The city of Philadelphia apologised on Friday (15th April) for its racist treatment of Major League Baseball's first black player Jackie Robinson.

SOUNDBITE (English) Helen Gym, Philadelphia City Council

"And I want to start with the words of a great man Dr Martin Luther King who said that the time is always right to do what is right. Seventy years ago Jackie Robinson came to the great city of Philadelphia. But the times were very different from what they are today and he faced tremendous racism in our city. He had racial slurs thrown at him, he was kicked out of a hotel, he was treated horribly in the history of the times from then, and it was something he never forgot. He often spoke about it being one of the most virulent places where he had experienced racism. It almost broke his spirit and it had him question whether this fight for integration was worth it. Seventy years ago that meant Jackie Robinson didn't forget it, but neither should we. And that means that we don't just live in a place of shame or a misunderstading but that we move ahead, and one of the ways we can do that is by honouring the great man with an apology."