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African American Introduction Into Sport 's The Civil Right Movement

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Andrew Reese
November 8, 2015
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African American Introduction into Sport’s: Role in the Civil Right Movement The outbreak of African American’s into the world of sports throughout the 1900’s emerged to have an influential impact on the Civil Right’s movement because they started to move our nation forward as one nation and not a nation separated by race. “Whether it was a conscious stand or unintentional advocacy, athletes and coaches throughout the past century used their participation in sports to change the racial atmosphere in our country” (The Role of Sports Among the Civil Rights Movement). Athletes became more and more useful in the fight for Civil Rights with more recognition they received in the years to follow…show more content…
Ever since there has been a use for sports, they have always captured the attention from millions of viewers. Even when televisions were not invented, the use of newspapers helped spread the greatness of the early African American athletes. The greatest use for desegregation in sports was used in one of the greatest sports of all time, America’s pastime: Baseball.
Baseball has been the most widely played sport since its entrance to North America over 175 years ago. It is also a sport that has almost been around for over 175 years. Baseball was desegregated in 1947, when a man named Jackie Robinson was announced as the starting first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers. “The best example of tactic is also the most well known: Branch Rickey’s “noble experiment” and the integration of the MLB by Jackie Robinson in 1947” (The Role of Sports Among the Civil Rights Movement). Before Robinson was introduced to the sport, baseball resembled America, a world full of desegregation wherever people went. Baseball was separated into two leagues, the more well- known white league and then the lesser known negro leagues. “Rickey recognized the power of sports and understood that integration in baseball could be the first step toward integration in society” (The Role of Sports Among the Civil Rights Movement). As more people saw Robinson play, the more people liked him and accepted the
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