Tag Archives: Jackie Robinson Day

I never knew much about Robinson until Mr. Boy did a class project on him. They start out teaching civil rights in first grade in Austin. I was surprised to learn he was a star in college football and track as well as baseball. I have yet to figure out which army OCS he attended, or where. But since he was assigned to Fort Hood, and it was a cavalry base, I assume Robinson was commissioned in armor–as I was in 1968. He was courts-martialed at Hood for refusing an order to move to the back of an army bus, but acquitted and eventually given an honorable discharge. This was a time, 1942, when the only thing most black enlistees did in OCS was to clean the floors and latrines for the white candidates. That was something–servants!– we could not have imagined at infantry OCS in 1968.