By Seth Sandronsky
Les Robinson is a mama’s boy and proud of it. The Sacramento actor, athlete, author, coach and pastor grew up in Oak Park as the oldest child of a single mom, Janet Laverne Shankle.
In “Discovering Daniel Blue: My Search for Significance, Purpose, and Legacy,” readers meet Shankle as she is rearing six children “with a Bible and a switch,” as Robinson writes in his new nonfiction book, which was published in April.
Robinson began writing the book after learning at a family barbecue about his ancestor named Daniel Blue, an enslaved person who became an influential member of the Sacramento community. “I learned about Daniel Blue, who arrived in Sacramento during the Gold Rush, from a family member in an offhand kind of way,” Robinson says.
That moment led to much familial and personal discovery. As Robinson learned about his ancestor, questions emerged in ways big and small. His great-great-great-grandfather, born into enslavement in Kentucky, had been able to grow into a pillar of the Sacramento community. “How could I have been so unaware?” Robinson wonders. “How did I fail to learn about this ancestor in school?”
Who writes the history books? Why do the writers omit some people? Such questions swirled through Robinson’s mind as he worked on his own account of the past. Writing about this experience served as a catharsis for him as he charted his way in a life of marriage, children, religion and work.
Robinson discovered that Blue was a driving force in Black Californians’ advancement as full citizens in a state that was founded with over 3,000 enslaved African Americans. He also learned that one of Blue’s accomplishments was founding the Saint Andrews African Methodist Episcopal Church, across from what is now Sacramento’s Southside Park, where Robinson had been a swimming pool manager.
Robinson’s Sacramento High School classmate Robin Williams Rositani, a longtime friend and amateur genealogist, assisted him with writing the book. They first met while Robinson played running back for the late and legendary football coach Dave Hotel, a mentor to many athletes at Sac High. Robinson later went on to play college football at San Francisco State, and tried out for a professional football team and worked in the entertainment industry.
Robinson spent six and a half years researching and writing about Blue’s struggle for Black people’s freedom in California. The process renewed Robinson’s understanding of his life and those of the people around him, giving new meaning to overcoming adversity and even tragedy. We also read how Robinson’s faith and family history cushion him from the negativity of the unexpected, including the death of his parents, that are baked into becoming a responsible adult.
Amid today’s far-right bid to legitimize the politics of anti-Blackness, Robinson’s familial and personal history book delivers a message of honesty and integrity. These qualities burnish Robinson’s legitimacy as a truth-teller, one who does not run away from self-critique, but embraces it as part of the process of becoming a husband, pastor and parent. In Robinson’s books, we see how understanding the past can help us chart a path through present challenges.