Jackie Robinson Thesis

Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson is a major cultural hero who affected our society in a major way. He was the first African-American in Major League Baseball, breaking the color barrier and paving the way for many other African-Americans in baseball and other sports all over.

Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born on January 31, 1919, in Cairo, Georgia to a family of sharecroppers. He was the youngest child, he had 4 siblings. In 1920 his father left the family, leaving his mother to take care of all 5 children. His mother, Mallie Robinson, moved the family to a predominantly white neighborhood in a suburban part of Pasadena, California. This was Jackie’s first experience being a pioneer in integration.

He attended John Muir High School where he started to get into sports because his brothers Frank and Mack who were silver medalists in the 1936 Olympics encouraged him. Baseball was not the only sport he excelled in, he excelle in many sports like baseball,basketball, tennis, and track, he was an All-American in Football. He was the first person to receive varsity letters in four sports. After college he continues playing multiple sports like baseball, football,basketball, and track. He broke the national community college broad jumping record, previously set by his brother set by his brother Mack who won a silver medal in the olympics. In 1939 he entered UCLA where he became the schools first letterman in four sports. He was one of the four African American players on the UCLA football team which was one of the most integrated teams at this time. Jackies best sport in college was football, he was named an All American. During this year, 1941, two important things happened. The first was that he met Rachel Isum, who would later bec...

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Jackie Robinson was a major cultural hero. It was a very courageous act to go and be the first African American player in Major League Baseball, breaking the color barrier. This paved the way for many more African Americans in baseball and other sports everywhere. This also affected our society today because now baseball along with all other professional sports are multi-racial and allow everyone to play in the league. No matter what if they had the skills it didn't matter who or where they are from they could play.

As you can see Jackie Robinson was a major impact on the society. Without him baseball and all other sports could be much different. Not only did he affect sports he changed life everywhere, he changed they way people thought about African-Americans. Jackie was a very courageous man for doing what he did when noone else would.