Jackie Robinson Obstacles

Jackie Robinson is mostly remembered for breaking the color barrier in baseball. By stepping into the predominantly white sport, he changed the face of not only baseball, but also the United States as a whole. He did all of this during a time of segregated buses, schools, hotels, drinking fountains, and when restaurants were separated. After joining the league in 1947, he wasn't accepted. He faced death threats, vulgar insults, and fans

Jackie Robinson was one of the most historically well known people in the civil rights movement. So as the first man to integrate major league baseball, Jackie Robinson had a game changing impact on the way the game was played. Having the courage to fight for what is right, Jackie broke the imaginary color barrier that has covered major league baseball for years. Through his resiliency and tenaciousness in the face of seemingly unconquerable odds, Jackie Robinson set the course for African Americans to continue the expansion for equality and true freedom while he was becoming one of the greatest Major League baseball players in history.

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.

Jackie Robinson was born on January 31, 1919 in Cairo, Georgia. However, at an early age of one year old, his single mother moved Jackie and four other siblings to Pasadena, California. In Pasadena, Jackie and his family grew up in poverty. Even though his family was impoverished, they lived in a predominately white neighborhood where they faced lots of discrimination for the simple fact that they were black. As Jackie was growing up, he excelled in baseball, basketball, football, and track. He went to John Muir High School where he was a letterman in all the sports that he excelled at. His early life fueled him to greater accomplishments as he got older.

    Jackie Robinson was born on January 31, 1919 in Caigo, Georgia. Growing up he was a very different and bright character, anyone could tell you that one. People always said he would have a smile on his face and when he wanted to do something he was determined until he did it. He had had gone to John Muir High School where he was an excellent athlete and his grades were also very good.

On January 31, 1919, a kid by the name of Jackie Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia. He surely did not know that he would be one day an american hero. His father was Jerry Robinson, a plantation worker. His mother was Mallie, she was a domestic worker. Jackie had three brothers and one sister. The four brothers were: Edgar, Frank and Mack. The sister was Willa Mae. Frank and Edgar are no longer alive, but Mack and WIlla still live in Pasadena, California. His dad left Mallie and the children, never to return, when Jackie was six months old. When

Jackie chose to play baseball. Baseball at the time was segregated and whites and blacks played in separate leagues. He began playing for the Montreal royals after being noticed by Branch Rickey, the owner of the Brooklyn dodgers. The Montreal royals were an all white baseball team at the time but when Jackie started playing with them, it began to change. Jackie became the first African American to play on an all white baseball team.

In the early to mid-1900s, the races in America were characterized by legal segregation because of lingering racism in America. Jackie Robinson worked his entire career not only to become one of the greatest Major League Baseball players, but also to break the color barrier in baseball. Players, coaches, and managers made a “rule” in 1884 that no African-American man could play baseball on a white team (Graf 2). Despite this decision, Branch Rickey (2) decided there needed to be a change and offered Robinson a contract with the LA Dodgers. Robinson questioned himself and questioned why Ricky chose him to break the color barrier. Rickey stated, “Robinson, I’m looking for a ballplayer with guts enough not to fight back” (Brown 3).

Since 1839, baseball was a white man’s game. That would all change when Jackie Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1942. This would be a major victory for African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement. Before Robinson entered the league, African Americans played in the National Negro League and Whites played in the MLB(Major League Baseball). At this time in history blacks were still fighting for equality every single day. They were segregated by going to different schools than whites, drinking from different water fountains than whites, sitting in the back of the bus, etc. Jackie Robinson was the first black baseball player in a white league and one of the greatest athletes of all time. He was able to achieve this despite

Jackie Robinson’s background and childhood environment had a major impact on the ways he went about changing African American lives. He is famous for saying that “a life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives” (Jackie 1). Jack (Jackie) Roosevelt Robinson is famously well-known for becoming the first black player in the major leagues and playing with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. He was born on January 31, 1919, in Cairo, Georgia. He also was the youngest of five children and he was raised by a single mother. His older brother, Matthew, actually inspired him to pursue his dream in sports. Surprisingly, Matthew won a silver medal in the 200-meter-dash, just behind Jesse Owens in the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin. Jackie went to John Muir High School and Pasadena Junior College, which are the places where he played a various amount of sports growing up. His reputation as a household name began to gain traction during this time. He was awarded the Region’s Most Valuable

“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's entry into the Major Leagues was far from a walk in the park. He climbed over countless obstacles just to play with white men, some of which, he was better then. He not only had to compete with the returning players from the war, but he also contended with racism. "Many towns in the South did not want racially mixed teams"(Weidhorn 53). As time went on, cities realized that Robinson offered them free publicity.

He earned everything he got and all he wanted to do was prove himself. The road to becoming MLB’s first African American saw Robinson face many obstacles from fans, opponents, and even teammates. The first obstacle Robinson encountered on his path to MLB was with his own team and teammates. In his first day of spring training, Jackie runs towards the field to begin warmups. He is then swarmed by reporters from the New York Times asking him all

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