Jackie Robinson Ballpark National Commemorative Site Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. WALTZ. Mr. Speaker, I am excited to rise today in support of this bill, H.R. 8012, the bipartisan, bicameral Jackie Robinson Ballpark National Commemorative Site Act to honor the location where Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier and played his first game.

This bill would designate Jackie Robinson Ballpark in Daytona Beach as a National Commemorative Site and add the ballpark to the African American Civil Rights Network.

Additionally, this bill would direct the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a feasibility study to give the site the designation of a national historic landmark.

H.R. 8012 honors the location where Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier when he played his first professional game with the Montreal Royals on March 17, 1946, in Daytona Beach, at the then-named Daytona City Island Ballpark.

This is the first time in modern baseball that a Black player and a White player played on the same team. Incidentally, it is just down the street from the HBCU Bethune-Cookman. Its founder, Mary McLeod Bethune represents Florida just down the hallway here in Statuary Hall.

Jackie Robinson then led the Montreal Royals to a minor league championship the same season, and the next year, he was promoted to the Dodgers making modern Major League Baseball history.

In his book, Mr. Speaker, ``My Own Story,'' Jackie Robinson reflected on the importance of this game, stating that: I knew, of course, that everyone was not pulling for me to make good, but I was sure now that the whole world wasn't lined up against me, and when I went to sleep, the applause was still ringing in my ears.

Since that day, Daytona Beach's ballpark has been a historic landmark and a reminder of Jackie Robinson's impact, of the civil rights movement, and of the integration of modern professional baseball.

Its preservation and recognition are even more important and more crucial now following the demolition of Ebbets Field, home to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1960, which again, was the first Major League Baseball team to sign Robinson, but now that that stadium is destroyed, we must preserve and honor Jackie Robinson's legacy.

I thank Chairman Westerman for his leadership in bringing this bill to the floor, so that we can pass it into law and protect and commemorate the Jackie Robinson Ballpark in Daytona for all future Americans.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source