"I cannot stand and sing the anthem. I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world".

Baseball killed Jackie Robinson no doubt in my mind what he held in unable to express took many years away from this remarkable man. The pressures of being the single black man crossing that white man's color line in Major League Baseball in 1945 caused mental, physical, and emotional toll on Mr. Robinson. The result of which cut decades off the life of this incredibly strong, proud, and prideful warrior. Jackie Robinson accepted the task of being that individual who suffered scorn and verbal abuse from a nation not ready to see equality in America's so-called sporting pastime.

Well, 47 years ago today Jackie Robinson passed on to glory at the young age of 53, on October 24, 1972. Today on "The Blackman's Blog" I pay tribute to the man, not the myth, Jackie Robinson. Mr. Robinson by the time he died was so disillusioned with a nation that had attempted to beat him down. Mr. Robinson's crime simply was being black and wanting to play baseball, the white man's national pastime? At the end of life, Jackie Robinson felt no will to stand and salute a nation's anthem, a nation that bored him so much ill will. How much has changed for black citizens in this nation since Jack Roosevelt Robinson died 47 years ago? Is Jackie Robinson standing and singing America's anthem in his heavenly domain today? That's a question for America to answer.​