The nation honors slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this week. His teachings on nonviolent civil actions to promote civil rights rest atop the efforts of his life’s work.

Involved in those efforts were famous athletes. Dr. King called on the likes of heavyweight boxing champion Floyd Patterson, and baseball Hall of Fame member Roy Campanella, and many others, to share stages with him to promote his efforts. Many of those athletes came to him and offered their names to the cause.

One of those athletes was the man credited with breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball, Jackie Robinson. Robinson was active in the civil rights movement after his playing days, and his efforts involving Dr. King bring to light some of the difficult times the civil rights movement endured in the 1960s, including a more contentious Vietnam War that shared daily headlines with the civil rights news.

Robinson, like many others, sought to find the balance between his support for Dr. King’s efforts, his feelings about the war, and his own place as a national leader.

On June 15, 1963, Robinson sent a telegram to then President John Kennedy expressing his concerns about the safety of Dr. King, who was that day to attend the funeral of slain civil rights marcher Medgar Evers in Mississippi.

“Should harm come to Dr. King to add to the misery which decent Americans of both races experienced with the murder of Mr. Evers. The restraint of many people all over this nation might burst its bonds and bring about a brutal bloody holocaust the like of which this country has not seen. For to millions, Martin King symbolizes the bearing forward of the torch for freedom so savagely wrested from the dying grip of Medgar Evers. America needs and cannot afford to lose him to the whims of murderous maniacs.”

Little did Robinson know that not only would history bear out his fears regarding Dr. King, but the very president whose help he sought in King’s behalf would himself become lost to the “whims of murderous maniacs” in a matter of months.

In 1967, Robinson wrote to then President Lyndon Johnson of his concerns that the civil rights movement might lose ground to the Vietnam War protests. Dr. King and other civil rights leaders were joining in the questioning of the war effort and Robinson wrestled with how to handle the issue.

Robinson wrote to Johnson: “I do feel you must make it infinitely clear that regardless of who demonstrates, that your position will not change toward the rights of all people; that you will continue to press for justice for all Americans and that a strong stand now will have great effect upon young Americans who could resort to violence unless they are reassured.”

Again, history bore truth to Robinson’s words when the violence erupted when Dr. King himself was murdered.

These letters and others from Robinson concerning the civil rights effort are part of the National Archives and Resource Administration. While minor in the works and words of Dr. King, they are illustrative of the role athletes can play in national issues outside sports.

That issue is raised often today. There are many who find the current-day athletes, on the whole, far removed from the issues that affect the many who view them as heroes and role models. With the dollars they make and the lives of luxury they lead, they are perhaps as a group further from the everyday life of the nation that created their wealth than ever.

Robinson and others like him, Muhammad Ali in particular, believed their fame from sports created a responsibility to act as leaders on social issues. That in and of itself is a matter worthy of debate at a time when some would say the further many of today’s athletes stay from social issues, the better off society will be.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and NBC sportscaster.