For more than 50 years Major League Baseball was a segregated sport until Mr. Jackie Robinson came along and changed the game. Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia in 1919 to a family of sharecroppers, he was one of five children. He and his family lived where no one else looked like them, they were the only black family on a block when racial prejudice was prevalent.
In spite of
growing up in a single-parent home, Jackie excelled at an early age.
Sports was his thing and while attending school at UCLA Jackie became
the first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball,
football, track and basketball. He was even named to the All-American
football team in 1941. Jackie's college career was cut short when
financial difficulties forced him to leave college, so he decided to
try out the U.S. Army. There he became one of the first Blacks to attend
Officer Candidate School and he graduated second lieutenant after
only two years. Jackie's Army career was also cut short due to his
objections about racial discrimination when he refused to move to the
back of the bus during one of their trips, which resulted in a court
martial. Robinson was acquitted of all charges and received an
honorable discharge from the US Army.Jackie returned to sports in 1945 and played one season in the Negro Baseball League with the Kansas City Monarchs. But it was in 1947 when the opportunity of a lifetime presented itself, Brooklyn Dodgers president Branch Rickey approached Jackie about joining his team. The Major Leagues hadn't had an African-American player since 1889 and Branch Rickey thought it was about time for a change and what a change indeed, in 1947 when Jackie Robinson became a Brooklyn Dodger he broke the baseball "color line" and integrated sports.
Not everyone was thrilled about this change in baseball, some of Robinson's teammates gave him the cold shoulder and one news reporter referred to him as "the loneliest man I have ever seen in sports." That wasn't the only thing he had to endure while playing in the major league, Jackie still had to deal with discrimination on other levels. On road trips he was often barred from staying in the same hotels or eating in the same restaurants as the rest of the team because he was Black. During games, some of the opposing players would make racial slurs, pitchers would throw the ball at his head and runners would hit him with spikes. He even received hate mail and death threats but that didn't stop Jackie from making history.
By
the end of Robinson's rookie season with the Brooklyn Dodgers, he had
been named National League Rookie of the Year with 12 homers, a
league-leading 29 steals, and a .297 average. He was selected as the
NL's Most Valuable player of the Year in 1949 and in the same year he
also won the batting title with a .342 average. Jackie was also a force off the baseball diamond. He was the first Black television analyst for Major League Baseball and the first Black vice-president for a major American corporation. He also helped establish the Freedom National Bank, an African-American owned financial institution in Harlem, NY. Jackie Robinson died on October 24, 1972 at the young age of 53.
Jackie
Robinson's life and legacy will always be remembered as one of the
most important in American history. As a result of his great success,
Jackie was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962 and the
Major Leagues observe "Jackie Robinson Day," an annual
tradition where all players from all teams wear Robinson's number 42.
Today, Blacks are widely accepted in all sports, thanks to the
pathway this homerun hero paved. Had he still been alive today, he
would have turned 94 years old on his birthday, January
31st. Jackie Robinson.. Pioneer, Sports Legend, Game Changer!
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