With the nation honoring Jackie Robinson as America’s first black major leaguer, this city wants to apologize for a longstanding “stain . . . on our soul.”
Fifty-one years ago, city officials forced Robinson out of an exhibition game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and its Montreal farm team to keep him from playing on the same field with white players. A city ordinance barred blacks and whites from playing together on city-owned fields.
Robinson stayed in the lineup for two innings and batted once before the police chief ordered Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey to remove him from the field.
For too long, the image of this central Florida community of more than 32,000 has been tainted by the incident, city commissioner Whitey Eckstein said.
“It was a bad thing,” he said. “We need to apologize for what happened because as long as that stain is on our soul, it hurts the city of Sanford.”
City officials aren’t certain how an apology will be made.
