Jackie Robinson 's Life Is Not A Spectator Sport

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.

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.

“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives”- Jackie Robinson (Baseball Almanac). Jackie Robinson’s life accomplished more than impacting others, he impacted a nation. His humble upbringing, strong will, and fight for equality is unmatched by any other. He was one of the first African Americans to stand up for equal rights and broke through many barriers to allow others to fight with him. His Hall of Fame career on the baseball diamond is only a small piece to Jackie’s story of struggle and hardship to reach equality.

Why is Jackie Robinson one of the most iconic people in history? Because Robinson defied segregation by playing Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1945 to 1956 (Wise 2). He bravely fought for many years to play as an African-American player without giving up; despite all the hurdles he had to jump, Robinson silently overcame the obstacles that they handed to him with quiet dignity (Henninger 7). As a result, Robinson well represented the African-American community in professional sports, and in so doing, he helped inspire others in the Civil Rights Movement. Robinson was the start to ending the color barrier.

“Near six o’clock on the evening of January 31, 1919, Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born somewhere near the town of Cairo in Grandy County in southern Georgia” (Rampersad 10). Jackie’s parents, Jerry and Mallie Robinson, first lived together on a small plantation just south of Cairo. Mallie Robinson raised her five children single handedly, and they later moved to Pasadena, California, which was not the most racially friendly environment due to the Robinsons being the only black family on the block. Not having a father in the home, he looked up to his older brothers and saw them as his future, they are the ones who introduced him into the sports

Baseball has always been America’s national pastime. In the early and all the way into the mid 50’s, baseball was America and America was baseball. The only thing lacking in the great game was the absence of African American players and the presence of an all white sport. America still wasn’t friendly or accepted the African American race and many still held great prejudice towards them. All this would change when the general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Branch Rickey decided he was going to sign a Negro player. Jackie Robinson was that player and Jackie Robinson changed the game, America, and history. By looking specifically at his childhood adversity, college life and the hardships he encountered by becoming the first black player

Jackie Robinson was born January 31, 1919, in Cairo, Ga. being the 25 days preceding Jackie’s birth President Roosevelt died, Roosevelt was Jackie’s middle name. (Obias 2013) Shortly after his birth, his family moved and settled in Pasadena, Calif. During Jackie’s early adulthood World War 2 was occurring across the world. Like many young men Jackie was drafted to serve in the war. However, Jackie received a court martial for refusing to move to the back of the bus for a white soldier. Jackie never saw war action as the incident occurred during boot camp.

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.

     Robinson’s importance continues after his baseball career. After he retired in 1956, he became active in the NAACP and the civil rights movement. He put forth his baseball career and decade his life to improving African Americans status in society. Many black people looked for to him for help and support. He didn’t care what people thought

“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)

To the average person, in the average American community, Jackie Robinson was just what the sports pages said he was, no more, no less. He was the first Negro to play baseball in the major leagues. Everybody knew that, but to see the real Jackie Robinson, you must de-emphasize him as a ball player and emphasize him as a civil rights leader. That part drops out, that which people forget. From his early army days, until well after his baseball days, Robinson had fought to achieve equality among whites and blacks. "Jackie acted out the philosophy of nonviolence of Martin Luther King Jr., before the future civil rights leader had thought of applying it to the problem of segregation in America"(Weidhorn 93). Robinson was an avid

Jackie Robinson: athlete, social activist, hero. These are just some of the words people use to describe Jackie. Robinson was the first person to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball, at the time officially designated a white man’s sport. The blacks and whites played in separate leagues but Branch Rickey, vice president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, wanted to integrate Major League Baseball. At this time in the 1940s the Unites States was still segregated and the Jim Crow Laws still reigned heavily in the south. Integration didn’t start until 1948 when Truman signed Executive Order 9981 which integrated the military. This didn’t occur until after Robinson took the field as the first African-American to play in the major leagues.

Robinson was born on January 31, 1919, into a family of sharecroppers in Cairo, Georgia. He was the youngest of five children born to Mallie McGriff and Jerry Robinson. His middle name, Edgar, was in honor of former President Theodore Roosevelt who died 25 days before Robinson was born. After Jackie’s father left the family in 1920, they moved to Pasadena, California. Robinson 's mother worked various jobs to support the family. Jackie grew up in poverty in an affluent community. Jackie and his friends were excluded from many recreational opportunities. As a result, Robinson joined a neighborhood gang. His friend Carl Anderson persuaded him to abandon the gang. In high school Jackie attended John Muir high school being an outstanding athlete. He was a multi-sport athlete playing football, baseball, track, tennis, and baseball. Jackie won numerous athletic awards in high school. Jackie Robinson attended

“A life is not important except in the impact it has on others”(Robinson). This is the standpoint Jackie Robinson had on life being a black person during his time period. He was a strong and courageous man despite the hardships that were set in his lifetime. He was faced with poverty, low income, and racial threats, but was granted with the gift of being a great athlete. Jackie Robinson being the first black MLB player had a great affect on American history because he helped boost morale, pushed toward civil rights, and integrated blacks into white sports.

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