There was a time when the aspiration of most Black Americans was either sports or music, as other vocations were closed or limited at best. As the old saying goes, if life deals you lemons, make lemonade. So, blacks like Joe Louis, Jackie Robinson and Berry Gordy ran with what they had to work with.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. understood the importance of instilling pride in the black communities just as Justice Thurgood Marshall did, preceding Dr. King’s rise in the civil rights movement. Marshall – who was called “Mr. Civil Rights” – would invite blacks down to the courthouse to witness him looking whites in the eye (a no-no at the time) and questioning them unabashedly.
Although Dr. King was not athletic, he was fascinated in 1947 when Jackie Robinson broke the racial barrier in major league baseball. Later, when Robinson began to speak out about civil rights, Dr. King, who by then had become the leader of the movement, supported Robinson stating, “[Robinson]… a pilgrim that walked in the lonesome byways toward the high road of Freedom. He was a sit-inner before sit-ins, a freedom rider before freedom rides.” He also said, “Jackie Robinson made my success possible. Without him, I would never have been able to do what I did.”
Source: Dr. King, Sports and Music!
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