In the 1950s and 60s, it wasn’t uncommon for David Robinson to tag along with his father, baseball legend Jackie Robinson, to the Apollo Theater in New York. David said his dad would “shoot the breeze” with friends who worked there.
That was on 125th Street, in the heart of Harlem, and the elder Robinson wasn’t just there to visit. He owned a clothing store a block away from the Apollo, where Black shoppers could avoid the discourtesies they often encountered shopping at white-owned establishments. Jackie Robinson also co-founded Freedom National Bank, a few doors down from the Apollo.
The history books will forever tell the story of how Jackie Robinson changed the world by breaking the decades-long so-called gentlemen’s agreement that kept Black players out of America’s pastime, Major League Baseball, on this day 75 years ago. Off the field, he was a prominent business leader who championed Black economic advancement and entrepreneurship. Aside from the bank and the clothing store, he also co-founded the Jackie Robinson Construction Co., invested in apartment developments and, according to his son, tried to start a golf club after being denied entry to many courses because of his race.
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