Filmmaker Ken Burns appeared on CBS' “The Late Show” and said of his new "Jackie Robinson" documentary, "Robinson, like George Washington, like Abraham Lincoln, is smothered in mythology, and we thought it might be possible to liberate him from the barnacles of sentimentality that attach and try to free him, because what Jackie has to teach us now is almost what’s going on." The film is "talking about confederate flags, it’s talking about driving while black, it’s talking about stop-and-frisk, it’s talking about burning black churches, it’s talking, essentially, about Black Lives Matter. So if we are curious but are not comfortable talking today, having a courageous conversation about race, let’s look at Jackie Robinson’s life and see how many of the same tropes that are part of our life today, on today’s headlines Jackie addresses, and then you realize how important he actually is."
Burns: “You could argue that he’s not the greatest baseball player, but he is the most important person. Who has their number retired in all 30 stadiums? No one is allowed to wear the No. 42, except a week from Friday, when everyone from the batboy to the manager to the star pitcher, the guys sitting on the bench on both teams in every stadium in every game, they wear the No. 42. Because he, in this media culture, didn’t just talk the talk, he walked the walk” (“The Late Show,” CBS, 4/7).
The film will run on PBS stations starting Monday. See that day's issue of THE DAILY for more.
