baseball is integrated but political parties were segregated.”