“I’m a pressure group for civil rights,” Jackie Robinson once declared. He was more than that. As a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Jack Roosevelt ‘Jackie’ Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947. Over a decade later, as a columnist, corporate executive, and sports icon, he broke into politics when he campaigned for Richard Nixon, as the then vice president took on Democrat John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election. Robinson promoted both the fortunes of the Republicans – or the ‘Grand Old Party’ (GOP) – and social justice for African Americans. Partially named for one Republican president (Theodore Roosevelt), he remained devoted to the egalitarian ideals of the GOP’s first president, Abraham Lincoln. He was wary of Democrats such as Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, whom he deemed political shapeshifters on civil rights. But racial liberalism and GOP politics were hardly a matched set, as Robinson later acknowledged: “I am black and American before I am Republican.” His relations with Nixon cooled after 1960, and in 1964, Robinson opposed the candidacy of conservative Republican Senator Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona, in favor of Goldwater’s liberal foe, Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York. Four years later, the decline of the GOP’s ‘Rockefeller’ wing eased Robinson’s endorsement of Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey, a champion of racial equality. Nevertheless, Robinson insisted that his identification as a Republican gave Blacks a presence in both major parties. Besides, he noted, baseball’s integration would be “meaningless” if America’s “political parties are segregated.”

Steeled by his idealism, pragmatism, and celebrity, Robinson eagerly interacted with presidents and those he envisioned as presidents. The choices he made, and the tactics he employed, epitomized the politics of principle. Robinson’s diligence, perseverance, and talent abetted his rise from poverty, while his embrace of patriotism, self-help, and entrepreneurship led him into the Republican Party. But when the party turned right on racial issues, Robinson turned to liberal Democrats.