Jackie Robinson

Robinson's widow accepted the award in a ceremony in the Capital Rotunda on March 2, 2005.
. On October 29, 2003, the United States Congress posthumously awarded Robinson the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award the Congress can bestow. The Lou Henry and Herbert Hoover House, built in 1919 in Palo Alto, is now the official residence of the President of Stanford University, and a National Historic Landmark.
. Hoover and his wife are buried at his presidential library in West Branch, Iowa. In 2004, Major League Baseball designated that April 15 each year would be marked as "Jackie Robinson Day" in all their ballparks. (Gerald Ford is now a close contender, and as of 2005, he has been out of office for 28 years).

In 1997 (the 50th anniversary of his major league debut), his number (42) was retired from all MLB teams. His was the longest retirement of any President. For details, see Jules Tygiel's book, Baseball's Great Experiment. By the time of his death, he had rehabilitated his image and died praised as a beloved statesman. Jackie Robinson died in Stamford, Connecticut on October 24, 1972 and was interred in the Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. Over the years, Hoover wrote many articles and books, one of which he was working on when he died at the age of 90 in New York City on October 20, 1964 at 11:35 AM, 31 years and seven months after leaving office. Also, the diabetes that plagued him in middle age had left him virtually blind and contributed to his severe heart troubles. Many economies resulted from both commissions' recommendations.

In 1971, his elder son, Jackie, Jr., was killed in an automobile accident. Eisenhower in 1953. Robinson's final few years were marked by tragedy. He was appointed chairman of a similar commission by President Dwight D. Robinson made his final public appearance on October 14, 1972 before Game 2 of the World Series in Cincinnati. This became known as the Hoover Commission. On June 4, 1972 the Dodgers retired his uniform number 42 alongside Roy Campanella (39) and Sandy Koufax (32). Truman appointed Hoover to a commission, which elected him chairman, to reorganize the executive departments.

He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962, his first year of eligibility, becoming the first African-American so honored. In 1947, President Harry S. He campaigned diligently for Humphrey in 1968. His misgivings are in the book The Challenge to Liberty where he talks of fascism, communism, and socialism as enemies of traditional American liberties. After Nixon was elected in 1968, Robinson wrote that he regretted the endorsement. After Roosevelt assumed the presidency, Hoover became a critic of the New Deal, warning against tendencies toward statism. Kennedy: citing his record on Civil Rights, Robinson supported Nixon. Hoover was badly defeated in the 1932 presidential election.

In 1960, he involved himself in the presidential election, campaigning first for Hubert Humphrey, and then meeting both Richard Nixon and John F. His opponents in Congress, whom he felt were sabotaging his program for their own political gain, painted him as a callous and cruel president. He became a vice-president for the Chock Full O' Nuts corporation instead, and served on the board of the NAACP till 1967, when he resigned because of the movement's lack of younger voices. Hoover appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:. He had wanted to manage or coach in the major leagues, but received no offers. He and Secretary of State Henry Stimson outlined the Hoover-Stimson Doctrine that said that the United States would not recognize territories gained by force. Robinson retired from the game on January 5, 1957. Roosevelt's "Good Neighbor Policy" by withdrawing American troops from Nicaragua and Haiti, he also proposed an arms embargo on Latin America and a one-third reduction in the world's naval forces - the Hoover Plan.

Robinson was regarded as a fierce competitor in the truest sense: he never gave up on a game if his team was losing, to the point that he would try everything to avoid being the last man out for his side. In the foreign arena he helped to pave the way for Franklin D. It is also frequently claimed that Robinson was one of the most intelligent baseball players ever, a claim that is well supported by his home plate discipline and defensive prowess. He also signed the Norris-La Guardia Act that paved the way for the New Deal's labor policy. Robinson's overall talent was such that he is often cited as among the best players of his era. Lawrence Seaway (which failed in the Senate), signed an act that made The Star-Spangled Banner the national anthem, wrote a Children's Charter that advocated protection of every child regardless of race and gender, built the San Francisco Bay Bridge, created an antitrust division in the Justice Department, required air mail carriers to improve service, proposed federal loans for urban slum clearances, organized the Federal Bureau of Prisons, reorganized the Bureau of Indian Affairs, proposed a federal Department of Education, advocated fifty-dollar-a-month pensions for Americans over 65, chaired White House conferences on child health, protection, homebuilding and homeownership. By his talent and physical presence, he disrupted the concentration of pitchers, catchers and middle infielders. He appointed a commission which set aside 3 million acres (12,000 km²) of national parks and 2.3 million of national forests; he appointed a Federal Farm Board that tried to fix farm prices, advocated tax reduction for low-income Americans, doubled the numbers of veteran hospital facilities, negotiated a treaty on St.

He played several defensive positions extremely well and was the most aggressive and successful baserunner of his era; he was among the few players to "steal home" frequently[1]. The President expanded civil service protection, cancelled private oil leases on government lands and led the way for the prosecution of gangster Al Capone. Robinson was an exceptionally talented and disciplined hitter, with a career average of .311 and substantially more walks than strikeouts. Even if the Hoover presidency has a negative imprint on it, it must be noted that there were some important reforms under the Hoover administration. By the time of his retirement, he was disillusioned with the Dodgers, and in particular Walter O'Malley (who had forced Rickey out as General Manager) and manager Walter Alston.
. But in his prime, he was respected by every opposing team in the league. This possible violation of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, and the fact that only a token payment was given to the veterans to pay for their trip home, added to Hoover's image as a cold-hearted president with little sympathy for the suffering created by the Great Depression.

He did not enter the majors until he was 28, was often injured as he aged, and he retired at age 37. Patton Jr., to remove the "Bonus army" from the capitol. Robinson's Major League career was fairly short. Eisenhower and George S. He not only contributed to Brooklyn pennants in both years, but his determination and hustle kept the Dodgers in pennant races in 1950 and 1951 when they might otherwise have been eliminated much sooner. Army forces, led by General Douglas MacArthur and aided by junior officers Dwight D. Robinson was awarded the Rookie of the Year award in 1947, and the Most Valuable Player award for the National League in 1949. Hoover sent U.S.

He played in 151 games, hit .297, and was the league leader in stolen bases with 29. Thousands of World War I veterans and their families demonstrated in Washington, D.C., during June 1932, calling for immediate payment of a bonus that had been promised by the Bonus Law of 1924 for payment in 1945. During Robinson's rookie season, he earned the major-league minimum salary of $5000. (Unemployment did not drop below 9.9% until 1942). Robinson didn't refuse, but the ensuing session was likely difficult for both participants. It was not until the war in the 1940s that the economy recovered fully. When he poured out that string of unconscionable abuse, he solidified and united 30 men." Baseball Commissioner Albert "Happy" Chandler admonished the Phillies but asked Robinson to pose for photographs with Chapman as a conciliatory gesture. Even with massive intervention by his successor Roosevelt, the economy underwent only limited improvement, with unemployment falling to 14.3% in 1937, and then rising to 19% under a severe recession in 1937-1938 (a contraction labeled a depression by some economists).

In their April 22 game against the Dodgers, they barracked him continually, calling him a "nigger" from the bench, telling him to "go back to the jungle." Rickey would later recall that "Chapman did more than anybody to unite the Dodgers. Unemployment rose to 24.9% by the end of Hoover's presidency in 1933, a year that is considered to be the depth of the Great Depression. The Philadelphia Phillies - encouraged by manager Ben Chapman- were particularly abusive. Even so, New Dealer Rexford Tugwell later remarked that although no one would say so at the time, "practically the whole New Deal was extrapolated from programs that Hoover started.". During the season, Robinson experienced considerable harassment from both players and fans. Even as he legislated for changes, he reiterated his view that while people must not suffer from hunger and cold, caring for them must be primarily a local and voluntary responsibility. Pittsburgh Pirate Hank Greenberg, the first major Jewish baseball star who experienced anti-semitic abuse, also gave Robinson encouragement. These policies pale beside the more drastic steps taken as part of the New Deal, however, and Hoover's opponents charge that they came too little, and too late.

The pair became a very effective defensive combination as a result. He attacked Herbert Hoover for "reckless and extravagant" spending, of thinking "that we ought to center control of everything in Washington as rapidly as possible," and of leading "the greatest spending administration in peacetime in all of history." Roosevelt's running mate, John Nance Garner, accused the Republican of "leading the country down the path of socialism". He did have the support of Kentucky-born shortstop Pee Wee Reese, who proved to be his closest comrade on the team. Roosevelt blasted the Republican incumbent for spending and taxing too much, increasing national debt, raising tariffs and blocking trade, as well as placing millions on the dole of the government. A group of Dodger players, mostly Southerners led by Dixie Walker, suggested they would strike rather than play alongside Robinson, but the mutiny was ended when Dodger management informed the players they were welcome to find employment elsewhere. During the 1932 elections, Franklin D. Many Dodgers were initially resistant to his presence. For this reason, some hold that Hoover's economics was in fact left-wing in character.

During that first season, the abuse to which Robinson was subjected made him come close to losing his patience more than once. Hoover also encouraged Congress to investigate the New York Stock Exchange and this pressure resulted in various reforms. He also played many games at third base and in the outfield. The estate tax was doubled and corporate taxes were raised by almost 15%. Although he played his entire rookie year at first base, Robinson spent most of his career as a second baseman. The Revenue Act of 1932 raised taxes on the highest incomes from 25% to 63%. civil rights movement. In order to pay for these and other government programs, Hoover agreed to one of the largest tax increases in American history.

Robinson's debut at first base with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947 (he batted 0 for 3) was one of the most eagerly-awaited events in baseball history, and one of the most profound in the history of the U.S. The following is an outline of other actions Hoover took to try to help end the depression through government taxing and spending:. While some felt his more laid-back future teammate Roy Campanella might have been a better candidate to face the expected abuse, Rickey chose Robinson knowing that Jackie's outspoken nature would, in the long run, be more beneficial for their cause than Campanella's relative docility. It was his vocal stance on non-intervention that led to public perception that he was a laissez-faire, 'do nothing' president, which his supporters deny. Not only was he 27 (relatively old for a prospect), he also had a fiery temperament. Hoover's economy was put to the test with the onset of the Great Depression in 1929. Robinson was a slightly curious candidate to be the first black Major Leaguer in sixty years (see Moses Fleetwood Walker). In June 1932, a conference was held in Switzerland that cancelled all reparations payments by Germany.

Although that season was very tiring emotionally for Robinson, it was also a spectacular success in a city that treated him with all the wild fan support that made the Canadian city a welcome refuge from the hateful harassment he experienced elsewhere. The Hoover Moratorium had the effect of temporarily stopping the banking collapse in Europe. In 1946, Robinson was assigned to play for the Dodgers' minor league affiliate in Montreal, the Montreal Royals. In June 1931, to deal with a very serious banking collapse in Central Europe that threatened to cause a world-wide financial melt-down, Hoover issued the so-called Hoover Moratorium that called for a one-year halt in reparations payments by Germany to France and in the payment of Allied war debts to the United States. Robinson drew national attention when Rickey selected him from a list of promising candidates and signed him. Though he was not averse to taking action which he considered was in the public good - such as regulating radio broadcasting and aviation, he preferred a voluntary, non-government approach. His scouts were told that they were seeking players for a new all-black league Rickey was forming; not even the scouts knew his true objective. Hoover feared that too much intervention or coercion on behalf of the government would destroy individuality and self-reliance, which he considered to be important American values.

Although there was no official ban on blacks in organized baseball, previous attempts at signing black ballplayers had been thwarted by league officials and rival clubs in the past, and so Rickey operated undercover. From before his entry to the presidency, he was among the greatest proponents of the concept that public-private cooperation was the way to achieve high long-term growth. Branch Rickey was the club president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and had the secret goal of signing the Negro Leagues' top players to the team. Hoover's stance on the economy was based on volunteerism. Jackie played baseball in 1944 for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro American League where he caught the eye of Clyde Sukeforth, a scout working for Branch Rickey. The trend continues to this day, with a majority of African Americans voting for the Democratic Party. He received an honorable discharge in 1944, after being exonerated at a trial with all charges dismissed. This was the first election in which the Republican party did not receive a majority of the African American vote since Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860.

He was court-martialed for insubordination, and never shipped out to Europe with his unit. Hoover was nominated for a second term but was defeated by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1932 election. While training at Fort Hood, Texas, Robinson refused to go to the back of a bus, knowing that the practice had recently been outlawed on military vehicles. Hoover's Secretary of the Treasury was Andrew Mellon, a hold over from the Coolidge administration. Initially refused entry to Officer Candidate School, he fought for it and eventually was accepted, graduating as a second lieutenant. Moreover, the Federal Reserve System's tightening of the money supply (for fear of inflation) is also regarded by most modern economists as a mistaken tactic given the situation. 761st Tank Battalion. These acts are often blamed for deepening the depression, and being Hoover's biggest political blunders.

He trained with the segregated U.S. However, he signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which raised tariffs on over 20,000 dutiable items and later, the 1932 Revenue Act, which hiked taxes and fees (including postage rates) across the board. After leaving UCLA without a degree in 1942, Robinson enlisted in the US Army during World War II. After the crash Hoover announced that while he would keep the Federal budget balanced, he would cut taxes and expand public-works spending. His brother Matthew "Mack" Robinson (1912-2000) competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics, finishing second in the 200-meter sprint behind Jesse Owens. He said then: "We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land." Within months the stock market crashed, and the nation's economy spiraled downward into what became known as the Great Depression. At the University of California, Los Angeles, he was a football, basketball, track, and baseball star where he played with Kenny Washington, who would become one of the first black players in the National Football League since the early 1930s. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, and leading relief efforts in the wake of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, Hoover became the Republican Presidential nominee in 1928.

Born in Cairo, Georgia, Robinson moved with his mother and siblings to Pasadena, California in 1920, after his father deserted the family. After capably serving as Secretary of Commerce under Presidents Warren G. . Whatever their politics, they shall be fed!". Robinson's achievement has been recognized by the retirement by each Major League team of his uniform number, 42. When a critic inquired if he was not thus helping Bolshevism, Hoover retorted, "Twenty million people are starving. Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) became the first African American Major League Baseball player of the modern era in 1947. He extended aid to famine-stricken Bolshevist Russia in 1921.

To this end he employed a new formed Quaker organization, the American Friends Service Committee to carry out much of the logistical work in Europe. After the end of the war, Hoover, a member of the Supreme Economic Council and head of the American Relief Administration, organized shipments of food for starving millions in Central Europe. The Armistice did not end Hoover's involvement with relief. He succeeded in cutting consumption of foods needed overseas and avoided rationing at home, yet kept the Allies fed.

After the United States entered the war, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Hoover head of the Food Administration. Long before the Armistice of 1918 he was an international hero, in the words of Ambassador Page, "a simple, modest, energetic little man who began his career in California and will end it in heaven.". Despite the obstacles put before him Hoover persisted, purchasing rice in Burma, Argentine corn, Chinese beans and American wheat, meat and fats. Theodore Roosevelt promised to hold Lodge at bay, informing Hoover that "the courage of any political official is stronger in his office than in the newspapers.".

At home, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge wanted to prosecute Hoover for dealing with the enemy. Germans deported youthful CRB workers, including a major of The Salvation Army, on similar charges. The British investigated charges that he was a German spy. Every day brought new crises.

In all, the CRB saved ten million people from starvation. He also taught the Belgians, who regarded cornmeal as cattle feed, to eat cornbread. In an early form of shuttle diplomacy he crossed the North Sea 40 times seeking to persuade the enemies in London and Berlin to allow food to reach the war's victims. More than once Hoover made personal pledges far in excess of his total worth.

Its $12-million-a-month budget was supplied by voluntary donations and government grants. The CRB became, in effect, an independent republic of relief, with its own flag, navy, factories, mills and railroads. For several days he pondered the request, finally telling a friend, "Let the fortune go to hell." He would assume the immense task on two conditions--that he receive no salary, and that he be given a free hand in organizing and administering what became known as the Commission for the Relief of Belgium (CRB). This would mean abandoning his successful career as the world's foremost mining engineer.

Hoover was asked to undertake an unprecedented relief effort for the tiny kingdom dependent on imports for 80 percent of its food. Trapped between German bayonets and a British blockade, Belgium in the fall of 1914 faced imminent starvation. The difference between dictatorship and democracy, Hoover liked to say, was simple: dictators organize from the top down, democracies from the bottom up. All but $400 of this was returned, confirming the Great Engineer's faith in the American character.

Furthermore, Hoover, together with nine engineer friends, loaned desperate travelers a total of $1.5 million. When one woman angrily insisted on a written pledge that no German submarine would attack her vessel in mid-ocean, Hoover readily complied. I was on the slippery road of public life." During the next few weeks Hoover assisted Chief White Feather of Pawhuska, Oklahoma, and dowagers in jewels to get home. "I did not realize it at the moment, but on August 3, 1914 my engineering career was over forever.

Within twenty-four hours, five hundred volunteers were assembled and the grand ballroom of the Savoy Hotel was turned into a vast canteen and distribution center for food, clothing, steamer tickets and cash. Ambassador to Britain, Walter Hines Page, sent an urgent request for assistance to Hoover on August 3rd. The U.S. An estimated 120,000 of Hoover's countrymen, penniless and confused, were trapped on the wrong side of the Atlantic and needed help.

World War I was at hand, and few Americans were prepared. In August of 1914 he got his chance, when the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand touched off long-simmering rivalries among the jealous nations of Europe. Bored with making money, the Quaker side of Hoover yearned to be of service to others. At 670 pages with 289 woodcuts, the Hoover translation remains the definitive English language translation of Agricola's work.

Between 1907 and 1912, Lou and Hoover combined their talents to create a translation of one of the earliest printed technical treatises: Georg Agricola's De re metallica, originally published in 1556. While his wife worked in the hospitals, Hoover directed the building of barricades, and once risked his life rescuing Chinese children. For almost a month the settlement was under heavy fire. In June 1900 the Boxer Rebellion caught the Hoovers in Tianjin.

They went to China, where he worked for a private corporation as China's leading engineer. In 1899 he married his Stanford sweetheart, Lou Henry. Most of all, Stanford became for the orphan from West Branch a surrogate family--a place to belong. Stanford gave Hoover an identity, a profession, and a future bride.

But from this college in a hayfield he had derived much more than a degree in geology. He left Stanford with $40 in his pocket and no prospects for employment. Hoover graduated in May 1895, three months before his 21st birthday. "It isn't so important what others think of you as what you feel inside yourself," she told college friends.

Lou shared her fellow Iowan's love of the outdoors and self-reliant nature. It was in Branner's geology lab that he met Lou Henry, a banker's daughter born in Waterloo, Iowa, in 1874. Hoover earned his way through school by doing typing chores for Professor John Casper Branner, who also got him a summer job mapping the terrain in Arkansas' Ozark Mountains. Teaming up with other poor boys against campus swells, the reluctant candidate was elected student body treasurer on the "Barbarian" slate, then wiped out a student-government debt of $2,000.

Cutting a wider swath outside the classroom than in, Hoover managed the baseball and football teams, started a laundry, and ran a lecture agency. In the fall of 1891 Hoover attended the new Leland Stanford Junior University at Palo Alto, California. David Copperfield, the story of another orphan cast into the world to live by his wits, would remain a lifelong favorite. Thanks to a local schoolteacher, Miss Jane Gray, the boy's eyes were opened to the novels of Charles Dickens and Sir Walter Scott.

As an office boy in his uncle's Oregon Land Company he mastered bookkeeping and typing, while also attending business school in the evening. "My boyhood ambition was to be able to earn my own living, without the help of anybody, anywhere," he once reported. Hoover's six years in Oregon taught him self-reliance. Waiting for him on the other end of the continent was his Uncle John Minthorn, a doctor and school superintendent whom Hoover recalled as "a severe man on the surface, but like all Quakers kindly at the bottom." The future president lived with his uncle in Newberg, Oregon for several years following his parents' deaths.

Sewn into his clothes were two dimes; he also carried a hamper of his Aunt Hannah's homemade delicacies. In the summer of 1885 eleven-year-old "Bert" Hoover boarded a Union Pacific train headed west to Oregon. His father died in 1880, and his mother in 1884. Both of his parents, Jesse Hoover and Hulda Minthorn, died when Hoover was young.

He was the first President to be born west of the Mississippi River. Hoover was born into a Quaker family in West Branch, Iowa. . President and died 31 years after leaving office, during the administration of Lyndon Johnson — his fifth successor.

He had the longest retirement of any U.S. However, prior to that, he was a successful mining engineer, humanitarian, and administrator. Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) is best known as being the 31st President of the United States (1929-1933). Herbert Hoover National Historical Site - also in West Branch, Iowa.

Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum - located near Iowa City in West Branch, Iowa. Hoover Institution. Hoover-Minthorn House. presidential election, 1932.

U.S. presidential election, 1928. U.S. The Problems of Lasting Peace, with Hugh Gibson, Doubleday Doran, Garden City NY, 1942.

Addresses Upon The American Road, 1933-1938, Charles Scribner's Sons, NY, 1938. The Challenge to Liberty, 1934. by Herbert Clark Hoover and Lou Henry Hoover, The Mining magazine, London, 1912. Agricola, G., De Re Metallica, tr.

"I outlived the bastards" - answer to a question of how he managed to survive the long ostracism under the Roosevelt administration. "A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage" - Presidential Campaign Slogan 1928. "True American Liberalism utterly denies the whole creed of socialism." The Challenge to Liberty, pg 57. Benjamin Nathan Cardozo - 1932.

Owen Josephus Roberts - 1930. Charles Evans Hughes - Chief Justice - 1930. Instead of protecting American jobs, the Smoot-Hawley tariff is widely blamed for setting off a worldwide trade war which only worsened the country's economic ills. After hearings held by the House Ways and Means Committee generated over 20,000 pages of testimony regarding tariff protection, Congress responded with legislation that Hoover signed despite some misgivings.

Raised tariffs to protect American jobs. In addition, the RFC made loans to banks, railroads and agriculture credit organizations. This act established the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which made loans to the states for public works and unemployment relief. Signed the Reconstruction Finance Act.

Many businessmen, most notably Henry Ford, raised or maintained their worker's wages early in the Depression in the hope that more money into the pockets of consumers would end the economic downturn. Actively encouraged businesses to maintain high wages during the depression. Urged bankers to form the National Credit Corporation to assist banks in financial trouble and protect depositor's money. Established the President's Emergency Relief Organization to coordinate local, private relief efforts resulting in over 3,000 relief committees across the U.S.

Increased subsidies to the nation's struggling farmers with the Agricultural Marketing Act, but with only limited impact. Signed the Federal Home Loan Bank Act establishing the Federal Home Loan Bank system to assist citizens in obtaining financing to purchase a home. Urged the state governors to also increase their public works spending, though many failed to take any action. Increased subsidies for ship construction through the Federal Shipping Board.

Directed the Department of Commerce to establish a Division of Public Construction in December 1929. Asked Congress for a $400 million increase in the Federal Building Program. Some of Hoover's efforts to stimulate the economy through public works are as follows: