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Jackie Robinson | Ken Burns'

Jackie Robinson
Hulton Archive Getty Images
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PBS
Jackie Robinson

Monday-Tuesday, Mar. 19-20 at 9pm on WKAR-HD 23.1 | Examine the life and times of Jackie Robinson, who crossed baseball’s color line in 1947.

JACKIE ROBINSON, a new two-part, four-hour documentary directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and David McMahon will air March 19 and 20, 9pm on WKAR Televsion.

The film tells the story of Jack Roosevelt Robinson, who rose from humble origins to break baseball’s color barrier and waged a fierce lifelong battle for first-class citizenship for all African Americans that transcends even his remarkable athletic achievements. 

By changing the racial equation of our national pastime, Jackie Robinson set out to prove that black American could compete as equals. This film looks at not just Robinson's life in baseball, but at its complex whole.

JACKIE ROBINSON is also a warm portrait of a loving and devoted husband and father, featuring extensive interviews with Robinson’s widow, Rachel, and their surviving children, Sharon and David, who witnessed firsthand how resistant society could be to equality for African Americans, even their enormously popular father. 

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