African American Legends; Betty Adams, President of The Jackie Robinson Foundation

kind of The African-American legend series highlights the accomplishments of blacks and areas as varied as politics, sports, aviation, business and education. We will explore African-Americans who have succeeded in areas where they had been previously excluded because of segregation, racism and lack of opportunity. I'm your host, Dr. Roscoe C. Brown, Jr., and joining us on today's program is Betty Adams, president of the Jackie Robinson Foundation, a foundation dedicated to helping to

educate young African-Americans. Betty, glad to have you with us today and could you tell us our audience a little about the history and the purpose of the foundation beyond those introductory words that I gave. Absolutely. Thank you so much. It's good to be with you today. The Jackie Robinson Foundation was founded by Rachel Robinson of the year after Jackie passed in 72. She and a small group of friends and family were trying to decide how best to memorialize Jackie Robinson's rich legacy. They decided that they didn't want to focus on just naming buildings and streets and things like that, but that they wanted a living memorial, taking into account Jackie's love and the tremendous number of hours that he spent interacting with young people, even after the baseball days, in fact, more so after the baseball days. And his very firm belief that education was a critical tool in terms of the advancement

of all people and African-Americans in particular. They decided that they wanted to do something in that area. And that has evolved into one of the, well, not one of the, it's the most successful scholarship program in the country as far as I know. Our lead program is a four-year college scholarship award that's up to $20,000, $5,000 a year. It is targeted to minority youngsters who have demonstrated academic ability, who have also evidenced leadership potential, and whose biggest obstacle is money. In addition to the Cash Award, the youngster, our scholars, as we call them, Jackie Robinson scholars, are embraced as a part of our extended Jackie Robinson family. And so we work with them for the full four years that they are with us, and they receive a range of supports from career guidance and assistance, mentors and role models.

The biggest thing that we do with them in my favorite is that every year at about this time, it'll be in March, March, the seventh, we have our networking weekend, and we bring all of our scholars together in New York City. But it's education and leadership development, and we also have an alumni association, which is growing. So the focus was on giving meaning and communicating the richness of Jackie Robinson's achievements and his legacy through young people, well-educated, socially conscious young people who are now forming a very rich and powerful network across the country. That's a beautiful way of expressing what Rachel's dream was and what your dream is. How many scholars have gone through the program, how many are in the program at any given time, and what are some of the scholars who have graduated doing now? The foundation made its first scholarship award in 1984, and there was one Jackie Robinson

scholar that year in 1985. There was a second Jackie Robinson scholar, and the foundation's total effort was based on volunteers at that time, there was no staff at the foundation until the 1980s. And there has been growth, of course, each year, we're a little bigger and we hope a little better than we were the year before. All total, we have supported 500, maybe 500 and two is the exact number Jackie Robinson scholars. Currently we have in the program, 141. They are on 62 campuses across the country, from historically black colleges and universities, state institutions, private institutions, Ivy League schools. You name the kind of higher education institution, and we've got a scholar at one of those. But there are 141.

Last year we had 28 graduates, and that number keeps growing as well. Congratulations, because their interests are across the board. These are not athletic scholarships per se, although there is one scholarship that we give each year, which is a golf award, which means that in addition to meeting our other requirements, the young person must be interested in a professional career in sports. And that, of course, was Jackie Robinson's favorite off the field, pastime, hence the scholarship award. But they are interested and engaged in all areas of endeavors, from we have artists, painters, musicians, classical artists, jazz artists, or people at least who aspire to do in that. We have educators. We have people who are interested in the health sciences, whether as a medical doctor, or a dentist, or a nurse, or any of those myriad of career opportunities that are available. We have a number of students who are interested in international business, as well as

domestic business, heavy preponderance of youngsters interested in science, engineering, as well as my area, which is the social sciences. So we've got a rich mix of endeavors, and they are fulfilling their objectives. More and more, we get reports back from the alums, and we continue to be in touch with them. We've got now, I think, about five, who are vice presidents, or higher, at national corporations across the country. We have a number of scholars who are within the academic world, and making strides there. We have, I'm thinking of Elaine Weddington, who, and I think it's particularly sweet since we're thinking of the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's breakthrough. Elaine Weddington was a young woman who came through our sports management program. And after she finished that, she got a fellowship and went to law school.

She had an internship in the baseball commission's office at that time, and that was Peter Uberaw, was recruited from there by the Boston Red Sox. And she began as an assistant counsel, as an associate counsel. She is now the assistant general manager for the Boston Red Sox, which is a first in carrying on that tradition. So they have made remarkable strides, and the better part of it, or what excites me, is that in addition to being successful professionally, they are just good people. And they are giving back in their communities. That's one of the things that we stress while they're in our program, very much a part of Jackie Robinson, Rachel Robinson, the entire family as a model. And so we see that some of that is really taking Glasgow. And so as they are pursuing successful careers, they are also continuing their involvement in the community.

And of course, now we've got another generation that's beginning to come along. And of course, you've been talking about the accomplishments of the foundation of the students, you sound very much like a proud parent, and that's part of the mentoring and so on. But also you are the president and CEO, and you provide the energy and the dynamism along with Rachel Robinson himself to make the foundation move. One thing you didn't mention, however, you started out to talk about the volunteers. My experience, when I work with the foundation, is that it's the volunteers that really make this operation work, true and up and dedicated staff, energy on the part of the CEO of Rachel. But in order to get something moving, you've got to have a groundswell and your volunteers. So tell us a little about your volunteers. As I mentioned, the foundation was an all-volunteer operation earlier on. But everything that we do is owes its success to the fact that we begin with a very solid base of volunteers.

We have selection committees across the country, there's the National Committee here in New York, which we're fortunate to have you chair. But we also have regional selection committees in Boston and Stanford, Connecticut, our first in Chicago and Atlanta and in Los Angeles. Now these committees are comprised of very special people, established, resourceful, but most important, really committed to helping young people. So they are executives from corporations, they are educators in academicians, they are what we call civic leaders, but that doesn't really give justice to these special people that we find in every community who are plugged into the needs of the community, who are always engaged in bringing in resources or doing something to eradicate that. Our scholarship selection committees are a superb group of people. And after they make the selections, and of course we have an arduous process with criteria and interviews, we get over 3,000 applications a year, the need far outstrips our resources.

And I don't understand other people that I hear saying that they have difficulty finding young minorities, youngsters with the capabilities that these have. SATs and the... SATs. Well, 14, 1500 range. Absolutely. They've made good grades in high school. Many of them have already overcome a number of obstacles before they come to us. They have demonstrated strength and a direction. These are young people Roscoe, as you know, who are making the right choices. And who really need just a little extra push or assistance. And most importantly, someone who says to them, we think you can do it. And then work with them. We've got confidence in you. And to be there. So, to get back to the selection committee members, they read all of these applications. They struggle with deciding whom among these very well-qualified candidates will receive our limited resources.

They conduct interviews with them. They make the final selection recommendations to us. They don't stop there. After that, they become mentors. And I hesitated on mentors because they'd really serve as people when I was coming along. If anything, we called them coaches, I think. But certainly, we didn't use the word mentors. Mentors are not the elaborate sense that it's used oft times these days. But mentors, and if you'll pardon me, the old-fashioned coaching thing. And that these are older experienced people who check on you, who you are expected to check on, who help you in finding and identifying resources, who create opportunities for you to be exposed to things beyond your immediate realm of experience. And people that you begin to feel a need to report to. It translates into, you know, when we were coming along, if you had not been on your best behavior, you weren't sure if you wanted to run into your mother or your neighbor because

both of them were going to be equally hard on you. But these are mentors in the best sense of the word. And indeed, they continue relationships with many of our alums far beyond their college days. They have a wealth of experience and resources that they share very generously with these students. In fact, it is that kind of support coupled with the Alumni's buddy program. Now, the alums now match themselves up with incoming freshmen students based on saying hometown, same school, same area of study, whatever it may be. And so there's a bond there with young people who are closer to their age and experience. There is an older, and I don't mind saying that, established an experienced group of people who are there. They're the members of our board of directors. And there is our staff, Emma Roberson, a directs program on a day-to-day basis. And yes, I sound like a parent.

I feel like a parent, or at least an aunt. And I think I've overheard some of our scholars refer to on to you, because in addition to being just a super competent professional, Emma has that special empathy and warmth and joins the rest of us in hugging these young people. Because sometimes that's what they need, just as we do. Now, you've made this self declaration that this is the best scholarship program in the country. Absolutely. And I imagine that the criteria you use is not just the money, but it is the structure and the family and the outreach and the mentoring, et cetera. Now you have two events during the year to review this time, Roscoe. Yes, it is all of those things in terms of our success. What we are very proud of is the fact that these young people, because you know we have to quantify things, right? These young people have achieved since the beginning of our program, a 92% completion rate.

And as far as I know, that is the best, that's the best, the best, the best, the best. Much higher. And so that's what are your criteria, you can always talk about that, the 90% completion rate, as well as what the graduates are doing and what students are doing in the mentors. Right, because in the final analysis, it is their contributions to society. Now you have two things that bring this to the public's attention. One is your awards dinner, your spring, and the others, your jazz concert at the beginning of the summer. Could you tell us about those and why those are so exciting and so successful? Certainly. So you start with the jazz concert, which comes out of a Robinson family tradition. They used to have jazz artists coming to the property around their home in Stanford, Connecticut, and this started in 1963 as a way of raising money for the various causes that they were supporting. So the beneficiaries ranged, well, the first one was for a young minister in Alabama, Martin Luther King, Jr.

And in subsequent years, they supported the NAACP, the National Urban League, Datap village, and on. We have of course continued that tradition and are now the beneficiary of it. But it has also maintained the tradition of volunteer support. So we have what I maintain is the best volunteer core in the country. There are a group of volunteers who start meeting in April. They undergird every aspect of that operation from managing the stage to selling tickets, to parking cars, to selling merchandise, but to medical support. We have at least a half a dozen physicians who are our volunteers for that day. And then on the day of the concert, along with the donation of talent that we get from absolutely top-notch, Jazz Art is always spearheaded by Billy Taylor, our musical director. On the day of the concert, there are 300 volunteers out there doing all kinds of things.

And over 7 or 8,000 people come to the country. Absolutely. In fact, last year for the first time in the concert's history, there was liquid sunshine out there. And we still have... We don't use that for Alaska. But in the whole history of the foundation, we had never had liquid sunshine all day long. It never stopped. But I want you to know the Norwalk hour estimated that there were 4,000 people out there. All of the artists were there. All of the volunteers were there. And the loyal supporters were there for what turned out to be a wonderful afternoon, undergirded by 300 volunteers. Now we also have now a golf tournament on the West Coast because we're a national organization. And that golf tournament, again, has volunteer support, a lot of support from the Dodgers and their volunteers, as well as people who are associated with our selection committee in

Los Angeles, and just people who want to be helpful and contribute to the event. That is a relatively new event for us. We will be holding the fourth annual Jackie Robinson Golf Classic at the Wilshire Country Club on August the 18th this year, the dinner, which is upon us, March the 10th at the Waldorf Astoria, is hosted now every year for 15 years, I think, by Bill Cosby. And of course, we have all been thinking very hard in recent days about Bill and Camille and the family, no better role model for our young people. But Bill will be our host again this year. The dinner is being cheered, cheered by Philip, I'm sorry, Philip Knight from Nike, the chairman and CEO of Nike.

And our award recipients, we give each year two awards. One, we call the Robia Award for Achievement in Industry, we'll go to Mr. Levine at Time Warner, the Humanitarianism Award will be given to Bishop Desmond Tutu. We also on that occasion, in addition to paying tribute to these lifelong contributors to societies, salute the accomplishments of our scholars. They are very much a part of that activity. And again, there is a strong volunteer base of board members and others who help to make this event. We think one of the best dinners in New York. Now, this is all in tribute in a sense to Jackie Robinson and his legacy and of course the legacy of Rachel and his family. In 1997, Marx, the 50th anniversary, Jackie Robinson first swinging a bat for the Brooklyn Dodgers. That's right.

Before then, he was in professional baseball, first with the black leagues, and then in the minor leagues with the Montreal Royals, and we all know the story of Branch Ricky and Jackie Robinson, et cetera. But I think one thing that the public doesn't know as much as they should is tremendous efforts and dedication of Jackie Robinson to the cause of civil rights and humanity after he left baseball. It was once said that he raised more money single-handedly for the NAACP than anyone. He traveled all over the country. Jackie spoke up. He was a human rights spokesperson. And all of us who knew Jackie personally know just how competitive he was, competitive with ideas, competitive with golf, competitive with tennis, et cetera. Why is it important that this legacy be celebrated not only through the foundation, but in the 50th anniversary celebration? Well, it's important for a number of reasons. One, despite the tremendous contributions and achievements of Jackie Robinson beyond baseball.

There are not enough people who really appreciate and understand what that is. We clearly are searching for heroes in American society today, and there is no better hero than Jackie Robinson. Now, why is that? I want to pin that down, because a lot of people ask that. Why is it so important that we are honoring a baseball player because he was the first African American to play in the White League? What's the symbolism of that? The symbolism of that is that as you look at the history of our country, that breakthrough in major league baseball served as the foundation, if you will, for other breakthroughs in sports and in other aspect areas of our society. But Jackie and Rachel live their lives like that. They purchased a home in areas where blacks had not been allowed to purchase homes before. They live their lives as true, full, fledged American citizens.

And they really didn't take no for an answer, and when there seemed to be barriers. They were the first there on the barricade to do something about that. Rachel Robinson continues to do that as do other members of the family. So it is Jackie Robinson as a person that we celebrate because accomplishments in baseball because that paved the way for other breakthroughs. In fact, for the 50th anniversary year, the thing that major league baseball, the foundation and we hope the rest of the country will be using is breaking barriers because as you well know, there are still more than we would like to believe are out there that need to be broken down. Because major league baseball will start with itself, the limited number of African Americans as general managers, owners, and managers. And I'm sure that they recognize this and I think these sensitivities will be increased by Jackie Robinson's celebration of his 50th anniversary.

Well, we certainly hope so. But let's look at this. A lot of the ballplayers themselves, a lot of the African-American ballplayers, Latino ballplayers, some of them don't even know who Jackie Robinson was, and if they know who he was, he said, what does that have to do with me? Would you take us through that a little bit, the so-called American pastime? It was all white where black players had played back in the 19th century and had been put out by law and principal and maintained all the way through 1946 and 47th. What is the meaning of that for America? What is the meaning of that for these young people who say, Jackie Robinson never did anything for me? Okay. They just ask a lot of questions, Roscoe. Let me start with the players who don't seem to know who Jackie Robinson was, particularly African-American and Latino and Hispanic players. I'm afraid, Roscoe, that that is reflective of our lack of understanding and appreciation for history across the board.

Good. A lot of people don't know who crazy Roscoe was. That is correct. And to the extent that baseball is a microcosm of our larger society, that phenomena exists. However, I have to also say that there are an awful lot of ball players out there now who do know who Jackie Robinson was, who emulate him. There's Movon, for example, who wears the number 42 because that's the right place for the Red Sox. We have a player right here with the New York Mets. And where's the number 42? And you don't hear about those players. I've heard a comment that one player made 12 years ago, 20 dozen times, people are still asking about that. But you don't hear about the players who really do not only appreciate Jackie Robinson, but attempt to emulate the qualities that he exhibited. So yes, there are not enough players perhaps who know who Jackie Robinson was and appreciate him.

And you can imagine what the problem is across society. That's one of the good things about the 50th anniversary celebrations, because we'll be able to do that. But let me also go back to the Negro leagues, because Jackie Robinson stood on the shoulders of the Negro league players and respected them very much for that and also wanted to pass it on to young people, that yes, I may have been the first in major league baseball, but here's a lot of history before I even came on on the scene. Obviously very nice has happened with the foundation and this also ties into your question about the progress that's being made. Progress is being made in major league baseball, not as fast as we'd like to see. And I think not as fast as the more enlightened people in baseball would like to see. But there's a small symbolic and it has a tangible aspect to it thing that we've been the beneficiary of. Mostly baseball in 1994, just before the strike is a matter of fact, launched a pro bono licensing program for Negro league memorabilia and the proceeds from that are being divided

among the major league players, among the Negro leagues, I'm sorry, museum in Kansas City and the Jackie Robinson Foundation. And as I said at the time, you know, there's something very interesting about the fact that Negro league players who were denied the opportunity to play in certain fields with certain teams certainly to realize their full potential are now in this very special way, making it possible for young people to go on to college because what we're doing with those funds is we have put them in an endowed account. And the income from that will fund, and it will happen during this anniversary year, our first Jackie Robinson Negro leagues scholar. I think that's a good point in which to end our discussion time goes to a phase for you talking about Jackie Robinson.

But thanks again for being with us. We've been talking with Betty Adams, president of the Jackie Robinson Foundation, and we've been talking about the magnificent contribution this foundation is making to the lives of young African Americans.