Sneak peek at ‘42’ a hit with kids
Last week, a group of local kids got a special sneak peek at the movie “42.” The Josh Gibson Foundation teamed up with the LeMoyne Center in Washington to take some boys enrolled in LeMoyne’s after-school program to learn the powerful story of Jackie Robinson.
“I liked the movie a lot, and I learned a lot,” said Maleik Meredith, 11, of Washington. “I learned don’t let nothing smart come out of your mouth if it’s not going to be nice.”
Meredith said the soft-spoken courage of Jackie Robinson left a lasting impression on him. It was a sentiment repeated by many of the boys who watched the movie, which opened across the country Friday.
“I definitely have a lot more respect for him now,” said Nick Shirley, 14, of Washington.
Sean Gibson, the great-grandson of Negro Leagues star Josh Gibson, took the kids on a special field trip to the South Side Works Theater in Pittsburgh Tuesday. The Gibson Foundation was given the tickets by the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, and it served as the perfect opportunity to teach the group of children from Washington the important role Robinson played in ending segregation.
“When people ask me the question, ‘Why was Jackie Robinson important?’ I like to answer with a question,” Gibson said. “‘What if Robinson would’ve failed?’ People don’t look at what would’ve happened if he had failed. It would’ve set back black people 10 years. That’s why what he did was important.”
Friday, Gibson traveled back to Washington in order to meet with the children again and accept a bundle of letters the kids wrote about how the movie changed the way they looked at the familiar story.
“I didn’t know that even some of his own teammates used the ‘N-word,'” said 11-year-old Francisco Berumen. “I never use that word, and I never call someone disrespectful words.”
The letters Gibson received will be sent to the Pirates as a way of thanking them for the tickets.
Both Josh Gibson and the Pirates play minor roles in the story of Jackie Robinson. Although they never played on the same team, Robinson’s Kansas City Monarchs faced Gibson’s Pittsburgh Crawfords.
Pittsburgh’s role, in the movie at least, shows an unfortunate episode in which a Pirates pitcher purposely beans Robinson’s unhelmeted head.
“I didn’t like the part where he got hit in the head with the baseball,” said Tyler Phillips, 11, of Washington, “because the pitcher only hit him in the head because he was black, and it wasn’t fair.”
Part of the mission statement of the Josh Gibson Foundation is to create enthusiasm for the sport of baseball among inner-city youth. Gibson said the percentage of African-American players has dropped from a high of 27 percent in the 1970s to eight percent today.
Judging from the reactions of the kids at the LeMoyne Center, the foundation might have found some new recruits from Washington.
“The guys on his team didn’t want to play with him because he was black, and he was good,” said Xavier Turner, 12, of Washington. “But I think he changed them.”