The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson: The Baseball Legend's Battle for Civil Rights during World War II

This book is a well written, easy to read description of a sport’s legend including a little know component of his fascinating life. It is particularly timely at this point in American culture in that the author describes historical racial injustice in a factual non partisan manner. For those not familiar with military law, the narrative of Jackie Robinson’s court martial allows the reader to appreciate its superior efficiency. The author’s “historical perspectives” are notes in the back of the book that provide considerable insight while reading the main text. For those not familiar with Jackie, this book explains why he was an important American figure.

Growing up in Brooklyn I was fortunate to have a Dad who took me to many Brooklyn Dodger games at Ebbets Field where I saw and rooted for Jackie Robinson and all the other Brooklyn Dodger greats of my youth. Never did we know about this chapter in Jackie's life. Although his greatness beyond the diamond in football, basketball and track was well known his court martial,rejection of Jim Crow laws,and civil rights leadership was not widely reported.Lanning's book is a great read and researched in outstanding detail to lay out the whole story, Highly recommend not only for sports fans but for all to understand the injustices faced by African-Americans up to and beyond WWII. As a former military officer, I always felt the military justice system was fairer than the civilian system; but the prejudices and injustice of Jim Crow laws even infiltrated the Military, Lanning details this with the Robinson court martial charges and trial including the full transcript. Plus he covers details of Jackie"s life beyond his Hall of Fame career.So outstanding I read it twice!!! A must for all not only for us who grew up in Brooklyn cheering on our beloved "Bums".

If you want to know just how ugly race relations were during World War II, read this book. Lanning has done a thorough job, as he always does, marshaling a wealth of material to paint a full picture.If you are a sports fan, you will learn that LT Robinson came razor close to a conviction that would have kept him out of the major leagues forever. Only a more than decent battalion commander of the 761st Tank Battalion saved him.

The book arrived quickly. Recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about Jackie Robinson before Major League Baseball. Not Fort Hood's nor Killeen Texas' finest hour.

Great book. Amazing what this man had to endure and how he handled it.

Hardback version has very poor print quality. Text appears gray against the white page. For my eyes it is unreadable.