Hey they aren't racists, FIFTY YEARS LATER THEY HAD A ROBINSON APPRECIATION DAY!

[rufus dog]

From the Sanford webpage, see they are good people, they gave one whole day to someone their own tried to deny equal opportunity and justice. See they are good people!

http://www.sanfordfl.gov/index.aspx?page=32&recordid=138

Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 and broke the color barrier in major league baseball on April 15, 1947. On April 15, 1997, the 50th anniversary of Robinson breaking the color barrier, the mayor of Sanford issued a proclamation apologizing for the events that had occurred in 1946 and proclaimed April 15, 1997 as Jackie Robinson Recognition Day in Sanford

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Sanford must've felt guilty after trying to lynch Robinson:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/08/us-usa-florida-sanford-idUSBRE83706920120408

SANFORD, Florida | Sun Apr 8, 2012 7:14am EDT
(Reuters) - The year before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier by becoming the first African American to play major league baseball, he fled the racist threats of townspeople in Sanford, Florida, where Trayvon Martin was shot 66 years later.
It was 1946 and Robinson arrived in this picturesque town in central Florida for spring training with a Brooklyn Dodgers farm team. He didn't stay long.

Robinson was forced to leave Sanford twice, according to Chris Lamb, a professor at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, who wrote a graphic account of Robinson's brush with 100 angry locals in a 2004 book.
</snip>

[rufus dog]

2. They felt so guilty

That 50 years later they decided to have an "appreciation" day. I will bet you dollars to donuts that there was a fight over having a JR Day, and the compromise was to add "appreciation" so as those racists fucks who didn't want to join a JR day could have an out. That way Sanford wasn't sanctioning a day, only those who "appreciate" JR.