Jackie and Campy (16 page)

Nevertheless when the Dodgers arrived at Atlanta’s Ponce de Leon Park on April 8, the
KKK
was outside picketing them. With the assistance of city police, the team was escorted to the visitor’s clubhouse, where Robinson was promptly handed a stack of death threats from local bigots. Dodgers manager Burt Shotton felt obligated to read one of the notices aloud: “Take the field and you’re going to be shot!” Though he was accustomed to such threats, Robinson was deeply affected, but still he resolved to take the field.

“We were all scared and took the threats very seriously,” recalled Carl Erskine. “This was different. It wasn’t some heckler, a harmless nutcase in the bleachers. If ever a clubhouse of strapping young men was at a loss for words, this was the time. We couldn’t believe anybody would want to kill somebody else for playing ball because of his race.”
22
Stunned, the Dodgers sat in silence, not knowing what to say or do. Finally, outfielder Gene Hermanski offered some comic relief. “Why don’t we all wear [Robinson’s] No. 42?” he suggested. “Then the nut won’t know who to shoot at!” The remark broke everyone up. Tensions eased, and the team began preparing for the game.
23

African American spectators were forbidden from entering the park by a state ordinance that prohibited integrated attendance at a sporting event. But when Robinson, Campanella, and Newcombe protested, blacks were allowed to sit in the bleachers and in overflow sections in the outfield, which was cordoned off by ropes, and on a levee behind the right-field fence. To show their appreciation, the African American fans greeted the three black Dodgers with a roaring ovation when they took the field to warm up. Robinson, noticeably edgy, stood beside his double-play partner, Pee Wee Reese, near the batting cage. Reese tried to break the tension with some gallows humor. “Say, Jackie, do you mind moving over a few feet to your right?” he asked. “This guy might be a bad shot!”
24

Despite Robinson’s three-hit, two-
RBI
performance, he was both booed and cheered whenever he stepped to the plate. Still, the mixed response could not detract from his tremendous drawing power, even in the segregated South. More than 6,500 spectators jammed inside and around the periphery of Ponce de Leon Park, which seated only 4,000.
25
Jackie’s huge popularity and his stature as a civil rights leader made him vulnerable to competing political interests. At a time when the United States was embroiled in a cold war against the Soviet Union, Congress feared the infiltration of Communist influences into American society. In the summer of 1949 the House Un-American Activities Committee (
HUAC
) conducted hearings to determine whether American minorities, especially blacks, were loyal to the United States. Alvin Stokes,
HUAC
’s principal investigator, charged that the “Communist Party was setting up an independent Negro Soviet Republic in the South,” asserting that the plot was “cunningly calculated to promote a civil war in which the Negro people would be sacrificed to the machinations of Moscow.” Stokes insisted that the plan, as well as those African Americans who sympathized with Communism, posed a “serious national security threat.” He also identified Paul Robeson, the well-known black athlete turned actor and singer, as one of the prominent African Americans who sympathized with Communism.
26
Robeson, an international celebrity, had recently inflamed matters at the Soviet-sponsored World Peace Conference in Paris when he suggested that African Americans would not go to war against a Soviet Union that staunchly opposed racial discrimination.
27

To disprove Stokes’s accusations, several witnesses testified about the sacrifices black soldiers had made during World War II, including Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was profoundly influenced by the racial discrimination he witnessed in the military ranks. “Our Negro population is fully worthy of its American citizenship,” insisted Ike. “Negroes proved that loyalty on the battlefields of Europe and Africa.”
28
Black witnesses who came before the committee went to great lengths to denounce Communism as well as Paul Robeson. Manning Johnson, who abandoned the American Communist Party and became a government informant, was the most damning witness. Calling Robeson a “Black Stalin,” Johnson contended that the popular singer was under confidential orders from the Party “to work among the intellectuals, the professionals and artists they hoped to attract to their cause.”
29
But
HUAC
, wanting to find an
African American
of Robeson’s status to discredit him, turned to Jackie Robinson. Urged on by Branch Rickey and
NAACP
leaders Roy Wilkins and Lester Granger, Jackie reluctantly agreed to testify.
30

Robinson’s reservations were based, in part, on the deep respect he had for Robeson, who had achieved unprecedented star status as a college and professional athlete in the 1920s, as a lead actor in Hollywood in the 1930s, and as a concert singer in the 1940s. He used his popularity to speak out against racism and the racial stereotypes that undermined more positive images of blacks. In fact Robeson had been widely credited with paving the way for Robinson’s quest to break baseball’s color barrier with his public advocacy of integrating the game. A close friend and protégé of W. E. B. Du Bois, Robeson shared the scholar’s belief that the race problem in America could be solved only through interracial cooperation, not separation. He actively promoted that philosophy in his public remarks and personal example. More important, Robeson’s appeal transcended race, and as a result he was influential in the mainstreaming of African American culture and art forms. It was the very same kind of appeal that Robinson hoped to achieve for himself. Jackie was also keenly aware that his testimony would be used to pit one famous African American against another.
31
“Rachel and I had long talks about it,” he recalled years later. “I knew that Robeson was striking out against racial inequality in the way that seemed best to him, but the newspaper accounts indicated that he was speaking for the whole race of black people. Even with all the respect I
had for him, I didn’t believe that anyone had the right to do that.”
32
Jackie eventually agreed to testify before
HUAC
, fearing that his refusal might permanently damage his career.
33

Appearing before
HUAC
on July 18, Robinson began his testimony by acknowledging that many people had urged him not to testify but that politics was something he could not avoid. Instead of focusing his remarks on Robeson’s controversial statement, however, Jackie used the platform to attack American racism:

Shifting the topic to Robeson, Jackie expressed his doubts that the singer “could actually speak for fifteen million blacks” when he stated that African Americans would refuse to fight against the Soviets. “If he actually made the statement,” Robinson added, “it sounds silly to me. But Mr. Robeson has a right to his personal views.”
34

Although Jackie tried to minimize the damage to Robeson by focusing on the issue of American racism, his
HUAC
testimony was a major media event. His carefully worded statement appeared on the front page of the
New York Times
the following day, precipitating questions about the relationship between the two prominent African Americans. Robeson took
the high moral ground, declining to comment on Robinson personally. “I am not going to permit the issue to boil down to a personal feud between me and Jackie,” he told a gathering of newspapermen. “To do that, would be to do exactly what the other group wants us to do.”
35

Jackie’s remarks, however unintentional, destroyed any future success Robeson may have enjoyed in the United States. His concert engagements and movie contracts were canceled, and music stores stopped selling his records. Near summer’s end, a symbolic lynching of Robeson took place at Peekskill, thirty miles north of New York City. A huge bonfire was lit by former fans to burn his sheet music. Others burned crosses. The protest quickly spiraled out of control as demonstrators began throwing rocks and overturning cars.
36
“Paul Robeson should have the right to sing, speak, or do anything he wants to do,” said Robinson in an effort at damage control. “Those mobs make it tough on everyone. They say here in America, you’re allowed to be whatever you want. I think those rioters ought to be investigated. Let’s find out if what they did is supposed to be the democratic way of doing things.”
37
But the damage had already been done.

Within months the federal government rescinded Robeson’s passport, eliminating any possibility of his earning money abroad. Within three years Robeson’s annual income plummeted from $104,000 to just $2,000.
38
The
HUAC
hearings had destroyed the prestige and influence Paul Robeson once enjoyed in the African American community by identifying him as a Communist. Unwittingly Robinson had contributed to Robeson’s demise. Although he never expressed any regrets about his testimony, near the end of his life he stated that he had an “increased respect for Robeson, who sacrificed himself, his career and the wealth and comfort he once enjoyed because he was sincerely trying to help his people.”
39

Campanella never went on record about his teammate’s appearance before
HUAC
, but it would have been against his nature to support Robinson’s testimony. He purposely distanced himself from politics, not wanting to jeopardize the financial security and prestige a Major League career afforded him. That season he was elected to the National League All-Star Team, the first of eight straight appearances he made at the midsummer classic. Campy was now recognized as one of the very best catchers in the game. Nearly a decade of hardship in the Negro Leagues was beginning to pay off. That experience also taught him to do his talking on the play
ing field and otherwise keep his mouth shut. Campanella was unnerved by Robinson’s outspokenness on civil rights issues and his combative behavior; he believed it did not project well on the few black players who had been promoted to the Majors and easily threatened the good life they currently enjoyed. While he tried to temper Jackie’s controversial behavior, it was becoming increasingly difficult to do so. On August 2, for example, Jackie “threw his cap on the ground and went into a rage of disagreement” against the Chicago Cubs. Three weeks later, in Pittsburgh, he was ejected from a game by umpire Butch Henline for questioning a call and then suggesting that the arbiter was prejudiced.
40
Campy allegedly confronted Robinson after the latter incident, reminding him that his boorish behavior could jeopardize the cause of integration. “It may take ten years to go ahead, but you can fall all the way back in one,” Campanella insisted. “It’s nice up here [in the Major Leagues]. Don’t spoil it.”
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Whether or not the confrontation actually took place, the sentiments expressed did echo Campy’s true feelings. Years later he would tell baseball historian Jules Tygiel, “Everything we did stood out so much then [that we] couldn’t afford to make a mistake.”
42

Campanella’s anxiety over Jackie’s behavior was heightened by the questionable influence he began to have on Don Newcombe. Newcombe had been Roy’s teammate and closest friend in Nashua. When the young pitcher was promoted to the Dodgers in 1949, Campy, who had roomed with Robinson on the road, changed roommates. While Jackie may not have been happy about the arrangement, he understood the need for Newcombe to be reunited with his old teammate. “The matchup was perfect,” according to Carl Erskine. “Campy soothed Newk, who was young, talented and brash.”
43
Still, Robinson made an earnest effort to mentor the twenty-three-year-old rookie. At times Jackie was a positive influence, serving as a protector. During spring training in Vero Beach, for example, Newcombe got into an off-field altercation with Fermin Guerra, the Philadelphia Athletics’ Hispanic American catcher. Because of Guerra’s fair complexion, he was indistinguishable from white onlookers who rallied to his side. One of the observers handed the irate catcher a wooden post and told him “to kill the black [expletive] with it.” Sam Lacy, a sportswriter for the
Baltimore Afro-American
, grabbed the Dodgers’ rookie and hustled him off before any further damage could be done. “After that, there was
talk that I was going to be lynched,” Newcombe recalled. “Nobody took it lightly. At five in the morning, Jackie convened a meeting at Branch Rickey’s house. Jackie, Mr. Rickey, Campy, Buzzie Bavasi, the mayor of Vero Beach, the sheriff and the chief of police were all there. They were prepared to get me out of town if they had to. The whole time they were talking they had an airplane waiting for me at the local airport. It was finally decided that I could stay, but I wouldn’t be able to leave camp until the end of spring training.”
44

On other occasions Robinson could be a bully, challenging the young pitcher’s character in order to motivate him on the mound. During the late spring, Newcombe started a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates and was enjoying an 11–1 lead in the fourth inning when he began having difficulty throwing strikes. He made matters worse by aiming the ball. After walking two straight batters, Jackie jogged in from second base and proceeded to goad him.