Sharon Robinson, daughter of Jackie Robinson, the first black athlete to play Major League Baseball, will speak at Sunshine Ballpark in Fredericksburg at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 27, 2016. The event, sponsored by Germanna Presents! Lyceum, is free, and will include complimentary refreshments.
Robinson will talk about her dad, baseball, and her dad’s relevance to children today.
“Sharon Robinson is the author of several books on lessons young people today can learn from her father’s courage in breaking Major League Baseball’s color line in 1947,” said Mike Zitz, Germanna Community College public relations director. Those books include:
– “Stealing Home” (Harper Collins Publishers, 1996), a memoir recounting her life growing up in the public eye.
– “Jackie’s Nine” (Scholastic, 2001), a book for young readers about the nine heartfelt, hard-won values that helped her father, Jackie Robinson, achieve his goals.
– “Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America” (Scholastic February 2004), a photographic biography for children.
– “Safe At Home” (Scholastic, 2006) and “Slam Dunk!” (Scholastic, 2007), her fiction novels.
– “Testing the Ice: A True Story About Jackie Robinson” (Scholastic, 2009), her first picture book, with illustrations by two-time Caldecott Honor Book artist Kadir Nelson.
In addition to her writing career, Ms. Robinson is an educational consultant for Major League Baseball. Prior to this, she had a 20-year career as a nurse-midwife and educator, teaching at universities including Yale, Columbia, Howard and Georgetown Universities. She also directed Rev. Jesse Jackson’s PUSH for Excellence program from 1985 to 1990, and was a fund-raiser for The United Negro College Fund and A Better Chance.
Ms. Robinson is Vice Chairman of the Jackie Robinson Foundation.
Sunshine Ballpark is located at 1200 Wicklow Dr. in Fredericksburg. For more information about the event, call 540-846-5163.
Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier when he became the first black athlete to play Major League Baseball when he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. He was named Rookie of the Year that year, National League MVP in 1949, and a World Series champ in 1955.
