Jackie Robinson and Civil Rights

962 Words2 Pages

Crack! Back, back, back the ball goes. Home run! Who hit it? It was Jackie Robinson, the first black baseball player in the major league. Many people would agree Jackie was one of the best players to ever swing a bat. However, he faced many difficulties on his journey to becoming a professional baseball player. Without Jackie playing in the pros, baseball and civil rights wouldn’t be the way it is today. Baseball may have taken a long time to not be made up of mainly white players. Jackie was a beacon of hope to black people in the fact that they could compete and succeed in a white man’s sport. Jackie was born and raised in Cairo, Georgia 1919. He was raised by his single mother Mallie along with is four siblings. He was the first person at UCLA to obtain a varsity letter in baseball, basketball, football, and track. He married Rachel Isum who he met at UCLA. He however had to leave school due to financial reasons and decided to enlist in the military, but was honorably discharged due to being court-martialed due to his actions against racial discrimination. Jackie played one season in 1945 with the Kansas City Monarchs leading to further achievements in his professional baseball career. In 1947 Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers desperately wanted Robinson to play for him and his team. He would become the first black MLB player since 1889 when baseball became discriminated. In his first year he was the Rookie of the Year. He debuted in the International League with the Montreal Royals. This the led to Branch’s interest in Robinson since he was considered one of the best players in the International League and considering it was his first time playing with white men. During his career Jackie had several obstacles of discrimin... ... middle of paper ... ... only sports. His controversial first game was a major barrier for black people that he had just broken. At first no white person, except those sympathetic towards blacks, liked the idea of him in baseball and many were willing to do whatever it took to force him out of the league. Jackie was steadfast in not budging and giving to the pressure of fighting back to defend himself. With the help of Branch he could overcome this desire to fight against the people that hated him and wanted him dead and gone. However, after many months of struggling to restrain himself, people began to take his side and root for him. Jackie’s story has inspired many to overcome great obstacles and will continue to do so in the future. Works Cited goldstien, w. (2014). Jackie robinson. Retrieved may 14, 2014, from History.com: http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/jackie-robinson

Show More
Related

  • Feng Ru Research Paper

    1322 Words  | 3 Pages

    Particularly, Jackie Robinson is best known for being the first black baseball player in the Major Leagues. As an experiment, to have baseball a national sport, Jackie Robinson was chosen to be a baseball player. He stood ground as people threatened harm on him. Without the support on him, though, Robinson wouldn’t have made it.

    Read More

  • Jackie Robinson's Accomplishments

    746 Words  | 2 Pages

    Especially if you were a Dodgers fan, considering he did accomplish many things not even the best white baseball players were doing. As long as it took for integration to finally be settled was due to the beliefs of the people on race equality dating back to pre-Civil War, throughout Jackie’s career. The views have most definitely changed between races throughout the years, allowing very few differences between race, beliefs, preferences and more to be supported throughout the league. This is greatly appreciated in modern baseball today because baseball would not be what it is today if integration still existed, and/or if the league still had the color ban.

    Read More

  • Jackie Robinson: A Journey of Resilience and Triumph

    644 Words  | 2 Pages

    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, after siblings Edgar, Frank, Matthew (nicknamed "Mack"), and Willa Mae.[8][9][10] His middle name was in honor of former President Theodore Roosevelt, who died 25 days before Robinson was born.[11][12] After Robinson's father left the family in 1920, they moved to Pasadena, California.[13][14][15]

    Read More

  • Why Is Jackie Robinson A Hero

    655 Words  | 2 Pages

    Robinson began playing baseball professionally after being discharged from the army. He started playing in the Negro Leagues, because at this time the sport was segregated and African Americans and whites had to play in different leagues.... ... middle of paper ... ...

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Jackie Robinson

    1474 Words  | 3 Pages

    Jackie Robinson was the first black baseball player to play on the professional level, he was fearless, courageous, willful and strong. He was an advocate for civil rights, as well as a great baseball player. He had to try to keep quiet, and keep to himself while playing, but became a stronger and more extreme advocate over time. A leader on and off the fields dealing with much more than just baseball, he also had to deal with the criticism and racial tensions of a prominently white game. Branch Rickey, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, was a showman who knew how to make money and fame in baseball “he had made a fortune for the cardinals as well as himself, and black talent could argument his bottom line by transforming his struggling dodgers into a power house” (Zeiler, 17). He wanted to make his team great by any means possible. He put his eyes on Jackie Robinson. Jackie Robinson changed the game and the world, and will always be a huge figure in baseball and civil rights.

    Read More

  • Essay On Jackie Robinson

    1236 Words  | 3 Pages

    Whether it was on the football field, on the basketball court, or out on the baseball field, Robinson encountered quite a bit of success wherever he went. (cite) Despite the talents of many African American baseball players, many were deemed inferior to their white counterparts. The sense of inferiority led many baseball players and owners of the teams in the Negro leagues to adjust to the status quo, however, Robinson was not one to simply seek to fulfill the status quo. Robinson was unwilling to conform with what mainstream society tried to force him to conform with, he constantly told his teammates that they should always be ready, someday one of them would be signed to break the color barrier and play in organized ball (cite to pg 48). Unlike many of his peers, he felt a different calling in the sport of baseball.

    Read More

  • The Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

    2179 Words  | 5 Pages

    The time came on April 15, 1947 when the man who would change all this stepped up to bat marking the first time an African American played in the major leagues. Jackie Robinson was the man and the hero of baseball to the black people. With much hope Jackie Robinson and the African American race marked the beginning of the struggle for the ultimate goal which was equality. Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born on January 31, 1919 in Cairo, Georgia. He was the son of a sharecropper and life wasn’t ea...

    Read More

  • I Never Had It Made Sparknotes

    828 Words  | 2 Pages

    While some praised the addition of a black person in baseball, many did not. Robinson goes into detail about his positive relationship with several players, along with his heated association with Walter O’Malley, the Dodger owner, as well as the prominent sportswriter Dick Young, who racism revealed itself in many of Young’s own writing. During his first appearance as a major league baseball player in 1947, Robinsons says that some players were outraged they had to play with him; Rickey said if anyone didn’t want to play with him they could simply leave the

    Read More

  • Jackie Robinson: Breaking Baseball's Color Barrier

    309 Words  | 1 Pages

    Robinsons dream was achieved when Branch Rickey (president of the Brooklyn Dodgers) chose the young Jackie Robinson to be the first black to play baseball in the MLB for the Dodgers. At first Jackie was confused, scared, and excited but then Jackie thought “ This is revenge for all the times when racism has made it to making fun of African Americans.” So Jackie accepted the request and all of the questions.

    Read More

  • A Brief Biography Of Jackie Robinson

    839 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jackie Robinson was born on January 31,1919 in Cairo,Georgia as the youngest out of five children. He attended John Muir High School. Jackie continued his education at the University Of California where he became the university’s first student to win four varsity letters in all different sports. In 1941,he was forced to leave UCLA because of financial hardship.

    Read More

  • Jackie Robinson: The Man that Changed Baseball

    1178 Words  | 3 Pages

    Here comes Jackie Robinson, dashing towards home base going as fast as he can. The dirt is flying up behind him. Bam! He slides into home plate, with a cloud of dirt and the catcher around him. Here comes the umpire, and he screams safe. The crowd goes wild cheering for him. This is what Brooklyn Dodger fans were used to hearing whenever Jackie Robinson was on base. Sadly though, that is not the only thing that he would be hearing. On a daily basis not just at the field but anywhere Jackie would go he would hear the sounds of what present people now a days call haters. Jackie knew that if he were to show any sort of weakness, that what he was doing would be all for nothing. By doing what he has done, Jackie was able to change sports forever by facing different hardships along with discrimination throughout his years playing baseball.

    Read More

  • Informative Speech: The Legacy Of Jackie Robinson

    1014 Words  | 3 Pages

    A. Jack Roosevelt Robinson (also known as Jackie Robinson) was the first african american to play in the MLB. Also a World War II veteran, husband and father of three.

    Read More

  • Essay On Jackie Robinson

    668 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jackie Robinson overcame many struggles in life such as being included in the civil rights movement, facing discrimination, and he achieved being the first black man in major league baseball. He was born on January 31, 1919 in Cairo, Georgia on Hadley Ferry Road. It is a blue-collar town of about 10,000 people. Jackie Robinson became the first black player in the major leagues with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Even though he achieved this major goal he still had trouble getting there. He and his siblings were raised by his single mother. Jackie attended Muir High School and Pasadena Junior College. He was a great athlete and played many sports. He played football, basketball, track, and of course baseball. He left school in 1941, worked as an athletic director and played semiprofessional football for the Honolulu Bears before being drafted to the Army in 1942. While he was in the army he became close friends with Joe Louis. The heavyweight used his popularity to protest about the delayed entry of black soldiers. Two years later he got the honor to be second lieutenant in 1943. After an accident where he refused to sit in the back of an unsegregated bus, military police arrested Robinson. A duty officer requested this and then later he requested that Jackie should be court martialed. Since this happened Jackie was not allowed to be deployed overseas to the World War II. He never saw combat during the war. Jackie left the Army with an honorable discharge.

    Read More

  • Jackie Robinson

    856 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jackie Robinson was the first African American to join the MLB. He Played for the Brooklyn Dodgers. To this day, every player in the MLB, on every team each player wears the number 42 to represent Jackie Robinson. Jackie gave people hope and inspiration to follow your dreams no matter what your obstacles are in your way. People look up to Jackie Robinson as a role model.

    Read More

  • Jackie Robinson's Impact on Baseball

    1572 Words  | 4 Pages

    For a long time, it was assumed that blacks were not allowed to play in the Major Leagues simply because they had not for so long. When Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the commissioner of baseball at the time, declared that there was no rule preventing integration of the Major Leagues, the idea of an African-American joining the league was realized for the first time by a lot of people. In 1943, Branch Rickey, general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers at the time, had an idea though to be outrageous by many during that period. He considered signing some black players to make up for the wartime shortage of talent. He narrowed down the list of prospects, searching for the best player to integrate baseball. The likely choices for talent would have been Satchel Paige or Josh Gibson. Rickey, however, wanted not only a star but a person who could deal with the harassment from the public, some teammates, and the overall opposition. Knowing of Jackie's talent and his hate for segregation, Rickey set up an interview hoping he could convince Robinson to sign a contract. When Rickey told Robinson why he had been brought to see him, Jackie's reaction was a combination of several emotions. "I was thrilled, scared, and excited.

    Read More

More about Jackie Robinson and Civil Rights

Open Document