Jackie Robinson: A Famous Baseball Player

In 1919, Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia. His family being sharecroppers, Jackie's mother, Mallie, raised Jackie and his four other siblings.(JackieRobinson.com) Being the only black family on the block, his family faced discrimination and racism from neighbors all around. From a humble beginning, Jackie was an outstanding athlete.(larrylester42.com) Jackie was promoted from Washington Junior High. Later, he entered John Muir High School after his junior high career. Recognizing his athletic ability, Robinson's older brothers inspired Jackie to pursue sports.(Jackierobinson.com)

The grandson of a slave, Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born on January 31, 1919, in Cairo, Georgia; he was the youngest of five children. Jackie grew up very poor, but little did he know that his athletic ability would open the doors for his future. After his father deserted the family when Jackie was six months old, his mother, Mallie Robinson, moved the family to California in search of work. California also subjected blacks to segregation at that time, but to less of a degree than in the Deep South. The young Jackie defused his anger over this prejudice by immersing himself in sports. He displayed extraordinary athletic skills in high school, excelling at football, basketball, baseball, and track. After helping Pasadena Junior College

Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born January 31, 1919. He was born in Cairo, Georgia and was the youngest of five children. He had a grandfather that was a slave, Jackie’s dad was a sharecropper and Mallie, Jackie’s mother, was a maid. His dad ran away from the family when Jackie was only an infant.

Later on, the Brooklyn Dodgers hired him to play. At first, he faced a lot of prejudice. He didn't care and sooner, people loved him. He was everywhere; there was articles about him in the newspaper, there were pictures of him everywhere, and everyone knew him. He was an amazing player. Soon people started hiring more and more African American players. The baseball league started getting integrated.In the text( Biography) it states,” ..he pioneered the integration of professional athletics in America. By breaking the color barrier in baseball, the nation’s favorite sport, he courageously challenges the deeply rooted custom of racial segregation in both the North and South.” Jackie Robinson achieved his goal of integrating major league baseball teams.

Jackie Robinson was an important figure in the civil rights movement. His greatest accomplishment, however, was integrating baseball. He made many Americans excited about it because he was the first African American to ever play in Major League Baseball. Also, he did many things for the civil rights movement. The integration of baseball set off a reaction of different movements to desegregate places like schools, public facilities, and the army.

Jackie was a modern day hero, he went through all the 12 steps. Mainly, he was heavily doubted but he surpassed all the expectations. Jackie destroyed all the test put in front of him and broke the racial barrier. Jackie open up the international league to all races. Baseball wouldn't be baseball without Jackie

Since the formation of America, there have been many people who helped create the country as it is known today. Their lives and choices affected the course of history of the US for the better. Many of these characters attacked the racism of America. African Americans have had to deal with great discrimination and unequal treatment acted upon them. Because of this, these great figures rose up to fight against racism and give African Americans the rights they deserve. One of these contributors to American culture that fought against racism was Jackie Robinson. Jackie Robinson was a famous baseball player who aided in the integration of African Americans in many areas of life.

Robinson certainly faced many different challenges. For example, they did not allow Robinson to stay at white hotels when they had over night games, which left him to be alone most nights. One reporter stated, “Robinson is the loneliest man I have ever seen in sports” (Brown 3). Additionally, many coaches, players, and fans abused Robinson. They did so by name calling at games, sending death threats, and intentionally hitting him with pitches (Graf 2). Opposing teams would always pick at Robinson by saying, “Hey, boy, come and shine my shoes,” or “Boy, why ain’t you picking cotton” (Brown 1, 2). “Robinson was proud and tough.” Despite all the negative activity, Robinson stayed composed and never let himself or his community down. “Proud and tough” was how Robinson became known. Nothing was going to stop him from proving he

Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play in the MLB. Back then many people's point of view about African Americans was that they had some things, but the things should be worse than what the things white people had, and because of that he was proud yet uneasy because he would get a lot of hate for playing, and he did. The thing is he didn’t only get hate, but he also got threats against him and his family to physically harm him,“The hate mail piled up. There were threats against me and my family and even out-and-out attempts at physical harm to me.” Being in the MLB was hard and he could’ve given up, but he didn’t. Jackie Robinson stayed strong and he changed our point of view about African Americans not doing things that only white people could do and he helped our country change for the better

The legacy of Jackie Robinson goes beyond the April 15, 1947 afternoon at Ebbets Field, when the Brooklyn Dodger infielder became the first black in the 20th century to play baseball in the major leagues. He changed the sport, and he changed the attitude of a lot of people in this country, Jackie Robinson fought for all the people that were fortunate, a lot of them are, especially the minority guys, to be able to play in the major leagues and the impact on the people of color today.

“Jackie Robinson was born on the thirty first day of January in 1919”. (biography.com) He was born to a family of sharecroppers in the town of Cairo Georgia, but Jackie grew up in Pasadena California. (Jackie Robinson official website) Jackie grew up being raised by only his mother and his older siblings helped out as well. He had four siblings, three older brothers and one sister. (Britannica encyclopedia) Jackie was the youngest of five kids and they all helped out each other in school, sports, and chores. The Robinson family was the only African American family on their block, but the bias acts of the white people surrounding them didn’t hurt them, but prepared them for their future. (Jackie Robinson official website) Jackie’s older brother Matthew gave him his inspiration to take on sports just as he did. He has always had a huge love for sports in his childhood years. (Jackie Robinson book pg: 4)

Jackie Robinson brought baseball fans of all races together and it improved race relations because even though their was still hatred, white people were getting eased into racial integration since Jackie Robinson was laying the foundations of civil rights. Robinson was loved by many and hated by plenty, every game he played he packed the stands whether it be fans who are cheering for him or booing him. According to the biography by Wilson “Many fans came out to cheer Robinson, and a lot came out to boo him but both groups bought tickets” (75). He performed so well on the baseball field that the fans would lose sight of his color, and the stands were predominantly white so he was doing so well with a very unsupportive fan base. In the biography

Jackie was a phenomenal athlete for young kids to look up to. After the start of World War II he served in the military from 1942 to 1944. After the war he returned to his love for baseball, playing in the Black major leagues. He was chosen by Branch Rickey, vice president of the Brooklyn dodgers, to help integrate the Major Leagues. Rickey hated segregation just as much as Robinson and wanted to change things “Rickey had once seen a Black college player turned away from a hotel… Rickey never forgot seeing this player crying because he was denied a place to lay his weary head just because of the color of his skin” (Mackenzie). He was finally able to do something about segregation and help change baseball and the United States for the better. It wasn’t that all the teams were racist and didn’t want a black player but when the major league teams had an away game they would rent out the stadium to the black teams for them to play at. And the executives of teams didn’t want to loose the money that they were making off of the black teams. “League owners would lose significant rental revenue” (“Breaking”). He soon signed with the all-white Montreal Royals a farm team for the Dodgers. Robinson had an outstanding start with the Royals, “leading the International League with a .349 batting average and .985 fielding percentage” (Robinson). After Robinson’s outstanding year he was promoted to the Dodgers he played his first game on

With the same idea as Martin Luther King Jr., he worked hard to stay non-violent and to “turn the cheek” to the many threats and racial slurs he received throughout his time in the Major League. He was the target of many cold-hearted fans, and even some of the players on his own team. He was already born a leader, but these things fueled his fire even more. 5 years after he began playing in the MLB, he testified against discrimination before the House of Un-American Activities Committee and called out the Yankees for not yet breaking the color barrier. Along with that, he also served as a leader on the board of the NAACP until 1967.(www.NAACP.org) There, he made speeches that inspired people to get on board and to fight for their rights and for changes. He said, “Certainly if such revolutionary change can be brought about in baseball, it can be brought about in education, in transportation, and in any other area of American life. (Robinson) He believed that change was just around the corner, and all it needed was a little push. Jackie was a firm believer in his ideas and that is why he is such an important figure in our

Jackie Robinson was a very important man to American history because he was the first black major league baseball player. Some might think it was easy for Jackie Robinson, but it was quite the opposite. He received stacks of hate mail, threats to his family, and even some of his own teammates didn’t accept him, but he didn’t stop trying. There were some good things that came with this though, black people supported him with total loyalty and there were many kids and some adults that didn’t