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Members of the Committee to Commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will host the community celebration Jan. 16 at the Manahan Orthopaedic Capital Center, Grace College, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., according to a news release from Warsaw Community Schools.
Carl Erskine, Anderson, will be the featured guest speaker for the event. Erskine may be best known for being a player with the Major League Baseball team Brooklyn Dodgers and holding the World Series strike-out record, 14, versus the Yankees in 1953.
Erskine was a teammate and friend of Jackie Robinson, who broke through MLB’s longstanding unwritten rule barring African Americans from playing. Together, they shared an enduring friendship that would teach lessons of patience, fortitude and doing the right thing, the release states.
Erskine shares an intimate portrait of baseball, friendship and one man’s fight to change the world as he witnessed his teammate crusade for racial equality.
Robinson once said, “A life is not important except the impact it has on other lives.”
Among many other accolades, Erskine also went on to be a champion for Special Olympics after he personally witnessed struggles with prejudice with his own son, Jimmy, born with Down syndrome.
