 Hello, everyone, and welcome to the first ever National Archives pajama party. I wish I could see you all. I've been so excited this last week as I get signups and registrations. We have people from throughout the country and in other countries as well. We have over 400 families who signed up for tonight's event and that has been just wonderful to see. So thank you all for being here and I want to share with you where we have people from. I think that'll be part of the excitement of kicking off the event tonight. So here's what I want to do. I'm going to read to you the countries and the states that we have people attending from tonight and I want you to listen for where you live and when you hear that type in the chat, your first name and the city you're from, right? So if I did my own, when I heard Pennsylvania, I would say Ange from Philadelphia. So that's what I want you to do. Listen for where you're from and then type it in the chat so we can hear from you. Now I'm going to start, I know those of us who have names or states at the end of the alphabet are always going last. So I'm going to reverse that tonight. So we're going to start our states and territories off with the end of the alphabet and go back. But first I want to welcome some of our, some people from other parts of the country, excuse me, other countries. Now if you hear a place and you don't know where it is, I want you to look it up this weekend. You can say I was at the virtual pajama party with people from this place. So are you ready? Here we go. Roll call of who all is here. We want to pay a special welcome to our family from the Bahamas, from Panama, those from the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario. And now for our states and territories, are you ready? Wisconsin, Washington DC, Washington State, Virginia, Utah, Texas, Tennessee, South Carolina, Rhode Island, Puerto Rico, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Ohio, North Carolina, New York, New Mexico, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Nebraska, Missouri, Mississippi, Minnesota, Michigan, Massachusetts, Maryland, have you heard yours yet? Maine, Louisiana, Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, Georgia, Florida, California, Arkansas, Arizona, American Samoa, and Alabama. Welcome everyone. We'll be seeing some of your work later on with that welcome sign, but that would have been a great thing to have as we kicked it off. So as I mentioned, this is the first virtual pajama party of the National Archives. And thank you all for being here. We're going to kick things off officially tonight with a welcome from the Archivist of the United States, David Ferriero. So he has a special video for you. Maybe you saw him in the snack video recipe, but he has a special message for us all. So let's hear what he has to tell us. Welcome to our first virtual pajama party here at the National Archives. I am so glad you could join us. Tonight's theme is standing up against discrimination. We hope you will enjoy seeing and learning about National Archives documents related to this theme and participating in all the art and writing activities. I look forward to seeing some of your creativity featured later in the program. I hope everyone had a chance to see my cooking video and could make some baseball nachos before the pajama party began. They are delicious. I would like to offer a special thanks to our featured guest, Ms. Sharon Robinson, author and educational advocate. She has written many great books about the life of her father, baseball legend and civil rights activist Jackie Robinson, including the book, The Hero Two Doors Down. Thanks to Ms. Robinson for taking time to talk with us tonight. One great book or program can lead to others. So I encourage you to keep reading and learning about any of the topics covered in the book, this program, or whatever interests you. Thanks again to everyone for participating in our virtual pajama party. Enjoy your evening. Thank you so much. And I just wanted to tell you a few fun facts about the National Archives. Maybe you saw them on the slides, but just to let you know, we do hold the permanently valuable records of the federal government. And as you saw, we have more than 40 locations across the country. So we're looking forward to seeing you in person when we all can do that again. But for now, we're happy to join with you online. All right. And so I wanted to say before we get started with the slides, you can see we're going to take a look at this. You probably all recognize these from the activities. But I wanted to say a special thank you to the team that is helping me tonight. Right. We all love sports or things we do as a team. That's why we're here tonight. We're here because we love baseball or we love Jackie Robinson or we love fairness. And so we all do things as a team. And I want to thank the people who are helping me do this tonight. So please give a special thanks and shout out to Jamie, who's doing our tech tonight. To Kimberly, who's my colleague in Kansas City. To Susan, who is my colleague in Washington, DC. And to Stephanie, who is my colleague in Virginia. Thank you so much. We could not do this program without them. And of course, a special thank you to Miss Sharon Robinson, who I'll be, we'll be talking with later on our special guest for tonight. So here's how it's going to work tonight. I'm going to go through the theme for tonight, standing up against discrimination. And I'll show you the documents and the activities, just like we've done in the previous things. And then we're going to see some of your work. I was so thrilled to see the work that you were able to send in. And you'll be able to get to see that too. After we do all that part of it, then I will give a special welcome to Miss Sharon Robinson. She will be doing a reading of a part of the book. And I know you all enjoyed the book as much as I did. So she'll do a reading and then she'll take questions. Now, you might want to start thinking about questions you have for her right now and putting them into the chat. So that once we get started, your question will be there. That doesn't mean if you don't have one right now, you can't ask when she's doing her reading or when she's done and taking questions. But just if you have some now might be a good idea to put them in there. So they're they're all ready to go. All right, and as I go through this, I'm going to be asking Jamie to to advance the slides when it's time. So so here we are all again. I love reading a good book. I have since I was a kid and this was definitely a good book. And every time I read a book, I always thought, you know, if it had to do about history or a certain situation, I thought, well, what? You know, what are the real things behind that? What's the real story? And the great thing about this book is that we at the National Archives have things related to the story. So we could both read the book and look at some real historical documents together. So Jamie, could you go to the next slide, please? So as I mentioned, today's theme is standing up against discrimination. In the story, Steve learns that some of the people in his neighborhood are circulating a petition to keep a black family from moving into the neighborhood. His parents explain to him why they believe this is wrong and share with him the importance of standing up against discrimination. Maybe you remember that part of the book. The Robinsons were also a family who supported human and civil rights, believing that all people should be treated with respect and be able to have opportunities to lead good lives. One night when Steve was at the Robinsons' house for dinner, Jackie and Rachel talk about problems at that time of segregation and unequal treatment in the military. Steve learns that Jackie was in the military and stood up for his rights there, too. Next slide. Our historical sources tonight are two pictures and a letter from the National Archives. Next. Our first photo is a picture of Jackie Robinson and his son at the march on Washington. Now, in the book, the events were set in the 1940s and there were important things going on then, but there were continuing things to try to get as many civil rights in place as possible. So there in 1963, after the story is done, there was an important civil rights event that Jackie Robinson and his family participated in. It was called the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and it took place in 1963. It was a huge protest. Maybe you've seen pictures of it before, but it was a huge protest against unequal treatment of black people and featured many inspirational speakers, including the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The first photo that we have is of Jackie Robinson with one of his children at the march on Washington. Could this be the Jackie Jr. that Steve played with in the story? That might be a good question to ask Miss Robinson, because she knows the answer. Next slide. Our second photo is another person who was at the march on Washington and she was there with her family and you can see she has a banner. And what I wanna tell you about this photo, besides just showing it to you, is a little bit more about her story and this is one of the cool things about history and how it can connect to the present. So years later, when this girl named Edith visited the National Archives, she told us more about how and why she attended the march on Washington and she got to see the original picture of herself in our records. Now I want you to listen closely. We're about to play a video that we took when she came to talk to us and listen for why that was an extra special day for her. Jamie, can you play the video please? In Detroit, Michigan, in the city on the west side of Detroit, my mother took me to see Dr. King in Detroit as well as here in Washington, DC. August 28th, 1963 was my 12th birthday. The buzz on the march on Washington started buzzing about a month beforehand and as a freelance, a beginning freelance, I did a lot of work for USAA and this job came along. The caveat was that I would get paid twice my day rate but they would own the negatives for the National Archives. I said, okay, that's fine. Not knowing at the time that this was gonna be one of the great historical moments of US history. Part of our job as the archives is to accession, preserve and make available records created by federal agencies. One of the rules of the USAA was to document what America was all about. To project a view of the United States overseas to foreign countries during the Cold War. And I was 26 or 27 years old and very spry and very athletic and I climbed over everything and went everywhere and I photographed close-ups, long shots. I worked pretty hard that day. Okay, what I'm gonna do now is take the phone out with the photos in it. These are the photos of the March on Washington. Okay. And this is a copy of your photo, the photo here. I learned about the photo about two and a half years ago. My cousin was browsing a catalog and it had calendars in it, one of which was a black history calendar. She saw my picture on the back and she called and said, your picture is on a calendar and you're holding a pen or a pen or something. So I was just in shock and I still am. She was in one of the front row of the crowd on sort of the left side of where Martin Luther King made that speech and I see some people laughing and some people crying and some people earnest and she was one of the ones, not only was she beautiful, but she was so involved. This is the banner that I held August 28th, 1963 that I proudly held up as Dr. King and others were speaking. I tell my grandchildren that marching with Dr. King was a very significant part of my life. As they learn about him in school, they can share with their classmates that their grandmother was part of something that was very important. Her picture was used and has been used since then as the face of the Martin Washington. She deserves it. That was pretty amazing. And maybe there's something that you're doing now, something you're attending, something you're thinking about doing that will become something historic, part of something historic. So maybe you could be in the National Archives in someday. Next slide, please. All right, our third historical source from the National Archives is a letter that Jackie Robinson wrote to Truman Gibson. Now we've seen in the earlier activities a letter that Jackie Robinson wrote to President Eisenhower, right? This is a letter that he wrote while he was in the military and he wrote it to a man named Truman Gibson who was the assistant to the Secretary of War. Now, remember how in each other activity we could zoom into the document? That's what I'm gonna ask Jamie and did you now is to take us from just the little snapshot here of the document over to our DocsTeach website where you can see any of our documents. And thank you, Jamie, for scrolling down. If you could just click onto the document, we're gonna look at the top half of the letter. So you can just scroll it. There you go, perfect. All right, so the cool thing about an original document like this is you get to see people's handwriting on it and you get to learn a lot about the document itself. So we can see Jackie Robinson's handwriting here. We can see that this is one page. There's three total, but we're just gonna take a look at this one right now. We can see that in addition to him writing on it, there was other people who wrote on it as well. So after they've received it, then they made notations on it. Maybe you've done that yourself. When you get something, you write a little note to yourself on it. So we can see where it's written. Up at the top, it says McCloskey General Hospital, Temple, Texas. So that's where Jackie Robinson was when he was writing this letter. And you can see the two symbols on the right and left-hand corner. They come out really well on the scan. And then there's some writing on it. Now, I know not everybody is very good at cursive. I talk with a lot of kids who tell me that, but I always tell them it's just something you'd learn, just like riding a bike or other things you've learned to do. The more you practice, the better you'll get. So I'm gonna help you with this one because it might be a little tough for you to read it. It says, Evans, this man is the well-known athlete. Let's see, follow the case carefully and then he signed it with a G. But then, underneath it, somebody wrote in blue, no letter received and a date there. Now, Jackie Robinson's letter, as you can see in little letters right under the symbol was July 16th, 1944. And he is looking at, somebody expected some things to happen by August. So, all right, Jamie, thanks for showing us that. Let's go back to the slide, please. All right, now, this letter is about asking for advice. Jackie Robinson had been on a bus and he had been asked to move to the back of the bus, which at the time was where black people were told that they needed to sit and he would not do that. Now, maybe this story sounds familiar to you because we might know another story of a woman later who would also have a seat on the bus and not want to move and her name was Rosa Parks, but this was happening to Jackie Robinson in the 40s. When he wouldn't move, he ended up getting arrested. Now, I want to invite a special colleague of mine, Michael Knight. I asked him if he would do a video for us reading the last paragraph of this letter, because it's a great way to kind of sum up what Jackie Robinson was saying and how he was standing up against discrimination in this case and speaking out. So, if you could go to the next slide and play the video, please, Jamie. My name is Michael Knight. I work in the Office of Innovation at the National Archives and I serve as a project manager. In my role, I work on a team that helps to build and improve our agency's websites, which allow people to access our nation's archival records and learn about many historical topics. I'm so glad that you joined us for our virtual pajama party. Today, I'm here with you to read the last paragraph of a very important letter that Jackie Robinson wrote when he was a soldier during World War II and experienced discrimination while riding on a bus. When Mr. Robinson protested the issue, he was arrested and was facing a military trial. At the end of his letter, which was written to an assistant to the Secretary of War in Washington, D.C., Mr. Robinson explained what he believed in. Here's what he wrote. Sir, as I said, I don't mind trouble. But I do believe in fair play and justice. I feel that I'm being taken in this case and I will tell people about it unless the trial is fair. Let me hear from you so I will know what steps to take. Signed Lieutenant Jack Robinson. Thankfully, the trial was fair and Mr. Robinson was found not guilty on all the charges. He was later honorably discharged from his military service and, as we all know, he went on to a barrier-breaking career in baseball and to continue to fight for fair play and justice for all. Thank Michael again for taking the time to make that video for us. Now, we'll move into the activity ideas and just like we've been doing in all the other activities, we're gonna start with our art activities. So, those of you who have been watching this video are gonna start with your art activities. So, those of you who are into art, now's your time to start working on this activity or if you wanna keep listening now, you can always do this later on or tomorrow. But this activity has to do with the pennant. Remember that we saw Edith in the picture on the March on Washington with a pennant. So, I want you to make a pennant you believe in like people had at the March on Washington. Think about something that is important to you and that you want other people to remember and work for. This can be something in your local community, in the country or in the world. Make sure your pennant is eye-catching and clearly conveys what is most important about the topic to you, just like these kids did here. Next slide, please. Our second activity idea is the your voice writing activity. And that's where you tell us your thoughts and opinions and write them down. In this case, write a short poem or spoken word piece about the importance of standing up for fairness. Why does it mean for something to be fair? Why is fairness important in our families, communities and the world? Next slide, please. The third activity idea for writing is the voices of history and that's where you get to think about what people might have experienced in the past. And so that activity is to pretend Edith, the girl in the picture at the March on Washington is a friend of yours and she hasn't seen the picture yet. Write a message to her describing the picture in detail and telling her what you thought when you first saw her picture. Did you think she looked happy, sad or some other emotion? Next slide, please. Okay, as promised, we're done with the activity ideas for now and we wanna share with you some of the photos of the activities that kids were doing, getting ready for the pajama party. So on the left, we have a welcome sign from Skyly from California in the middle. We have another one. These are all welcome signs for the first two slides from EG from Ohio. And I especially love her ladybug there and her vase of flowers. And did everybody notice Skyly's cute bunny ears? I saw that earlier. And then another great welcome sign from OW from Virginia. Next slide, please. Here we have some more welcome signs. We have a sign from Ella in Pennsylvania from SH who lives in Florida. Look at how bright that welcome sign is. Remember, the assignment was to write the word welcome, make a welcome sign in English and two other different languages that are spoken in your family or community. So that's great. We also have a sign here from Owen in Virginia and from Ben in Washington, DC. Next slide. Here's a few more welcome pictures. We have one from FW in Virginia, Carolyn from Georgia, from AM in California, and from Joseph in Florida. Great job, guys. Next slide, please. The other assignments, the other activities were to do comics or hero posters. Those were some of the art things. And you can see some of our kids decided to do those to make some comics and a couple of hero things too. So you can see Sarah from Florida made a comic. Ben from Washington, DC did a hero poster. MVM from Mississippi made a comic, Jackie Robinson themed. And then Carolyn from Georgia made a hero poster about someone that she thinks makes a difference in the world just like Jackie Robinson did. Next slide, please. Thank you so much for participating in all our activities in the series. And today I also want to say great job to all the kids who sent stuff in. And if you didn't send anything in this time, that's okay. We're hoping that we're gonna have another pajama party in February. So you might have an opportunity then to participate. And now for what we've all been waiting for. And that is to welcome Ms. Sharon Robinson to our program. I'm gonna give a little introduction to her. And then she's gonna go ahead and say hello, do a reading and then we'll do questions. And I see you already do have some questions in the chat for her. So that's fantastic. So you've all read her work and now let me tell you a little bit about her. Sharon Robinson, as you know, is the daughter of baseball legend and civil rights icon, Jackie Robinson. She is also, as you know, an acclaimed author as well as an educational consultant for Major League Baseball. Some of the widely praised books about her father include Promises to Keep, How Jackie Robinson Changed America, The Hero Two Doors Down, we know that one, and Jackie's Nine, Jackie Robinson's Values to Live By. Her newest book is Child of the Dream, a memoir of 1963. And that date may sound familiar to you because of some of the things we were talking about tonight. Sharon Robinson is also the founder of Breaking Barriers in Sports and Life, a baseball-themed national character education curriculum that helps empower students overcome obstacles in their lives. Ms. Robinson currently serves as vice chairman of the Jackie Robinson Foundation and lives in Florida. Ms. Robinson, thank you so much and welcome. Oh, thank you for having me and thank all the families that have joined us tonight. How exciting. You know, when I was a kid, I loved to sleep over. Loved when I had to sleep over when over one of my friends' house forced sleep over. So, you know, thank you to the National Archives for coming up with this creative way for us all to be together while we're home and being safe. So I know we don't have much time, so I wanna get right into talking a little bit more about The Hero Two Doors Down and doing a brief reading. As most of you know, The Hero Two Doors Down is based on a true story. Steve Satlow and I were lifelong friends and Steve loved sharing the story. When I told him I was gonna write this book, Steve and I had a series of meetings where he told me these incredible stories from his childhood, some of which I said now, do I really wanna put that in this book? But anyway, Steve was a little acting out when he was a young kid. So his year with my dad was very important to him because it was when he was starting to turn his life around. But anyway, so Steve, when after The Hero Two Doors Down was published, Steve had a great fun visiting kids in classrooms and talking about Jackie Robinson and his friendship with Jackie Robinson. One of my favorite stories though, Steve called to tell me that he was down and Steve and his wife had a farm, well, I say had because actually Steve died a year ago. But Steve and his wife had a farm in Florida and Steve was down at the bottom of his land at his mailbox and he sees this woman drive up in this car and he said, from the backseat, two little boys jumped up and held up The Hero Two Doors Down. And so Steve ended up spending the afternoon with these boys. Steve had a cattle business and so he drove the boys around in his four wheeler and Steve named his cows and it was just a fun day for him. So he had a lot of fun with this quote. So I wanna get right into the reading which goes along with the theme tonight and it starts on page 95, speaking of baseball. I have a gift for you. Jackie said passing the baseball mitt to me. It's more for show than actual use but I thought you'd like to have this. I slide my stubby fingers into the leather glove. It was much too big for me. I looked up at Jackie with questioning eyes. It's my practice meant Jackie explained. Gee, thanks Jackie. My friends won't believe it when I tell them where I got this glove. I was beaming and pushing hard, trying to gain an inch or so into the glove. Enjoy it Steve, Jackie said. Is this really one of the gloves you used in the big leagues? I sure did. I used it during spring training and during warm-ups before games, Jackie told me. It's the best present I ever got. I pronounced Jackie's spied. I'm glad you like it. The conversation changed to the news. I ate quietly while Jackie and Rachel talked about President Truman integrating the armed forces. I think the armed forces will be integrated sometime this summer, Jackie told Rachel. Not if the Southerners in Congress have their way, Rachel replied. President Truman is considering using his executive order powers to push through the integration of the armed forces, Jackie explained. I would end discrimination in the armed services. Your success in baseball should give Truman encouragement to do whatever he has to do in order to desegregate the armed services, Rachel replied. I know this diss word. I announced stumbling over the correct pronunciation of discrimination. It happened to my grandparents in Russia because they were Jewish. They left Russia and came to America so they could be treated better. Discrimination is something of Jews and blacks having common, Jackie said. You said you served in the army, I asked. Sure it did, Jackie replied. I was a second lieutenant of a station in Fort Hood, Texas where the law kept black and white people separated in schools, parks, buses and hospitals. On the army base, Negro soldiers lived in barracks separated from white soldiers. Officers couldn't even socialize together. We had different clubs. One day I got on a bus going from the army base into town. I had to see my doctor at the hospital. Because of Jim Crow laws, I was supposed to move to the back of the bus to sit down. But there was a seat in the middle of the bus next to a woman I knew from the base. The bus driver and I argued and I was arrested, Jackie explained. Really? It was hard to believe that someone could get arrested just because they sat down in the wrong seat on the bus. Jack, you're confusing Steve. He's too young to understand segregation and its laws, Rachel interrupted. I know that some of my neighbors didn't want a black family to live here, I protested. I know that the Dodgers were the first team to have a Negro in the majors. I know a lot because my father and I talk. Rachel smiled. I'm sorry, Steve, you do know a lot. Did you go to jail, I asked Jackie? No, my case was tried in the courtroom. I knew my rights. It was a bit complicated, Steve, but because the bus was still on the army base, the laws that required blacks to go to the back of the bus didn't apply. I didn't do anything wrong. I won the case and was honorably discharged from the army. So this news that soon President Truman and Congress will end discrimination in all branches of the armed services means a great deal to me and to all Americans. Jackie explained, you understand, Steve, kind of I said, when every major league baseball team has black players, it will be like the armed services, right? It will be a start, Steve. Thank you very much for that reading and we already have some questions for you. I'm sorry, Ms. Robinson, did you have more you wanted to add? No, I just wanted to, I forgot to thank my publisher, Scholastic. You know, they are just an amazing family to work with. So I wanted to also thank them. Oh, that's, and I should say thank you to Taylin, who I've worked with too. Absolutely. I know she's listening tonight and she's been really great to work with. So yes, thank you for there too. All right, so here are the questions for you. This first one is from Emma in St. Louis. How long did it take you to write the book? Oh, Emma, you know, I get that question a lot. Now each book is different, but I'll just sort of give you an average. Usually it takes me a year to write a book, although I may have done research leading up to the writing. I may have researched newspapers, magazines, spoken with people, had interviews. So there's a lot of research that goes into writing a book that has some history in it, or like I want to keep it in historical context. Here are two doors down. It took me about a year to write. And then it takes Scholastic, who is my publisher, a year to create it into the book that you recognize a hardcover and then later a paperback, and also to plan a marketing campaign because you have to get out there and let people know that you've written this book and hopefully get to meet with kids and hopefully they love it. And they have, the second question is from Delaney in California. How did you get the idea to write this book? Oh, Delaney. I grew up with this story about the sat-loes and the robinsons and how they met. And I always thought it was such a cool little story, but it was just a little story. And the story was about the Christmas tree. My father giving Steve a Christmas tree on the first Christmas that they were in Brooklyn on Tilden Avenue. And my dad didn't realize that Steve didn't have a Christmas tree because he was Jewish. So he did not understand Jewish traditions and cultures and religion. And Steve didn't realize when he was helping my dad decorate the tree that it wasn't just a tree inside a house. It was a symbol of a Christian religion. So they learned about each other. It was a very funny family story and from that our families became very close for life. So that was sort of my stimulus that I wanted to tell that story, but then tell it within the fullness of 1948 Brooklyn and Steve's sat-loes life. Okay, the next question is, what was your favorite part about writing the hero two doors down? My favorite part had to be spending time with Steve. Now Steve and I both like to ride horses. So sometimes, and whenever I would go visit him on the farm, he and his wife, they would always say, do you want to go horseback riding? And for many years I couldn't wait to get up to see Steve but also to get a chance to ride horses again with him. So in this time when we were doing the interviews we did some horseback riding, some riding around and seeing all of his cows and then talking and taping it. And Steve was just, when he was describing these stories, it was like he was still this eight year old boy having this amazing experience with Jackie Robinson. And also he was telling me his stories about being an acting out little kid. And some of the stories I thought were funny, some of the stories I couldn't believe. And so it was just a fun experience for both of us. Yeah, that's great. And that was the theme of our last activity, making mistakes and making changes. I thought that was a great theme that came across in the book and how Steve and your dad connected about that. Yeah, can I tell one more thing about that? Sure, absolutely. So I wanted to have the book show the lifelong relationship with Steve and Jackie and the Sattelow and the Robinsons. So I had the book ended. So at the beginning of the book, I wanted to be when Steve's older and then kind of end with that same time period. So I called Steve because I was like, oh, surely he's gonna tell me, the most traumatic thing that happened to him as a teenager was when the Dodgers left Brooklyn. So I had it all planned. That's how I was gonna open the book and it was all tidy with my baseball theme and I was all excited. And I called Steve and he said, no, Sharon. I said, it wasn't Steve. He said, no, it was the day my father died. And I was like, oh, well, I don't think I can open the book with that. I called my editor and I told him and he said, no, kids, need to deal with life and death. And so yes, you can open that. And then I was speaking to Steve because I didn't wanna even ask him about that day because I really didn't remember it. And so I called him up and I said, Steve, I'm creating this scene about the day your dad died. And he said, do you want me to tell you what really happened? When he told me that story, I was like, oh my God, it has showed how strong and courageous he was even as a teenager to kind of assume that responsibility when he recognized his dad was very, very sick. So anyway. Yeah, and I loved the story about how his dad had saved things for him from his childhood. That is the best when your parents do that for you and then you can go back and look through it and it reminds you of all those things. So I loved that part of the story. Well, we just cleaned up my mother's attic and I have to tell you, but I couldn't have written my last book if I hadn't cleaned up that attic. So I found my diaries and my four cards, the teacher comments, and I mean, it was just amazing what she kept. And it was a lot of attic to clean out because we were selling the house, but I was so grateful to my mother for being the archivist herself. That's great. That's great. And let's see, we have another question and I know this will be hard to pick one because I think if you asked anybody this, it would be the same thing, but do you have a favorite memory of your dad? Oh my goodness. I know. You know, I'm very blessed that I have so many wonderful memories of my dad. He died when I was a senior in college and we were very close. I was his only girl, only daughter, and my dad and I were very close. So I had to, let me see. There was a nice, since we're talking about justice. I was, so it was shortly before my dad died. I was at Howard University in my senior year and my dad would come down. My dad was not well, so I spent a lot of time visiting he and my mom in New York City. You know, when he was in and out of hospitals. But anyway, when my dad was well, he would come and meet me in Washington, D.C. He'd come up with some reason he had to be in Washington or a meeting and we would meet up and go to dinner. If he wasn't well enough, we would have dinner right in his hotel. But this particular night, and you have to understand that I was also a child that had to develop my own self-esteem. So, you know, my dad takes me out and it's my senior year. My dad is talking about, you know, like how proud he is of me. I said to him, you know, Dad, I was in nursing school at Howard University. He says, you know, I told him, you know, Dad, when I finished nursing school, I'm thinking about going on to medical school. And he said, he stopped and looked at me and he said, you know, I don't care if you go to medical school or not. You know, I'm just so proud of how far you've come in believing in yourself and that you've found work that you love and a career that you want to continue. So he said, let's go shop. That was our, you know, our fun thing. So we went to this, we were in Bethesda. We went to this department store right near where we were having dinner. And he showed me around and said, I want to buy you a coat because it was getting near winter. And I said, okay. So I went and we looked and I saw this coat that had a fur collar and was wrapped, had this wrap all the way around it and it was mid cap. And I just love this coat. I was like, oh, Dad, I love this coat. And so the sales lady said, oh, you can't buy that coat for a college student. And my father says, here, let me try to show me some other coats. Anyway, so my father said, no, we are taking this coat. And he goes up to her and she was very happy and very unhappy with the decision. And my father said, this is for my daughter. You know, this is a coat we're buying. And I kept that coat until I finally couldn't wrap it around me any longer as I had gained a few pounds. And I kept it for, for me. We all know how that goes. Yes. And I gave it to a thinner friend. Who was my friend in college. So it was a great night for us. It made us feel victorious that, you know, no one could tell us, you know, what we should buy. You know, tell us who we are and treat us without someone. He felt that we were not being treated with respect. Yeah. So here's another question. Jackie Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. As you know, the question is, did Steve attend the induction? He did not. He did not. Okay. No, you know, for those induction ceremonies, you can only have a certain number of people. And my, so for us, the amazing thing was that my, my father's mother who did not fly and my mother's mother, who also didn't particularly like flying, they both flew together across country. So they were, in addition to our immediate family and Mr. Ricky, Branch Ricky, that was our, those were our guests. Okay. All right. Kind of like a high school graduation or only so many people allowed. Okay. A question is, did Jackie teach you baseball or how to play softball? Oh, good question. No, but, no, my dad did not teach me how to play softball. He taught me, we played baseball because it was the boys and the girls and we played on our front yard in the summertime. And it was my front, our family's front yard and my best friend's front yard and our older brothers on each, each family were the captains. And my dad would come out and spend time with him. Now I must tell you, although my dad didn't teach me how I played softball all the way through high school. So I, you know, yes, I know, I knew softball and I didn't actually play softball at home. At home we played baseball. Okay. All right. Someone has a question. How many books have you written? I'm just about at 12. And I've written a combination of books. I've written a couple of adult books and a professional book. So I was a nurse midwife for many years and I co-wrote a textbook for women's health. So, and then I've written, I think, you know, I lose count. I know very close to 12, I don't know. Sklassy, most of them are children's books or with Sklassy. But once I became a children's author with Sklassy there was no turning back. I didn't want to write for adults anymore. Children are my audience. You know, I love, you know, the hard thing for us tonight, honestly, as it is with all of us having, you know, to stay home during this COVID time is that I can't see your faces, you know? So I have loved my many years through the break and barriers program and as a children's author visiting schools and visiting with kids. And we have an RBI program with Major League Baseball and a softball pro, I mean, both baseball and softball. So, you know, we feed off of faces and but these questions are all wonderful and we're doing the best we can during these times. And because it's virtual, it allows so many more kids and families to be involved from all over the country. And as you heard from several countries. So there we have made the best of our times as we must do in any crisis by having these virtual podomal parties or Zoom meetings or whatever they may be, but we do miss seeing your faces. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Like I said, I wish I could see everybody who is on right now. Here's a question from the Sweeney family and I like it because it talks about how we're influenced by many people in our family. So the comment starts off that your dad was clearly a trailblazer, but your mom seems like she was just as amazing. What are some of the life lessons you learned from her? Oh my goodness, I didn't know where to begin. My mom is here with me now and she's now 98. We live together, well, not always, but we are living together now and I'm loving it. So every day is a lesson. And so I think the most important things my mother has taught me, she taught me to love. My mother's reason why I'm a writer, although my father was also a writer, but my mother taught me to love books and music and art. And she also was insisted that we researched everything. So we actually had a library in our home, we called it our library. It was our den, but it was also our library. And one of the collections we had was encyclopedias because back then we didn't have internet. So we had encyclopedias. So anything, so if I say, mom, I really want a horse. Well, I had to research it for years. I mean, until, you know, and then we would go to the horse shows and look at all the different types and see how much they cost. Then I had to go, I worked in a farm and then I had to really go into training when my brother and I were actually going to get a horse. So my mother has taught me to love research and understand its importance. And I use it in all of my writing now and in all aspects of my life. I think the other really great lesson my mother has taught me, you know, my mother taught me, you know, how to grieve, for example. You know, we had a lot of young deaths in our family and my brother and my dad was young, my son. And I watched how my mother, my brother lost a son. So I watched how my mother handled it when I was back in my twenties and how she got back up and we were back to work or when she had to literally change careers after my father died, you know, and, you know, she just made it happen. And also how she took the skills from her nursing background, because my mom was also a nurse and applied it to the business world and created things like the Jackie Robinson Foundation and she was, took over my dad's construction business and she added on the whole community, you know, how to make it a community and because she was involved in group development through as a psychiatric nurse. So, you know, like I said, I've learned lessons from my mom every day. Right now I'm learning about aging and, you know, my mother will wake up because she was such an active, productive person all of her life and she'll wake up in a middle of the night and say, okay, she'll come into my room and say, you know, I have to get dressed because I have to go to a meeting. You know, so in her mind, she's still living that active life and she, you know, tells me, you know, I can't just sit here. I have to go to work. All right, well, we have a couple more minutes left and I'll take two more questions if I wasn't... Yeah, yeah. It's really cool to get asked about my mom because she often says to me, did you have a mother? So there's two more questions I'll take and to all the kids whose question I couldn't get to, I'm sorry, but we did as many as we could in our pajama party here. So, and these last two, like the kind of how we've been talking about your mom are a little bit more serious, but they're important. So the first question, and I'm gonna say we have about two minutes per question and then we'll wrap up, but this question is, what was it like your father's threats when he was a black baseball player? So I was too young to even know about those threats. So, but I did ask my mother about this and she basically, I said to her, you know, mom, if you had two buckets, a bucket of all the hate mail and a bucket of the letters of support, which one would be full? And she said it was actually the letters of support. So what I learned from that, from both of my parents is that, that was part of what happened when you're a pioneer, when you're changing something as big as what they were changing, but they had lots of support from lots of different people and in many different ways. So they, and they had each other. So they, and they had faith. So anyway, so, you know, there was lots of ways that they felt supported. So we were, you know, we never talked about it at home as it was something that was threatening. And my dad even didn't talk about it when we were older. You know, it was just something he endured, but more importantly, he fought back. Yeah, yeah. And then that's a great segue into our last question. And the question is, Ms. Robinson, do you have suggestions on how we can fight for fairness today? Oh my goodness, you know, what'd she say? What'd you say? Two minutes, huh? Yes. We have to one, acknowledge discrimination, acknowledge racism, sexism. We have to believe in the importance of diversity in our lives and in our communities and in our world. We have to expose children to people that are different than them. And, you know, and have discussions at home like my parents did, you know, we really literally talked about throughout the civil rights movement, we talked about it at our dinner dining room table. So it was always something I felt like I could talk about at home, what I had to learn as I got older was how to talk about it outside of my home. You know, I had feelings that I didn't even understand, and encounters with racism that I didn't understand. And I could talk about it some at home, not always, but I would listen to everything, listen to how other people were dealing with it, within the movement, how children, that's why the Children's March in Birmingham was always so important to me. So I think what we have to do as parents and as kids is try to embrace diversity and a belief that, you know, have causes, you know, have a cause that you are passionate about, just like you made the pennants for this program tonight and they were amazing, and you made posters. You need to find a cause that you're passionate about and learn about it and think about how you can make a difference, even as a child, in whatever issue it is that you want to fight for. And you have to understand that life and fighting for justice is an ongoing part of life, and we can never give up, and we have to believe that we can make these changes and change is not just changing laws, changing attitudes, changing beliefs and wanting to just, you know, live amongst people of all cultures and races and religions and to see them as people and learn from our differences and also learn from our similarities. That's great. Thank you so much for being with us here tonight. On behalf of all the staff of the National Archives, I'd like to say thank you so much. It has been wonderful. I'd like to thank all the families who joined us tonight, all the children and parents and guardians. I just wanted to let you know that I will be emailing you out a survey so you can let us know, give us some feedback about what you thought about this. Like I said, this is our first time we're doing a virtual pajama party like this, so we'd love to hear your feedback and make it even better next time, if that's possible, right? So thank you again to Ms. Robinson. Thank you to my team here. Thank you to all the families. Thank you, especially to our special visitors from, you know, other countries. We appreciate that you took the time to come and be with us tonight. I hope if you made the nachos that the archivist recommended that you enjoyed them and hope everybody has a good evening. Thank you very much. Thank you. Bye bye.