Jackie Robinson and Joe Louis compare notes, and the tools of their respective trades, on June 14, 1946 during Mr. Robinson’s visit to Mr. Louis’s training camp in Pompton Lake, New Jersey. It was 66 years ago today, on April 15, 1947, that Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball to play with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Photo: Bettman/Corbis.
At the White House screening for the new “42” movie, Michelle Obama had this to say about Rachel Robinson, wife of baseball legend Jackie Robinson: “She’s a woman of strength, of courage, conviction; a woman who paved the way for me, but she paved the way for millions of Americans all across this country.” I am attending a private screening of the movie tonight in Manhattan and I could not agree more! In this September 23, 1947 photo, Mrs. Robinson is with her husband in Brooklyn as he accepts keys from the legendary dancer, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, to a car he won just before a game against the San Francisco Giants. Photo: Bettman/Corbis.
Sammy Davis, Jr. with talk show host Sam Levenson and tennis legend Althea Gibson at piano at a Bon Voyage party for Ms. Gibson at Birdland Nightclub in New York City. Ms. Gibson was set to leave for Wimbledon in the next few days. Photo by Fred Morgan/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images.
Baseball legend Jackie Robinson is helped into his jacket by his wife Rachel, circa 1950s, just before he leaves for the ball park. The Robinsons were married for 26 years before his death in 1972. Photo: Bettman/Corbis.
Baseball legend Jackie Robinson was born on this day in 1919 in Cairo, Georgia. In this 1947 photograph, Mr. Robinson is holding his contract to play with the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was 66 years ago this April that Mr. Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball. Photo: Bettman/Corbis
Minnie Riperton and tennis legend Arthur Ashe at the Arthur Ashe Roast at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in 1976. Photo by EBONY photographer Isaac Sutton.
Happy 71st Birthday to Muhammad Ali! The Greatest and, quite possibly, The Handsomest of All Time, was born Cassius Clay in Louisville, Kentucky. This photo of Mr. Ali was taken in 1966 in London, where he was training for his upcoming fight with British champion Henry Cooper. Photo: Keystone-France/Getty.
Boxing legend Joe Louis, photographed in 1941 by Carl Van Vechten at Greenwood Lake, NJ. Photo: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Meet my new favorite athlete: Mlle LeZetora, “Colored Lady Athlete - Heavy Weight Act,” circa 1900. Fascinating find via theSchomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library
Billie Holiday skiing in Zurich, Switzerland was “The Week’s Best Photo” in Jet’s February 25, 1954 issue.
Ruby Dee (who turned 88 Oct 27!) as Jackie Robinson’s wife Rachel in a publicity photo from Feb 1950 for the biopic ‘The Jackie Robinson Story’. Photo by FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images).
Alice Coachman (far right), the first African-American woman to win a gold medal (1948 London) takes a break and watches the games with fellow athletes, Emma Reed, of Nashville, Tennessee (broad and high jumper) and Nell C. Jackson, of Tuskegee, Alabama, (200 meters and relay. Ms. Coachman, a native of Albany, Georgia, won the gold in the high jump. Photo: Bettman/Corbis
