TPSM welcomes Branch Rickey III and Sharon Robinson to the UT-Austin campus to address the unique cultural legacies that Branch Rickey Sr. and Jackie Robinson left to subsequent generations of Americans, sports fans or not.

In breaking the Major League Baseball color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, Robinson was instrumental to bringing an end to segregation in professional baseball, serving as a harbinger of the nascent Civil Rights Movement. Rickey Sr. was the general manager of the Dodgers who originally signed and ultimately called up Robinson to the major leagues, breaking a whites-only convention that had been in place since 1880s.

At UT-Austin, Rickey and Robinson will speak to the cultural legacies of their family patriarchs. Branch Rickey III has a deep professional background in professional baseball and currently serves as the president of the AAA Baseball’s Pacific Coast League. Sharon Robinson has written several acclaimed books about her father, including Jackie’s Nine: Jackie Robinson’s Values to Live By andPromises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America. She is an educational consultant for Major League Baseball and serves as vice chairman of the Jackie Robinson Foundation.

Rickey III will speak from 9:30 to 11 on Tuesday, March 1. Robinson will speak from 9:30 to 11 on Thursday, March 3, accompanied by author Talmage Boston (JD ’76). Both events are open to the university community and the general public, though space is limited. Please send an email to request a reservation.