Jackie Robinson and the Color Line

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Honoring Robinson Beyond Wearing His Retired No. 42

April 13, 2024 - Tyler Kepner

An orchestrated salute, however noble, can only go so far. It is best, perhaps, to view Jackie Robinson Day as an invitation, a chance to study and understand the complexities and nuances of a man who was much more than a surface-level hero. In that spirit, here are a couple ways to do it.

Reiferson’s collection will be presented as an exhibit, “Jackie Robinson and the Color Line,” from Monday through May 24 at the Gitterman Gallery in New York. The photos and artifacts, including telegrams and letters, comprise more than Robinson’s journey and stretch back to the integrated teams of the late 1800s.

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Press: PENTA [BARRON'S]: Trove of Vintage Photographs and  Artifacts Tell the Complex Story  of Baseball's Integration, March 22, 2024 - Abby Schultz

PENTA [BARRON'S]: Trove of Vintage Photographs and Artifacts Tell the Complex Story of Baseball's Integration

March 22, 2024 - Abby Schultz

The exhibition at Gitterman Gallery, which runs from April 15 to May 24, will tell even more forgotten stories through vintage photographs, telegrams, and other artifacts of Black players such as Roy Partlow, Johnny Wright, and Dan Bankhead—lesser-known peers of Jackie Robinson, the Brooklyn Dodgers’ player renowned for breaking the color barrier in baseball in 1947...

The thread through Reiferson’s collecting is a desire to chronicle American history. The Gitterman Gallery exhibition, for instance, aims to paint a fuller picture of baseball’s slow and difficult path to integration in the U.S., while also revealing the power and beauty of photography. 

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Press: SPORTS COLLECTORS DAILY: Historic Baseball Photos, Artifacts to be Featured in Upcoming Exhibit, March 18, 2024 - Rich Muller

SPORTS COLLECTORS DAILY: Historic Baseball Photos, Artifacts to be Featured in Upcoming Exhibit

March 18, 2024 - Rich Muller

Original historic baseball photographs and memorabilia from a private collection are the center piece of an upcoming exhibit that aims to tell the story of baseball’s journey toward integration.

Jackie Robinson and the Color Line is set to open Monday, April 15 at the Gitterman Gallery in New York, coinciding with Major League Baseball’s Jackie Robinson Day. It will run through May 24.

Items provided by long time collector Paul Reiferson are the centerpiece.

The exhibition frames Robinson’s odyssey within a larger one that had begun 60 years earlier, when men like Fleet and Weldy Walker, Sol White, Robert Higgins, and Javan Emory played for integrated teams in the late 19th century.

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