Jackie Robinson

JACKIE ROBINSON, a film by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon, examines the life and times of Jack Roosevelt Robinson, who lifted an entire race, and nation, on his shoulders when he crossed baseball’s color line in 1947. Check local listings for rebroadcast information.

Learn how the public perception of Jackie Robinson, militancy, black masculinity, and the Civil Rights Movement transformed between the 1950s-1960s. This clip pairs with the "Integration or Separation?" educational unit in the classroom section of PBS.org/JackieRobinson

In this clip from JACKIE ROBINSON, the facts of the story behind the Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese Monument are examined.

See the moment Jackie Robinson began challenging other ballplayers and umpires. Reporters began to come to Jackie directly, as he spoke out more, and played a season better than ever before.

April 15, 1947, opening day at Ebbets Field: playing first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers was number 42, Jackie Robinson. The Dodgers won, and the black press declared Jackie’s arrival as a landmark event. The white press did not acknowledge Robinson's entry into the Majors. This clip pairs with the "Taking the Measure of the Man" educational unit in the classroom section of PBS.org/JackieRobinson

In 1944, Jackie Robinson refused to move to the back of a military bus, when told to by a civilian driver. Jackie was arrested, charged with insubordination, and court-martialed. During the proceedings, he was prohibited from being deployed.

The Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education outlaws racial segregation in schools, but it does not mean total change at once. The reaction in the South is immediate and angry. As the push for social justice accelerated across the country, Robinson tried to do his part, but old customs remained entrenched both in the North and South.

In this clip from JACKIE ROBINSON, Alton Waldon of Brooklyn shares a childhood memory of when he and his school friends met Jackie Robinson, who treated the children to ice cream that day, and whom they revered as "a real hero who looked like" them. #JackieRobinsonPBS

Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon talk about how Jackie Robinson was the original civil rights pioneer, and why his actions and beliefs resonate to this day.

Rachel Robinson discusses Jackie's stance against violence and the rhetoric surrounding it, and his perspective on Malcolm X. Jackie denounced Malcolm X as "a man without a plan" and accused him of being "militant on Harlem street corners, where militancy is not dangerous." This clip pairs with the "Integration or Separation?" educational unit in the classroom section of PBS.org/JackieRobinson

Learn how Jackie Robinson entered the Negro Leagues, playing for the Kansas City Monarchs. In this clip, Buck O’Neil recounts when the team bus stopped at a filling station in Oklahoma, and the station attendant stated that the restroom was "for whites only.” Robinson told the attendant “No restroom, no gas.” Fearing the loss of a large sale of gasoline, the attendant agreed to let them use it.

Witness the deep impact the March on Washington had both on the nation and on Jackie Robinson and his family, who traveled to attend.