Legendary PUSD graduates Mack and Jackie Robinson’s bloodline is carried on by Makarah Robinson

By: Taleesa Ofumbi

Thurgood Marshall Secondary School sophomore Makarah Robinson seems like any other typical teenager. She likes to read and play video games. She donates dog food to the local shelter and clothes to charities. She dreams of one day becoming a marine biologist. 

“I like to read mystery novels,” she admits. “Like, when they find that unexpected person and there’s plot twists.” 

But, most typical teenagers don’t get invited to meet former president Joe Biden. Most don’t get interviewed by Major League Baseball broadcasters on national television. And most don’t get recognized at a statue unveiling at the Rose Bowl. 

That’s because most teenagers do not share the bloodline of Jackie Robinson, the first athlete to break the color barrier in professional sports. 

“I would say my life was different because we get invited to a lot of events for the Dodgers, and my grandma does work with the Special Olympics, and she gets to pick the theme for a Rose Parade float,” she said. 

“But, we don’t really like the attention. I grew up taking pictures with all these people. I don’t want the attention. I feel that people wouldn’t really understand.”

Makarah Robinson is the great-granddaughter of Jackie Robinson’s older brother, Mack Robinson. He was a star athlete at John Muir High School and later went on to win a silver medal in the 200 meters at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, falling only 0.4 seconds behind fellow American, Jesse Owens. 

As Makarah Robinson posed to take pictures with her grandmother, Kathy Robinson Young in front of the bronze statues of Mack and Jackie Robinson at Pasadena City Hall, two visitors from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, stood admiring the portrait heads of the two athletes. 

Robinson Young explained to the visiting couple that Mack Robinson was her father. 

“My dad was a part of the 18 Black athletes in the 1936 Olympics. Daddy won second place in the 200 meters. My dad’s name is Mack Robinson, right there,” she said, while pointing to the name on the bronze plate.

The memorial of the two brothers was built in 1997. It symbolizes the importance of the Robinson family to the city of Pasadena as much as it does to the rest of the nation. 

“[My dad’s] younger brother was inspired, so Uncle Jackie had to go around all the [other siblings]. He was the baby. Uncle Edgar was very strong in bicycling and rollerskating. Willa Mae was very good in women’s basketball. And Uncle Jackie went on to become very good at sports,” Robinson Young said.

The visiting couple listened in awe of the first-hand history lesson. 

“My grandma is like, very high energy, very extroverted. She does speeches when she meets someone new. She loves to talk to people all about Jackie Robinson,” Makarah Robinson said.  

“My grandma knows I don’t like to talk about it, but I’m forced to talk about it. She wants me to realize how important it is and how lucky I am. I also want people to understand about Jackie Robinson, but I just don’t like to be the one who talks and talks and talks like her,” she said. 

Makarah’s great-great uncle is Jackie Robinson, the first person to ever break the color barrier in Major League Baseball, and the only athlete to letter in four sports in UCLA’s history. 

Jackie Robinson had a tumultuous upbringing. Being the youngest child of sharecroppers and formerly enslaved grandparents. His father abandoned his mother shortly after he was born, leaving Mallie Robinson to be the sole provider of their household. 

After this, Mallie Robinson decided to move her children across the country to the small town of Pasadena, California. 

Upon moving to Pasadena, Jackie Robinson attended Cleveland Elementary School and Washington Elementary School. Then he attended Washington Junior High, which is now known as Octavia E. Butler. 

For high school, he attended John Muir Technical High School — this is where Robinson would soon demonstrate his athletic capabilities. Robinson was inspired after seeing his brothers Frank and Mack’s great success as athletes. 

Watching older brother Mack earn a silver medal in the 200-meter dash, only slightly behind Jesse Owens, inspired Jackie to follow in his brother’s footsteps. 

Jackie Robinson earned letters in track and field, football, baseball, and basketball, while also playing on the tennis team at Muir.

After high school, Jackie Robinson went to Pasadena Junior College, now known as Pasadena City College. Robinson continued to play and compete in track and field, football, baseball, and basketball. 

During his time at Pasadena Junior College, Jackie Robinson began his fight against anti-Blackness and racism, particularly when he was arrested on January 25, 1938, for vocally disputing with an officer over the wrongful conviction of his African American friend. However, he only received a two-year suspension due to his star athleticism and the belief that he would never do something like this again. 

Robinson transferred in 1939 to UCLA on an athletic scholarship for football. At this time, the enrollment for African Americans at UCLA was less than 1 percent and there was not a single Black faculty member. Robinson was one of only four black students who were on the football team, which was still the most integrated college football team at the time. 

He was, and still is, the only student in all of UCLA history to letter in four sports — track and field, football, baseball, and basketball. 

During WWII, Robinson was drafted to a segregated army unit and rose to second lieutenant within a year where he joined the 761st tank battalion known as the “Black Panthers.” He was honorably discharged after he contested and won a case for discrimination when he refused to sit in the back of an unsegregated bus. 

In 1947, Jackie Robinson made history when he was called up to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first African American player in Major League Baseball.  Over the course of a decade playing with the Dodgers, Robinson won six National League pennants, Rookie of the Year, NL MVP  and the 1955 World Series, their first championship in team history. He was also the first Black player to be inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame.

Robinson’s contributions for breaking the color barrier can be seen as paving the way for the World Series champion Dodgers’ current global roster, featuring players from Cuba, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Japan, and South Korea. 

“I feel like not a lot of people who aren’t black really know much about our history here. They don’t really understand the history of my Uncle Jackie and what he did to make people of color play baseball. I feel like it is my responsibility to teach people. People need to know how hard he fought, because it’s important. If he didn’t fight, then we wouldn’t have all of these people playing baseball like Anthony Banda, Mookie Betts, Ohtani, and Yamamoto,” Makarah Robinson said.

That history began with older brother Mack Robinson, the male patriarch of his family, who eventually purchased six homes next to his alma mater, John Muir High School for each of his children to live in. However, after only two generations, very few of the Robinsons continue to reside in Pasadena. 

The Robinson legacy in Pasadena also symbolizes the culture of Black excellence in this community, which like the Robinson family members, seems to be moving away from the city. 

“I think Pasadena should maintain its Black culture because then we’d just be like every other city, and not every city has this history,” Makarah Robinson said. 

“The Jackie Robinson history, the Mack Robinson history, the color barrier being broken, and my grandpa winning his silver medal just behind Jesse Owens, all of it would be gone.”