Books and Manuscripts

Baseball Great and Civil Rights Icon Jackie Robinson Signed Montgomery Improvement Association Program

Montgomery, Alabama: Montgomery Improvement Association, Inc., 1960. First edition. 8vo. Unpaginated (16 pp.). Original printed program for the "Fifth Anniversary and the Annual Institute on Non-Violence Sponsored By The Montgomery Improvement Association...December 5-11, 1960." Signed by baseball legend and civil rights icon Jackie Robinson, on front wrapper. Original stiff staple-bound printed self-wrappers, staples now perished; creased along center.

Jackie Robinson gave the closing speech for the Montgomery Improvement Association's (M.I.A.) fifth anniversary celebration on the afternoon of Sunday, December 11, 1960, the final day of their week-long schedule of masses and meetings that took place in many of Montgomery's prominent Baptist and Methodist churches. Robinson signed this program immediately following the completion of his speech, for Sharon Waters, daughter of Alfonso and Lucy B. Campbell, among some of the early organizers of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and friends of Martin Luther King, Jr. "I attended a mass meeting at Rev. Ralph Abernathy's First Baptist Church and afterwards there were literally hundreds of people trying to get Robinson's autograph," as Sharon recalled of that afternoon, "I kept screaming loudly, 'I'm Sharon!, I'm Sharon!' knowing that his 10-year-old daughter was also named Sharon. Anyway, he kept hearing the screaming, looked at me, smiled, and reached over many people to sign my program."

Following Robinson's retirement from major league baseball in 1957 he became heavily involved with the Civil Rights Movement. Robinson was a close friend with Martin Luther King, Jr., Robinson often lent his support to the Movement through fundraising and hosting events for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He also lent his support by attending demonstrations, including the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, and through the writing of newspaper articles in support of civil rights for the New York Post. Alongside these activities Robinson served as Chairmen of the NAACP's Freedom Fund Drive in 1957, and was as a member of its Board of Directors until 1967. He later co-founded the Freedom National Bank, a Black-owned and operated community bank, in Harlem.