In "Without You", hip-hop artist Nas takes a look at the impact ofJackie Robinson. There is a time and a place for it.
The widow of the baseball player who broke the color barrier and two of his children attended the grand opening of the museum.
Rachel Robinson, who turned 100 on July 19, watched the half hour outdoor celebration from a wheelchair in the 80 degree heat, then cut a ribbon to cap a project launched in 2008.
Her son, David, spoke to a crowd of about 200 sitting on folding chairs in a closed-off section of Varick Street, a major thoroughfare in lower Manhattan where the 19,380- square- foot building is located.
David Robinson said that the issues in baseball are still with them. The complexity of equal opportunity still exists despite the removal of the signs of white.
The museum was announced on the 61st anniversary of the breaking of the big league color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers. In 1949, Robinson became the NL batting champion and the NL's Most Valuable Player, and in 1955, he won the World Series. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1962 after hitting.313 with 141 homers and 200 stolen bases.
The civil rights movement was boosted by the impact of Robinson, who died in 1972 at the age of 42.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said there is no place on the globe where dream is attached to our name. There isn't a German dream. The French dream is not a reality. There isn't a dream from Poland. There's a dream in the United States. America and baseball were forced to say you're not going to be a dream on a piece of paper by this man and wife. He had an amazing wife that understood that dream and vision, and that's why we are greater.
The museum contains 350 artifacts, including playing equipment and artifacts such as Robinson's 1946 minor league contract for $600 a month and his 1947 rookies contract for $5,000 a year. There are 40,000 images and 450 hours of footage in the museum.
A 15-piece band played at the ceremony, attended by former pitcher CC Sabathia, former NL president Len Coleman and former Mets owner Fred Wilpon along with players' association head Tony Clark and Hall of Fame president JoshRawitch.
"If it weren't for him, there wouldn't be me," the pitcher said. It wouldn't have been possible for me to play Major League Baseball.
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, director Spike Lee, and a tennis player also attended.
King said that it seemed like we're more divided than ever. We have to do the right thing every day, that's what people likeJackie Robinson remind us of.
The opening cost was 25 million dollars. There was a delay due to the Great Recession.
The foundation said it had raised $23.5 million and the museum was supposed to open in 2019. The total raised has gone up to $38 million, of which New York City contributed $2 million.
When the museum opens to the public in September, tickets will cost $18 for adults and $15 for students, seniors and children. An education center is on the second floor.
"She wanted a place where people could learn about her husband, but also be inspired, and that's what we did," said foundation president Della Britton. "We want to be a place where people will talk about race and not worry about the initial backlash that happens when you say something on social media."
He said his father would be proud.
David said that he was a man who used the word we. I accept this honor on behalf of something far beyond my individual self, far beyond my family, far beyond even my race. Don't think of me as standing on my shoulders, I think of my mother, who was a sharecropper in Georgia, and my grandmother, who was a slave.
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