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Alaina Novotny
February 19, 2014
Research Paper
Jackie Joyner-Kersee is an intelligent, generous, fun-loving famous African American who happens to also be an Olympic heptathlete. Inspite of growing up in a big family, a dangerous neighborhood, and with little money, she grew up to be the record holder of the long jump and to own many Olympic medals.
Jacqueline Joyner, widely known as Jackie Joyner, was born March 3, 1962 in East St. Louis, Illinois. She was named Jacqueline after President John Kennedy’s wife. When she was born, her grandmother predicted, “Someday this girl will be the first lady of something.” (Source 2) Oddly enough, her prediction came true.
The Joyner family consisted of Alfred, Mary, Al, Jackie, Angela, and Debra. Jackie’s family was Baptist. Mary and Alfred Joyner needed to work hard to help support their family, since they married at a young age. Mary worked as a nurse’s assistant at St. Mary’s Hospital. The family was very poor. Most of their dinners were bread and mayonnaise. Also, Jackie only owned one pair of shoes.
Additionally, Jackie participated in many different sports. When she was younger, Jackie studied modern dance and she was in a dance group called the Fabulous Dolls. This was what Jackie thought she wanted to do with her life, until her dance coach unexpectedly died. She could not move on after that incident. Along with dance, she was also a cheerleader. She participated most of her sports at Mary E. Brown Community Center. Which included track and field, basketball, and volleyball. She excelled well in every sport she did, especially the ones she did at Mary E. Brown Community Center. Jackie started track and field when she was nine years old. By twelve, she had jumped almost seventeen f...
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...ld record holder for long jump. Then, in 1987, she scored the longest legal jump that year by a woman in the United States.
However, Jackie ended up retiring from track and field because of her asthma. When she was finished with track and field she joined the Richmond Rage a basketball team in the American Basketball League. She also had enough time to write and publish an autobiography in 1997 titled A New Kind of Grace which was all about the story of how she became an Olympian.
Jackie Joyner is known for her determination, bravery, and of course her six Olympic medals but there is more to becoming an amazing athlete than training, you have to be dedicated. She overcame a life of little money and without having much training equipment, to live a life as an Olympian. “It’s better to look ahead and prepare, than to look back and regret.” –Jackie Joyner (Source 3)
In “Jackie’s Debut: A Unique Day,” is written by Mike Royko, and appeared in the Chicago Daily News on Wednesday, October 15, 1972, the day after Jackie passed away. This article is about one of the most famous and cultural African Americans to ever play the game of baseball. In the beginning of the story, there were wise men sitting in the tavern that had something to say about Jackie. They weren’t the kindest words and said that he would ruin the game of baseball. Jackie was going to be at Wrigley Field and the kid had to see him perform. Him and his friend always walked to the baseball games to avoid streetcar fare. On that day, Wrigley Field was packed. He had never seen anything like it, there were about 47,000 people there and at the
The athlete I chose is Natasha Watley. She is a professional softball player and the first African-American female to play on the USA softball team in the Olympics. She’s a former collegiate 4-time First Team All-American who played for the UCLA Bruins, the USA Softball Women’s National Team, and for the USSSA Pride. She helped the Bruins will multiple championships and also holds numerous records and one of the few players to bat at least .400 with 300 hits, 200 runs, and 100 stolen bases. She’s also the career hits leader in the National Pro Fast pitch. She won the gold medal in the 2004 summer Olympics and a silver in the Beijing Olympics. She was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 2014.
Lucille Mulhall was born on October 21, 1885 in Oklahoma and died December 21, 1940 in Oklahoma when she got in a terrible vehicle accident. She is the first born child of Zach (1847-1931) and Mary Agnes Mulhall (1859-1931). Her sister’s name is Margaret Reed (1906-1925) and she was the last child born. She married her first husband in 1916 and his name was Martin Van Bergen. Lucille then divorced this man and married a man named Thomas Loyd Burnett (1871-1939). He was born in Denton County, Texas and died in Wichita County, Texas on December 26, 1938. Lucille Mulhall was a soft spoken and beautiful young lady. She was very feminine and had a very good education. When she was a teenager, she was known as one of the top cowboy performers in
Jack Roosevelt Johnson was born in the very segregated south in Cairo, Georgia around 1919. Jackie grew up loving baseball and knew that is what he wanted to do. About two decades before Jackie was born the MLB was split between white and Negro leagues. Jackie being an African-American, of course played for the Negro Leagues. He strived in this sport. He lead the Negro League with most stolen bases and had a great batting average. Both his statistics and love for the game brought the name Jackie Robinson to the attention of the Brooklyn Dodger's manager Branch Rickey.
For starters, while Joy fights through each of her challenges, Mary pushes them away. In response to the loss of her husband, Joy moves to the Bronx and comes across many barriers. Wes describes her response to these challenges: “But no matter how much the world around us seemed ready to crumble, my mother was determined to see us through
Dan Gutman’s Jackie and Me takes place in Brooklyn, New York. This is a place where mostly whites were racist towards African Americans because of the time period. A boy named Joe Stoshack, and a baseball star Jackie Robinson faced segregation. In order to overcome racism, smartness, humbleness, and drive are the keys to success. One lesson readers can learn from Jackie and Me is that in the story men and women judge people before they get to know them. Dan Gutman wanted to enforce to readers that “Every human being is the same because that is how God made us.”
... 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.
In 1935, Robinson graduated from Washington Junior High School and enrolled at John Muir High School (Muir Tech). [20] Recognizing his athletic talents, Robinson's older brothers Mack (himself an accomplished athlete and silver medalist at the 1936 Summer Olympics)[19] and Frank inspired Jackie to pursue his interest in sports. [ 21][22] [33] While at PJC, he was motivated by a preacher (the Rev. Karl Downs) to attend church on a regular basis, and Downs became a confidant for Robinson, a Christian. [34] Toward the end of his PJC tenure, Frank Robinson (to whom Robinson felt closest among his three brothers) was killed in a motorcycle accident. The event motivated Jackie to pursue his athletic career at the nearby University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he could remain closer to Frank's family.
After he passed away, his wife founded the “Jackie Robinson Foundation” to help young people in need by giving them scholarships and mentoring programs, and to honor all the hard work and dedication he did in his lifetime.
According to Jessie Jackson, "A champion wins a World Series or an Olympic event and is hoisted on the shoulders of the fans. A hero carries the people on his shoulders" (Robinson 3). This is what made Jackie Robinson a hero to African-Americans. Robinson's achievement goes beyond the statistics and championships he earned on the field. He opened the door for his entire race to play professional sports and gain acceptance as more desegregation took place. After fighting in World War II from 1941 until 1944, Jackie played for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues from 1944 until 1946. In 1946, he was selected as the best person to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball.
Jackie Robison was grown up by his mother and didn’t have much help being taught a sport. He learned almost everything on his own. He was the first African-American player to ever get 4 varsity letters in UCLA College. Jackie played four different sports. Jackie played baseball, basketball, football, and track. In 1949 Jackie was All-American on his football team. He had many difficulties playing sports; He was forced to join the U.S. Army. After of serving two years in the military he eventually left the service with honorable discharge.
At this time Jackie was very into sports so this move made him pretty upset. He played baseball, basketball, football, and ran track while attending the University of California, Los Angeles. He was one of the top players on the football team as well as the only athlete to letter in four different sports. Unfortunately, Jackie left college before getting a chance to graduate due to financial problems but not before meeting his future wife Rachel. After his departure from UCLA he began working for the National Youth Administration at a work camp but it soon closed down and in 1941 he joined the Honolulu Bears, a professional football team in Honolulu, Hawaii.
In spite of the challenges that he faced along the way, Jackie Robinson was determined to succeed in Major League Baseball, it was this drive that led him to persist in integrating the sport of baseball. Early on, Jackie Robinson believed that God had a special purpose for him. Coming from a Christian background, Jackie Robinson believed that God was preparing him for something big, but he could still not see just what that would be (cite pg 37). Growing up, he excelled in many sports.
Jackie Robinson realized that he was an athlete at a young age. His motivation was his older brother Mathew Robinson. Jackie’s older brother Mathew was in the 1936 Olympics...
Jackie kept getting in trouble and was a trouble-maker with his friends. If he had a father, he would of had a figure to look up to. Although, he did look up to his older brother, his brother was not his father. This would have made the book better, because it would have proven a theory that not all major sport players grow up without a dad. Learning how to do things on their own, leaving them thinking they have something to prove to others, and that they have to work extra hard to be notice. Anyone from any color or ethnicity, can be anything you set your mind