There were young and old, and many like me, who had seen Robinson play for the Dodgers in those early years. The crowd came to pay tribute not only to him but also to his widow, whose beauty, grace and youthful elegance belie her 75 years.
Sonny Hill was there. As director of the Sonny Hill basketball league, he's a local sports icon in his own right. Although he is known for basketball, he was a baseball player in his youth during the time that Robinson broke in.
Like most of the youth of that time, Hill idolized Robinson. Hill met his widow for the first time Thursday. You could see the pride in his face when he shook her hand. ``He was truly one of my heroes,'' Hill said.
Hill and the many others, some waiting for her to autograph their program, know that Robinson's entrance into baseball, his success and conduct on and off the field, transcended sports.
His accomplishments not only paved the way for black athletes but also began a social and civil rights movement for everyone excluded from the mainstream because of race.
Robinson's entrance into major league baseball preceded by seven years the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision that some social scientists say marks the beginning of the civil rights movement.
The Robinsons were a real and symbolic success for black Americans. He had an intense competitive spirit, and the ability to stay focused despite enduring taunts and racial insults.
At the ceremony, Rachel Robinson said that she hoped that ``Jack's spirit could rekindle the rebuilding of the neighborhoods where the mural is painted.''
The Phillies were a cosponsor of the event. She told me after the ceremony that despite the treatment her husband received in the city from the Phillies, she held no bitterness about the past and enjoyed coming to the city.
Since her husband's death in 1972, Rachel Robinson has worked tirelessly to keep his spirit and mental toughness alive to benefit today's youth through the Jackie Robinson Foundation. Each year, the Foundation awards dozens of college scholarships.
A UCLA graduate and a former assistant professor at Yale, Rachel Robinson is an extraordinary woman, mother and grandmother. She is certainly deserving of the adulation she was shown in Philadelphia last week and indeed all over America in this anniversary season.
Acel Moore's column usually appears on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
