Speaker 1: You're listening to American Shadows, a production of iHeartRadio and
Speaker 1: Grimm and Mild from Ari and Manky.
Speaker 2: The locals at Ye Old Hobpub were going to have
Speaker 2: none of this nonsense. The night was winding down, last
Speaker 2: call was at hand, and the time was ripe for
Speaker 2: a scuffle. There had been a series of race riots
Speaker 2: in Detroit, Michigan, and for days the white American troops
Speaker 2: stationed in bamber Bridge, England, had been throwing a fit.
Speaker 2: Many of them felt helpless, and Moore felt angry. To
Speaker 2: ease their furied hearts, they decided they wanted a color
Speaker 2: ban on all local pubs, effectively making them white only establishments.
Speaker 2: No black soldiers would be allowed in. The Brits were furious,
Speaker 2: how dare these arrogant nitwits show up and try to
Speaker 2: enforce Jim Crow in their village? In reactions including ye
Speaker 2: Old Hob hung black troops only signs, The white servicemen
Speaker 2: found this unamusing. A Black private by the name of
Speaker 2: Eugene Nun was just about ready to head home from
Speaker 2: the pub when two white soldiers came in. They puffed
Speaker 2: up their chests and tried to detain him for what
Speaker 2: they claimed was a uniform offense. The soldiers and barflies
Speaker 2: began to argue, and Eugene was caught in the middle.
Speaker 2: A staff sergeant on hand managed to diffuse the situation
Speaker 2: and sent the offending troops packing, That is until someone
Speaker 2: lobbed a beer at their backs like a grenade. For
Speaker 2: the soggy troops, that was the last straw. They went
Speaker 2: back to the base and lay in wait. As the
Speaker 2: Black soldiers made their way home, they were ambushed. A
Speaker 2: fight broke out in the road and a shot was fired.
Speaker 2: A private was struck and was soon dead. This was
Speaker 2: anything but friendly fire. Those injured in the melee made
Speaker 2: their way back to base and were spread quickly. Panic
Speaker 2: rose and rumors snowballed. Soon several jeeps packed with white
Speaker 2: soldiers arrived at the Black battalion's camp, including one improvised
Speaker 2: armored car with a large machine gun. Black soldiers fled,
Speaker 2: dodging more assailants in route to the village. Once there,
Speaker 2: they warned the locals to stay inside. It was good
Speaker 2: that they heeded that call. Soon a firefight broke out,
Speaker 2: wounding seven more soldiers and killing one. Shots popped in
Speaker 2: the darkness until calm broke around four a m. Top
Speaker 2: Brass immediately ordered an investigation. The Black soldiers were accused
Speaker 2: of mutiny, and two trials were conducted. Four soldiers involved
Speaker 2: in the initial scuffle were dishonorably discharged and sentenced to
Speaker 2: hard labor, including Eugene. The second trial tried thirty four
Speaker 2: more soldiers for mutiny. The locals, though, came to their defense.
Speaker 2: They were horrified at the events that had taken place
Speaker 2: on their home turf and made it clear where the
Speaker 2: fault lay. Upon appeal, most of the sentences were reduced
Speaker 2: or forgiven entirely. The newspapers back in the States managed
Speaker 2: to quiet the story. It wasn't fully recalled and documented
Speaker 2: until the nineteen eighties, when bullet holes were found in
Speaker 2: the woods surrounding the village. The press, at its best
Speaker 2: shines a light on the dark corners of our world,
Speaker 2: but it can also serve as a tool to manipulate
Speaker 2: narratives in the service of domineering powers. It's a story
Speaker 2: that we know all too well, in one that is
Speaker 2: long had devastating consequences. I'm Lorn Vogelbaum. Welcome to American Shadows,
Speaker 2: A place named Sleepy Lagoon, as bucolic as it sounds,
Speaker 2: doesn't seem like it should have been the scene of
Speaker 2: a violent murder, But in the early morning hour of
Speaker 2: August second of nineteen forty two, such a paradox wasn't
Speaker 2: out of the question. Twenty two year old Jose Gallardo
Speaker 2: Diaz had a strange feeling when he set out the
Speaker 2: night before, and even told his mother so, but that
Speaker 2: didn't stop him from going to the party. He danced,
Speaker 2: he drank, he reveled with friends until the dawn light
Speaker 2: began to streak across the sky, and as the band
Speaker 2: packed up and the crowd began to then, Jose began
Speaker 2: walking home, but he would never make it. From the
Speaker 2: road came in ambush, a vicious attack that left him beaten, stabbed,
Speaker 2: and nearly dead near the Sleepy Lagoon Reservoir. Jose was
Speaker 2: soon found unconscious by a neighbor, a halo of blood
Speaker 2: around his head. A small crowd gathered and watched as
Speaker 2: an ambulance sped him away. Jose died at the hospital,
Speaker 2: never having regained consciousness and never having told the truth
Speaker 2: of what happened that early morning. The violence of Diaz
Speaker 2: is Dead was barely mentioned in police reports or the media.
Speaker 2: The press, it seemed, wasn't concerned about a dead brown boy. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: this attitude was pretty common in California back then. The
Speaker 2: state had originally been Mexican territory, but the United States
Speaker 2: officially acquired California, along with the land that would later
Speaker 2: contribute to six other states, as a concession to end
Speaker 2: the United States insurgents into Mexico. Mexico seated over half
Speaker 2: of itself to America, where suddenly people were expected to
Speaker 2: fall in line with the dominating Anglo culture. White Americans
Speaker 2: were hungry for the rich farmland and were quite perturbed
Speaker 2: to find it already occupied. In response, the US government
Speaker 2: rounded up and deported massive numbers of residents, including their
Speaker 2: American born spouses and children. By the nineteen thirties, this
Speaker 2: had become common practice. Even so, Mexican citizens continued to
Speaker 2: flee the violence of their country's revolution. The Diasily was
Speaker 2: among them. The family settled on the East side of
Speaker 2: Los Angeles. They took up work as farm laborers, spending
Speaker 2: their precious downtime making a new life under the oppressive
Speaker 2: watch of the American powers that be. They through birthday
Speaker 2: parties hosted barbecues, made music, and created new families in
Speaker 2: a place where immigrants had long been teased with the
Speaker 2: promise of the American dream. The children from these families
Speaker 2: faced the harsh realities of being born poor in Mexican.
Speaker 2: In Los Angeles, they were turned away from restaurants, they
Speaker 2: were harassed by police. This was the time of the
Speaker 2: Jim Crow South, and it was hard not to notice
Speaker 2: how it echoed and morphed across Los Angeles. But young
Speaker 2: people are resilient, and a counterculture was born. They took
Speaker 2: over swimming holes, through dances and screened films. They were
Speaker 2: proud of doing their own thing, and the way they
Speaker 2: dressed naturally became an extension of that. Style is a language,
Speaker 2: a statement, and when deployed effectively, style often ends in
Speaker 2: an exclamation point. At that time, black jazz musicians were
Speaker 2: the arbiters of taste. Their uniform was the zoot suit,
Speaker 2: made popular in the dance halls of Harlem, Detroit, and Chicago.
Speaker 2: Zoot Suits were loud and proud, with mountainous shoulder pads,
Speaker 2: sprawling lapels, and billowing pants. The flowing trouser legs were
Speaker 2: strategically tapered at the ankles, preventing jitterbugging couples from getting
Speaker 2: tripped up. They were a flashy choice that begged onlookers
Speaker 2: to take notice of the person behind the buttons. And
Speaker 2: one of the places you could see these suits in
Speaker 2: all their glory, pressed tailored and primed for the night
Speaker 2: were the dance halls of Los Angeles East Side. One
Speaker 2: of the favorite moves was a pachuco hop. Soon, as
Speaker 2: you might imagine, zoot suits became demonized for what they
Speaker 2: represented fun freedom, black and Mexican pro defiance of social roles.
Speaker 2: They became something to be on the lookout for, especially
Speaker 2: when zoot suits were seen traveling together about town. The
Speaker 2: word pachucos came to represent these young zoot suited Mexican
Speaker 2: American men, and there were pachukahs too, Mexican American women
Speaker 2: who wore zoot suits, and in the wider cultural lexicon,
Speaker 2: these words became interchangeable with thug or juvenile delinquent. The
Speaker 2: press lamented that these young people failed to conform to
Speaker 2: American society. Newspapers went on to claim that there were
Speaker 2: rival pachuco gangs constantly fighting on the East Side, and
Speaker 2: that it was these gangs who were responsible for Jose
Speaker 2: Diez's death. The very articles condemning violence on the East
Speaker 2: Side also demanded actions against the zoot suitors. The police
Speaker 2: would go on to arrest some six hundred young Mexican
Speaker 2: American men and women on the pretense of investigating Jose's murder.
Speaker 2: The press responded by billing the police's heroes. Those arrested
Speaker 2: were put through brutal interrogation, squeezing out coerced confessions. Finally,
Speaker 2: the police announced that they had found those responsible for
Speaker 2: Jose's death, a group of young people from off thirty
Speaker 2: eighth Street, sometimes called the thirty eighth Street Gang. But
Speaker 2: for everything that had gone through, their trial was worse.
Speaker 2: The jury was packed with white men and women. The
Speaker 2: judge allowed the chief of the Foreign Relations Bureau of
Speaker 2: the LA Sheriff's Office to testify as an expert witness.
Speaker 2: He claimed that Mexicans as a community were more bloodthirsty
Speaker 2: than other Americans and had a biological disposition for killing,
Speaker 2: handed down by their and I quote as tech ancestors.
Speaker 2: The trial lasted for thirteen weeks. During this time, the
Speaker 2: judge didn't allow the defendants the courtesy of a change
Speaker 2: of clothes nor haircuts. They weren't allowed to speak to
Speaker 2: their lawyers. Of the seventeen young men charged, twelve were
Speaker 2: declared Gus guilty of murdering Diaz. The five others were
Speaker 2: convicted of assault. After the conviction, activists sprung into action.
Speaker 2: They formed the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee to try to
Speaker 2: exonerate the teenagers. This had gone on long enough. This
Speaker 2: miscarriage of justice was the last straw. The city was
Speaker 2: priming itself for more violence. It takes only a few
Speaker 2: bombs to change the course of a nation. After the
Speaker 2: attack on Pearl Harbor, life would never be the same.
Speaker 2: Thousands of troops arrived in Los Angeles, young, green, and
Speaker 2: committed to fighting a war the country had been reluctant
Speaker 2: to enter. This would be their launching point, a place
Speaker 2: to live, train, and wait for their marching orders. For
Speaker 2: those they left behind, the specter of European and Pacific
Speaker 2: theaters loomed. Large foreign correspondents filed, victory gardens sprouted, American
Speaker 2: homes and businesses rationed, and fashion certainly wasn't spared. In
Speaker 2: nineteen forty two, the War Production Board began to regulate
Speaker 2: the manufacturing of men's suits. They wanted to scale back fabricues.
Speaker 2: They created what Esquire magazine called streamlined suits. By Uncle Sam,
Speaker 2: it was yet another way to wear patriotism on your sleeve.
Speaker 2: Slim was in. However, the demand for zoot suits didn't decline.
Speaker 2: Bootleg tailors popped up. The defiance inherent in the style
Speaker 2: sharpened to a fine point. Young people continued to snap
Speaker 2: them up and flaunt the ones they already owned. The
Speaker 2: refusal to give up the zoot suit infuriated many red blooded,
Speaker 2: white skinned Americans, but this fury was nothing compared to
Speaker 2: what the newly enlisted soldiers felt when they arrived in
Speaker 2: the city. As fifty thousand new military men on leave
Speaker 2: poured into La every week, they often broke the long
Speaker 2: standing invisible barriers between white LA residents and everyone else.
Speaker 2: This often involved harassment of all flavors and disruption of
Speaker 2: local communities. The Mexican American community had been forced into segregation,
Speaker 2: and they weren't about to allow these white servicemen to
Speaker 2: invade the only places they could freely spend time. Almost
Speaker 2: every Mexican American in the LA area had family and
Speaker 2: friends who had enlisted. The two groups shared a common
Speaker 2: enemy abroad, but at home they were pitted against one another.
Speaker 2: By May of nineteen forty three, tension in the Venice
Speaker 2: area had been mounting for months. Around sunset one Sunday,
Speaker 2: a police sergeant working security at a local ballroom overheard
Speaker 2: a group of high school boys talking about going to
Speaker 2: confront the zoot Suitors. Some sailors standing nearby egged the man.
Speaker 2: They had heard a rumor that a sailor had been
Speaker 2: stabbed near Lick Pierre. They didn't know by whom, necessarily,
Speaker 2: but assumptions were made. The zoot Suitors were a convenient target.
Speaker 2: The sergeant stepped in and urged the group to leave
Speaker 2: things to the police. He insisted that this was all
Speaker 2: a rumor, but at this point his words didn't matter.
Speaker 2: Blood was boiling, common sense dissipated. This throbbing mob didn't care.
Speaker 2: More people were joining by the minute. Nearby, a dance
Speaker 2: was ending. A crush of Mexican American teenagers started to
Speaker 2: leave the ballroom, only to see a crowd of merely
Speaker 2: five hundred sailors and civilians being held off by one
Speaker 2: lonely sergeant. It didn't look good. The teenagers saw a
Speaker 2: dangerous tidal wave of bodies and began to run. The
Speaker 2: mob made chase. Two more policemen arrived, hardly enough to
Speaker 2: dissuade a vengeful mob and found a brawl. They were
Speaker 2: pulled into the seething undertow and beaten themselves. There was
Speaker 2: no match for the bloodlust. This went on for hours.
Speaker 2: It spilled and sprawled until two am, when Harbor patrol
Speaker 2: and the LAPD arrived and finally managed to scatter the rioters.
Speaker 2: It's hard to imagine what took so long, but then again,
Speaker 2: maybe it isn't. By daybreak, the casualties showed themselves. A
Speaker 2: number of Mexican American teens were badly beaten, and scores
Speaker 2: had been jailed for their own protection. This riot and
Speaker 2: the crowd control measures set a dangerous precedent. It was
Speaker 2: clear that the police were prioritizing the rights of the
Speaker 2: invading soldiers over the local residents, a philosophy that would
Speaker 2: prove to have catastrophic results. Al Waxman, the editor of
Speaker 2: a small Jewish newspaper, was losing sleep. He had been
Speaker 2: watching all of this unfold against the backdrop of the
Speaker 2: City of Angels, and what he saw confounded him. In
Speaker 2: his office, he gathered some of the young men who
Speaker 2: had been attacked to ask them questions, why this, why now?
Speaker 2: He begged them to forget their differences with the military.
Speaker 2: The young men responded with questions of their own, and
Speaker 2: with that Al sobered up. Isn't it a free country?
Speaker 2: They asked? Why can't we wear whatever kinds of clothes
Speaker 2: we like? And why did we have to make the
Speaker 2: sailors happy? The attacks were gaining momentum and the scenes
Speaker 2: on the street were harrowing. Al was part of the
Speaker 2: media machine that worked to engineer and script these riots,
Speaker 2: using racially charged headlines and inflammatory news reports to incite
Speaker 2: further violence. The Los Angeles Times had just reported fresh
Speaker 2: in the memory of Los Angeles is last year's surge
Speaker 2: of gang violence that made the zoot suit a badge
Speaker 2: of delinquency. Public indignation seethed as warfare among the organized
Speaker 2: hands of marauders prowling the streets at night brought a
Speaker 2: wave of assaults and finally murdered. Baked into these articles
Speaker 2: was a subtext the general public was being called to vigilance,
Speaker 2: which was felt by many as a call to action.
Speaker 2: But Al was trying so hard from his small office
Speaker 2: at this small paper to turn the tide al, and
Speaker 2: the young men went over the details of the past
Speaker 2: few days, and they went something like this. On the
Speaker 2: night of May thirty, first of nineteen forty three, as
Speaker 2: the early summer's warmth and melted into twilight, a dozen
Speaker 2: soldiers had been afoot. They were out carousing, as they
Speaker 2: often did when the day's work was done. At some
Speaker 2: point they spied a group of young Mexican American women
Speaker 2: across the street and decided to pay them pleasantries. But
Speaker 2: while most of the group crossed to the women Seamen's
Speaker 2: second class, Joe Dacy Coleman and a friend stayed behind.
Speaker 2: It was then that a group of zoot suitors rounded
Speaker 2: the corner and headed in their direction, and as they
Speaker 2: crossed paths, Coleman reached out, grabbed one of their arms
Speaker 2: and yanked. In a flash something someone had struck the
Speaker 2: back of Coleman's head and knocked him unconscious. The other
Speaker 2: servicemen ran back across the street and the two groups
Speaker 2: began to scrap. The military men, badly beaten, retreated and
Speaker 2: began to plot their next attack. The next evening, around
Speaker 2: six pm, around sixteen sailors got off a bus on
Speaker 2: Sunset Boulevard and began to walk north towards the US
Speaker 2: Naval Reserve Armory. Here they came across a group in
Speaker 2: zoot suits who yelled at the troops and made rude gestures.
Speaker 2: The sailors decided to do something about it. Soon, a
Speaker 2: group of about fifty sailors armed with crude homespun clubs,
Speaker 2: left the base and began marching toward downtown LA. They
Speaker 2: planned to strip the zoot suits off all the young
Speaker 2: men they found wearing them in club anyone who resisted.
Speaker 2: They found their first targets at the Carmen Theater, a
Speaker 2: spot known as a local Mexican American hangout. The mob
Speaker 2: burst in and flipped on the lights, stalking up the
Speaker 2: aisles looking for zoot suitors, and there they found them.
Speaker 2: The boys who didn't run were dragged from the theater.
Speaker 2: Most were only twelve or thirteen years old. They were
Speaker 2: summarily stripped and beaten, their suits piled high and lit
Speaker 2: a flame on the sidewalk. Then the mob moved on
Speaker 2: a short distance away. At the Alpine Street School, twenty
Speaker 2: five young men, some dressed in zoot suits, were just
Speaker 2: leaving a meeting spirits were high, but the mood quickly soured.
Speaker 2: They had just missed the sailors and soon came upon
Speaker 2: the bloody, smoldering aftermath of the Carmen Theater attack. The
Speaker 2: word quickly spread about what had happened. Around nine pm,
Speaker 2: the Armory had been informed that servicemen were causing trouble.
Speaker 2: Nothing was done. Around eleven, when the sailors leave expired,
Speaker 2: they were rounded up by the police. They were taken
Speaker 2: to the Central Police station and held until a superior
Speaker 2: officer sprung them a few hours later. No charges were filed.
Speaker 2: The following night began like the previous one. Around nine pm,
Speaker 2: word reached the Armory that zoot suitors who kidnapped a
Speaker 2: group of sailors and were holding them hostage on Main Street.
Speaker 2: This was false, completely made up, but it was enough
Speaker 2: to entice another roving mob of servicemen to rally. When
Speaker 2: they didn't find anyone there, the leaders of the mob
Speaker 2: decided to take the fight to the zoot suitors. They
Speaker 2: called the Yellow Cab Company and explained what they wanted.
Speaker 2: The company happily obliged, and a caravan of taxis appeared.
Speaker 2: The servicemen invaded the nearest Mexican American businesses. The lieutenant
Speaker 2: on watch for the night, Karl T. Cobbs, received phone
Speaker 2: call from concerned onlookers, but though the calls continued to
Speaker 2: roll in, Karl ignored them. Finally, he sent four men
Speaker 2: down to check out the situation. Allegedly, they couldn't find
Speaker 2: anything amiss. LA Shore Patrol apparently had better luck and
Speaker 2: arrested twenty six offending sailors. Carl continued to ignore phone
Speaker 2: calls throughout the night. Rumors spread about suited gangs rather
Speaker 2: than gangs of violent roaming sailors. Soon, other military men
Speaker 2: stationed around La headed in to pick up where the
Speaker 2: armory soldiers had left off. The third night brought further violence,
Speaker 2: some of the worst of it. Scores of servicemen began
Speaker 2: marching through the streets of downtown La, accosting everyone in
Speaker 2: a zoot suit, and they didn't draw the line there.
Speaker 2: When a group of Mexican and Mexican American musicians left
Speaker 2: a local record studio, they were attacked by a gang
Speaker 2: of sailors. Not one had been wearing Zoot's suit that night.
Speaker 2: The police responded. The LAPD called in every available officer
Speaker 2: for riot detail, but instead of dealing with the sailors,
Speaker 2: the police arrested the injured civilians, allegedly for their own protection.
Speaker 2: Leaders of the Mexican American community begged local and state
Speaker 2: officials to do something. The Council for Latin American Youth
Speaker 2: even sent a telegram to President Franklin D. Roosevelt begging
Speaker 2: him to intervene, but they got no response. As dawn came,
Speaker 2: the newspapers continued to revel Editors ran headlines claiming that
Speaker 2: suitors were ready to kill every cop they saw. Two
Speaker 2: papers reported that seven hundred grotesquely clad hoodlums Rome lay
Speaker 2: bent on the common purpose of engaging in battle with servicemen.
Speaker 2: The papers planted details of the purportedly planned attacks, giving
Speaker 2: times and coordinates to readers. As a result, thousands of
Speaker 2: other servicemen were given the chance to make plans, rally
Speaker 2: and show up. Back in Waxman's office, news of more
Speaker 2: rioting servicemen reached Al and his company. He would later
Speaker 2: describe a terrible change that came over the young men,
Speaker 2: who looked at each other in total exhaustion as they
Speaker 2: began making plans to rescue their friends. Al followed the
Speaker 2: boys down to the scene at Main Street, he saw
Speaker 2: servicemen beating and kicking people who could barely fight back.
Speaker 2: He watched police arrive on the scene and begin arresting
Speaker 2: more Mexican Americans. He witnessed piles of zootsuits being burned
Speaker 2: and boys stripped, naked and beaten. When one young man
Speaker 2: asked why he was being arrested, a policeman savagely clubbed
Speaker 2: him with a nightstick. He collapsed unconscious and was subsequently
Speaker 2: booted in the face. His mother, clutching an infant in
Speaker 2: her arms, rushed up to the police and begged the
Speaker 2: officers not to arrest her son. In response, the police
Speaker 2: officer turned around and hit her across the face with
Speaker 2: his nightstick. Rushing back to the east side, Al Waxman
Speaker 2: found a second mob of riders stopping street cars and
Speaker 2: dragging off anyone who was black or brown. The riders
Speaker 2: crashed through bars and shops looking for pachucos, and through
Speaker 2: it all Al saw the police silently stand by watching
Speaker 2: the mob. Finally, at eleven thirty that night, the mob
Speaker 2: began to break up and police moved in to arrest
Speaker 2: the remaining Mexican Americans. Morning came and people on both
Speaker 2: sides retreated, though tensions continued to sporadically flare. That night
Speaker 2: had been the worst of it. Instead of taking action
Speaker 2: on the servicemen, the Los Angeles City Council did something else.
Speaker 2: They passed a resolution banning zoot suits, declaring them to
Speaker 2: be a public nuisance. Local and stated investigations began almost immediately.
Speaker 2: The FBI even came to town, though this was to
Speaker 2: rule out the involvement of foreign agents. Shockingly, no one
Speaker 2: was killed in the week long riots. But ten days
Speaker 2: after the conclusion of the violence in La massive race
Speaker 2: riots against black people exploded in Detroit. There the riots
Speaker 2: were even more violent. In the end, twenty three people
Speaker 2: were killed and five hundred and thirty injured and thirteen
Speaker 2: hundred arrested. Similar riots would soon break out in Philadelphia
Speaker 2: and Chicago as well. A Citizens Committee was appointed by
Speaker 2: the California Governor to investigate the cause of these collective
Speaker 2: riots and recommend how to prevent them in the future.
Speaker 2: The committee's report found that in undertaking to deal with
Speaker 2: the cause of these outbreaks, the existence of race prejudice
Speaker 2: cannot be ignored. The Sleepy Lagoon convictions, which had drummed
Speaker 2: up fears of the Patuco gang were re examined in
Speaker 2: the wake of those few days in June. In October
Speaker 2: of nineteen forty four, the State Court of Appeals unanimously
Speaker 2: decided the evidence in the case hadn't been sufficient and
Speaker 2: reversed the guilty verdict. All twelve defendant's convictions were exonerated,
Speaker 2: and the appeals court went so far as to criticize
Speaker 2: the clear bias of the judge in the original trial.
Speaker 2: It would take the country a long time to realize
Speaker 2: that it wasn't these particular clothes nor the people who
Speaker 2: wore them, that were to blame for this violence. Clothes
Speaker 2: make the man, they say, but they can also be
Speaker 2: his or her undoing. There's more to this story. Stick
Speaker 2: around after this brief sponsor break to hear all about it.
Speaker 2: Jackie flexed his hands, grabbed his bat, and strode to
Speaker 2: the plate. But he couldn't hit his mind off of
Speaker 2: the letters, the stacks and stacks of them. They had
Speaker 2: been arriving at his house for weeks now, envelopes and
Speaker 2: telegrams postmarked from all over the country. Their tone was
Speaker 2: a departure from his usual fan mail. Instead fans, politicians,
Speaker 2: and reporters all had something to say. In their words,
Speaker 2: troubled him. Jackie Robinson put both hands on his bat
Speaker 2: and locked eyes with the pitcher. It was Opening Day
Speaker 2: of nineteen forty nine and the Brooklyn Dodgers were playing
Speaker 2: the New York Giants. Jackie had fought his way here,
Speaker 2: making waves in the Jim Crow world. He was the
Speaker 2: first black person to play in the major leagues, breaking
Speaker 2: the color line that had existed since the creation of
Speaker 2: professional baseball. In doing so, he had become a hero,
Speaker 2: but he had also become target. In the years following
Speaker 2: World War Two, America went through some serious growing pains,
Speaker 2: largely centered on ideas about what was and wasn't American,
Speaker 2: and since few things were considered to be more American
Speaker 2: than a baseball uniform, all eyes were on Jackie. Some
Speaker 2: questioned whether he deserved to wear it, not only because
Speaker 2: of his skin color, but because of his personal politics.
Speaker 2: Robinson's boss, branch Rickey, had received a call from a
Speaker 2: man named Alvin Stokes, an investigator for the House on
Speaker 2: American Activities Committee. He wanted a word with Robinson. Communism
Speaker 2: was the threat du jour, and Americans felt it imperative
Speaker 2: that they take a stand on the home front. The
Speaker 2: House and American Activities Committee was charged with investigating alleged
Speaker 2: disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens,
Speaker 2: public employees, and those organizations suspected of having fascist or
Speaker 2: communist ties by the late nineteen forties. Being called to
Speaker 2: testify before the Committee could destroy someone's life. Stokes was
Speaker 2: a black man himself and all too familiar with navigating
Speaker 2: a country that was built by his ancestors but never
Speaker 2: meant for him. He knew that it was only a
Speaker 2: matter of time before the committee's full attention shifted to
Speaker 2: the black community, especially with the recent pushes for an
Speaker 2: end to segregation. He believed that it was important for
Speaker 2: black celebrities to preemptively testify before the committee in order
Speaker 2: to remain in good standing. Stokes convinced Ricky that Robinson
Speaker 2: going to testify as a friendly witness would benefit not
Speaker 2: only him personally, but his team as well. The risk
Speaker 2: was this, if word got out that the Dodgers were
Speaker 2: refusing to cooperate, not only would the organization be in trouble,
Speaker 2: but the great experiment of integrating baseball would be doomed.
Speaker 2: Jackie's career might be over just as it was getting started.
Speaker 2: And at that very moment, as Jackie was up to
Speaker 2: back calculating his next move in both the angle of
Speaker 2: his swing and whether to cooperate, another ball was in play.
Speaker 2: Across the ocean in Paris, a speech was happening that
Speaker 2: would weigh heavily on what happened next. Black singer and
Speaker 2: civil rights activist Paul Robeson was giving a speech. He
Speaker 2: himself was a phenomenal athlete, a brilliant thinker, and a
Speaker 2: lum of Columbia Law School, and a talented entertainer. He
Speaker 2: was extremely popular, but his outspokenness on behalf of black
Speaker 2: people had made him a lot of enemies. The House
Speaker 2: on American Activities Committee had long been waiting for an
Speaker 2: excuse to drag him in to testify. Paul told the
Speaker 2: crowd that Americans would hesitate to go to war on
Speaker 2: behalf of a country that treated them so badly. In
Speaker 2: that cultural moment, the statement was tenemount to treason. Paul
Speaker 2: and Jackie knew each other and had been facing similar
Speaker 2: battles trying to break into wide establishment. However, Paul was
Speaker 2: outspoken in his liberal beliefs. Some of his comments troubled Jackie,
Speaker 2: who tended towards conservatism. However, he was also troubled by
Speaker 2: the idea that he could be pitted against and used
Speaker 2: to bring down a fellow reformer. Jackie struggled to decide
Speaker 2: whether or not he should testify. He hadn't been subpoenaed,
Speaker 2: but it would look very bad if he didn't appear Voluntarily.
Speaker 2: The pressure mounted, and more letters came. Jackie made his decision.
Speaker 2: On the morning of July eighteenth of nineteen forty nine,
Speaker 2: Jackie Robinson arrived in Washington, d C. To testify. Dressed
Speaker 2: in a sharp, tanned, slim tailored suit, Jackie made a
Speaker 2: striking figure as he cut through popping flashbulbs and cheering
Speaker 2: crowds to the courtroom, and there he stood behind the
Speaker 2: heavy wooden table and raised his right hand to take
Speaker 2: the oath. If Robinson was nervous, he didn't show it.
Speaker 2: He delivered his testimony calmly and with little flare, trying
Speaker 2: very hard not to be pulled into a feud with Paul.
Speaker 2: He used his time before the committee and the press wisely.
Speaker 2: Jackie told the court that though he was an expert
Speaker 2: at living as a black person in America. Quote with
Speaker 2: thirty years experience at it, it was silly to believe
Speaker 2: that any one man could speak for fifteen million people.
Speaker 2: He went on to use the spotlight to contest racism
Speaker 2: and advocate for integration. He made it clear that black
Speaker 2: people's protests for social justice didn't come from a communist conspiracy,
Speaker 2: but from their faith in the democratic system. When Robinson
Speaker 2: finished his testimony, the room erupted with applause. It might
Speaker 2: have felt like a small victory, but the moment didn't
Speaker 2: last long. Paul would go on to be blacklisted from
Speaker 2: mainstream theaters and concert venues. His records were banned from stores,
Speaker 2: the FBI confiscated his passport. Effectively, he was a race
Speaker 2: from public life. Jackie would later look back on the
Speaker 2: decision with a lot of personal regret, but he did
Speaker 2: the best he could in that moment with what information
Speaker 2: he had available. He would continue on for years to
Speaker 2: wear that baseball uniform a symbol of hope, a symbol
Speaker 2: of progress, and for him and so many black children everywhere,
Speaker 2: a symbol of resistance.
Speaker 1: American Shadows as hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum. This episode was
Speaker 1: written by Robin Minitter, researched by Ali Stead and produced
Speaker 1: by Miranda Hawkins and Trevor Young, with executive producers Aaron Mankey,
Speaker 1: Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. To learn more about the show,
Speaker 1: visit grimminmile dot com. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: Four