The Jackie Robinson Foundation (JRF) will commemorate the 100th birthday of its namesake with a year-long schedule of events in 2019 that will benefit the organization’s scholarship and education programs as well as the future Jackie Robinson Museum.
The celebration begins on January 31, 2019, the one-hundredth anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s birth, with a number of events throughout New York City honoring baseball legend and humanitarian Jackie Robinson. JRF will host events nationwide throughout 2019 that will conclude with the opening of the Jackie Robinson Museum in December.
Also on January 31st, the Museum of the City of New York will unveil an exhibition “In the Dugout with Jackie Robinson: Portrait of a Baseball Legend” that will run through September 15, 2019. The exhibit will feature unpublished photographs by Look Magazine along with items on loan from the Jackie Robinson Foundation including rare home movies and other memorabilia. As part of an agreement with LinkNYC, several images from the MCNY exhibition also will appear on digital display kiosks throughout New York during Black History Month.
JRF president Della Britton Baeza stated, “Jackie contributed to our society in profound ways and we want to highlight the many aspects of those contributions particularly this year, the centennial of his birth. We look forward to expanding our mission of education and sharing his story with visitors of all ages at the Jackie Robinson Museum beginning in December.”
“It has been our family’s dream to have a physical space where my father’s legacy and the values by which he lived could inspire others, and we’re very excited,” said Sharon Robinson, the daughter of Jackie and Rachel Robinson.
February 5
Jackie Robinson 100th Birthday Celebration Concert
Royce Hall, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
March 4
Jackie Robinson Foundation Centennial Robie Awards Dinner
New York Marriott Marquis
March 20
Athletes to Activists: A Conversation with Howard Bryant of ESPN and Olympian/Activist John Carlos
Museum of the City of New York
April 11
Jackie Robinson Museum Program Preview New York, New York
April 14
Jackie Robinson Museum Program Preview Los Angeles, California
April 15
Major League Baseball’s Jackie Robinson Day (National)
On-field tributes at MLB ballparks throughout the country
May 14
Jackie Robinson: The Personal and the Political, Panel Discussion
Museum of the City of New York
July 4 -August 11
Jackie Robinson Museum Traveling Exhibit National Tour
December
Opening of the Jackie Robinson Museum
75 Varick Street, New York, New York
Additional events are being planned across the country, all highlighting the themes of equal opportunity for all. The Jackie Robinson Centennial Celebration is sponsored in part by Major League Baseball, the Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, Martin Edelman, Gregg A. Gonsalves and Peter O’Malley.
