1001 People Who Made America - Alan Axelrod [108]
Rickey, Branch (1881–1885) In 1947, as president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team, Rickey concluded a contract with Jackie Robinson, who thus became the first African American to play on a modern major league team. Before this, professional ball had been strictly segregated, with black players restricted to the Negro Leagues. By “crossing the color line” in professional baseball, Rickey and Robinson provided a spark that helped ignite a movement toward racial integration on a national scale.
Rickover, Hyman G. (1900–1986) Rickover was a U.S. Navy officer who championed and directed the development of the world’s first nuclear-powered ship’s engines and the first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, which was launched in 1954. In addition to fathering the nuclear navy, Rickover was a major advocate of harnessing atomic energy for peaceful purposes.
Ridgway, Matthew B. (1895–1993) Matthew Bunker Ridgway commanded the 82nd Airborne Division during World War II and, with it, planned and executed the first major airborne (paratroop) assault in U.S. military history during the Sicily campaign in July 1943. Airborne assault became a major tactic in World War II and subsequent conflicts. Ridgway also served as commander of the Eighth Army in the Korean War and in 1951 succeeded Douglas MacArthur as overall commander of U.S. and United Nations forces in Korea.
Riesman, David (1909–2002) Riesman’s The Lonely Crowd: A Study of the Changing American Character (1950) was a groundbreaking, provocative, and highly influential study of the urban middle class of postwar America. Riesman analyzed and defined the sense of individual alienation among the dominant class in America, which (as he saw it) emphasized conformity at the expense of self-fulfillment and the development of deep interpersonal relationships.
Riis, Jacob A. (1849–1914) After immigrating from Denmark, Riis became a journalist in New York. He explored the slums of the city’s Lower East Side and published, in 1890, How the Other Half Lives, a dramatic combination of text and photographs documenting life in those slums—a life virtually unknown to the city’s (and the nation’s) prosperous middle class. His book stirred the American conscience and spurred legislation aimed at slum clearance and general urban social reform.
Robbins, Jerome (1918–1998) Robbins was born Jerome Rabinowitz in New York City. After briefly studying chemistry at New York University, he followed his true passion, dance, and joined what is now the American Ballet Theater in 1940. He debuted as a choreographer in 1944 with Leonard Bernstein’s ballet Fancy Free, which was a tremendous popular and critical success. Robbins went on to choreograph many modern ballets, Broadway musicals, and Hollywood movies. His genius was in his integration of colloquial and popular American dance into ballet.
Robertson, Pat (1930– ) Robertson emerged in the 1960s and 1970s as a leading evangelical Christian broadcaster and a prime mover of the so-called Christian Right, a movement that promotes conservative Christian “values” in American politics and that is criticized by some for violating the Constitutional separation of church and state. In addition to having founded and operated many Christian/political organizations and corporations, Robertson hosts The 700 Club, a very successful Christian television talk show. Robertson ran unsuccessfully in the 1988 presidential primaries and is a major supporter of the Republican Party. He is a vocal and controversial opponent of abortion and gay rights.
Robeson, Paul (1898–1976) Robeson earned a law degree from Columbia University in 1923, but, as a black man, found little opportunity to practice and became an actor. He was closely associated with the playwright Eugene O’Neill, appearing in O’Neill’s All God’s Chillun Got Wings (1924) and The Emperor Jones (1924), which made him a star. Robeson was also one of the great baritones of the 20th century. He brought