jackie robinson

Jackie Robinson was born on January 31, 1919, in Cairo, Georgia. His parents were Jerry and Mallie Robinson. They lived on a small farm and worked as sharecroppers. Sharecroppers are people who rent land and pay the owner of the land some of their crops. After about a year of his life his father left his family of five children.

Jackie and his family took a train and moved to Pasadena, California, because they were low on money. He and his family lived there in an apartment that his half-brother McGriff owned McGriff said he would let Jackie Robinson's family stay until they could find a house. His family finally found a house to live in. The neighborhood was very bad, where many boys broke the laws. But there was a man named Earl Anderson who helped to develop a sports organization which Jackie and other boys found great.

Jackie went to a public school in California that was not segregated (whites and blacks separates) like the schools in Georgia. He was not allowed to swim in pools though. He was hurt and confused in his young life because African-Americans could not do the same things as Caucasians. Thankfully Jackie did not strike back at Caucasians. As he got older he realized he would keep fighting for the African-American liberty. Jackie had a nine-year-old brother, named Mack; Jackie was a role model for him because his father was not around. Mack won a silver Medal in the 200-meter dash at the 1936 Olympics.

Jackie went to Cleveland Elementary School and continued his studies at Pasadena Junior High School. He was a star athlete. He was the best in the school at baseball, football, basketball, and track. Jackie later attended Muir Technical High School where he set records in track and baseball. He went on to ea...

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...ranite it says, "A life is not important except in the line of impact it has on other lives." His grave stone is in Cypress Hills Seminary. It is 16 miles away from Ebbets Field in Brooklyn were Jackie played his whole career. His grave stone took a long time to get to Cypress Hills because it was displayed in parades around many blacks neighborhoods.

1997 commemorated Jackie Robinson's 50th anniversary of being the first black player to play in the Major Leagues. Many tributes to Jackie took place. Players wore a patch stating the anniversary and it had Jackie's signature. The baseball Hall of Fame also had an exhibit on Jackie Robinson, and there was a souvenir coin made for Jackie. Also his number (42) was retired in every major league baseball team, meaning no player could wear the number except by Mariano Rivera because he had the number before it was retired.