Sugar Ray Robinson in 1989. In 2006 he was featured on a commemorative stamp by the United States Postal Service. Robinson was born Walker Smith Jr. in Ailey, Georgia, to Walker Smith Sr. and Leila Hurst. Robinson was the youngest of three children; his eldest sister Marie was born in 1917 and his other sister Evelyn was born in 1919. His father was a cotton, peanut, and corn farmer in Georgia, who moved the family to Detroit where he initially found work in construction. According to Robinson, Smith Sr. later worked two jobs to support his family—cement mixer and sewer worker. "He had
Dixie Walker Jackie Robinson joining the team, and he wrote a letter to Dodgers owner Branch Rickey asking to be traded. In a 1981 interview, Walker explained that his trade request was not due to Robinson, but because Walker had become a scapegoat for opposition within the team. In his 2002 book, "The Era, 1947-1957", author Roger Kahn wrote that Walker admitted to starting the Dodgers' player petition in 1947, in which the signers opposed the integration of baseball. In an interview with Kahn, Walker stated, "I organized that petition in 1947, not because I had anything against Robinson personally or against