Jackie Robinson: Breaking The Color Barrier In Baseball

Breaking the Racial Barrier in Baseball Although Jackie Robinson was not the best African-American baseball player of his time, his attitude and ability to handle racist harassment led the way for the rest of his race to play Major League Baseball, amongst other sports. Being accepted into professional sports also helped African-Americans become more easily accepted into other aspects of life. Jackie's impact in the world for the black population is enormous. According to Jessie Jackson, "A champion wins a World Series or an Olympic event and is hoisted on the shoulders of the fans.

While the reintegration of Major League Baseball was a massive victory for equality, the results wound up destroying the Negro Leagues and creating a setback for African American involvement in professional baseball. After signing Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers, Branch Rickey has often been regarded as a hero in civil rights. This gateway allowed Jackie Robinson to pave the way for many other African Americans and other non-white ballplayers to join the ranks of the Major Leagues. When discussing this bit of history, a less talked about fact is the impact this had on the Negro Leagues. By disregarding the Negro Leagues and signing Jackie Robinson, Branch Rickey became the catalyst for the destruction of the Negro Leagues and, ultimately, the decline of African American participation in professional baseball.

After Jackie started playing colored people from negro leagues started moving up and playing in the majors. Larry Doby, Hank Thompson, Monte Irvin, and Hank Thompson all started playing for the MLB inbetween 2 years of Jackie playing. Schwartz mentioned “Robinson was respected by all for his self-control and unselfish team play.” This is very important because people started to view Robinson as a teammate or an equal to other people on the field. If Robinson fought back and could not have self-control people would never think of him as an equal and baseball would still be segregated. He was a star athlete he even received a signature move to steal home. Hill stated that “Robinson led the way for other colored athletes to play with white people.” Changes did start happening after Jackie he led a way for black baseball stars and they compete like any other white person of the field. They were just as athletic and capable of being on a team with white people. People started to see this change as teams became integrated with black and white people playing side by side. Jackie’s accomplishments go far beyond baseball, he changed the

“In 1946, there were sixteen Major League Baseball teams, with a total of 400 players on their rosters, every one of the players was white. But when opening day came in 1947, that number dropped to 399, and one man stood apart. (42 2:30)” Jack Roosevelt “Jackie” Robinson made his Major League Baseball debut on April 15, 1947, as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Making Jackie Robinson the first African-American to play Major League Baseball (MLB). Jackie’s transition from the Negro Leagues to MLB was not an easy one. As a player, he transitioned very well, but it was Robinson’s teammates, Dodgers fans, the opposing teams and their fans that tested Jackie every chance they got, some hotels even prohibited the Dodgers to stay in their establishments

Boom! This sound was very common coming off the bat of Jackie Robinson when he was on the baseball field, but it had a resounding echo on society and especially those fighting for the rights of blacks in the United States. While Jackie Robinson was an incredible player on the field, his more significant impacts were actually on areas of society other than baseball. Until 1947, when Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers and manager Branch Rickey, no other African American had ever played in Major League baseball. This was huge news throughout the United States, and Robinson was voted America’s second most popular personality, only behind Bing Crosby (Dorinson, 2012, p. 55). Until this point, African Americans had been dealing with the constraints of the Jim Crow laws, which enforced segregation of African Americans from whites. However, Robinson breaking the color barrier in a previously completely white sport turned some heads and made people rethink the situation of blacks in American society. Rubenstein (2003) attributed that “one of baseball’s most important roles has been to

Jackie Robinson was the first black baseball player to play in a world series, who proved that a national game should not bar blacks. When he first got into National baseball, Branch Rickey, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, wanted to bring down the color barriers, so he decided to invite Robinson into his team to play in the baseball world series. Robinson had to face many obstacles such as resentment from his teammates, other teams and owners, bigoted white fans, loads of hate mail, and threats against him and his family. He stated, “Some of my own teammates refused to accept me because I was black. I had been forced to live with snubs and rebuffs. . . expressed by players on the other teams, by the team owners, or by bigoted fans screaming

Similar to Jenks, Jackie Robinson was also a very inspiring man. He was born on January 31, 1919 in Cairo, Georgia, the grandson of slaves. He was was young when him and his family moved to Pasadena, California. In 1940 he entered UCLA, where he practiced baseball, basketball, football and athletics, earning high reputation in the world of sports. The issue of racism, which unfortunately is still alive, was Jackie Robinson’s main challenge when entering the professional leauge. Robinson played for the Montreal Royals for some time, belonging to the International League (less competition), becoming the first black to do so. On a team trip to Florida, the fact that Jackie had to sleep in the house of a local black politician, because that state law did

Starring Harrison Ford and Chadwick Boseman, 42 is the story of Jackie Robinson, who changed history of the professional baseball world when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. Chadwick Boseman plays as the heroic African American Jackie Robinson, as Harrison Ford plays as the Brooklyn Dodgers' General Manager Rickey Branch. And with the help of each other, they will soon change the nation and baseball as a game.

To the average person, in the average American community, Jackie Robinson was just what the sports pages said he was, no more, no less. He was the first Negro to play baseball in the major leagues. Everybody knew that, but to see the real Jackie Robinson, you must de-emphasize him as a ball player and emphasize him as a civil rights leader. That part drops out, that which people forget. From his early army days, until well after his baseball days, Robinson had fought to achieve equality among whites and blacks. "Jackie acted out the philosophy of nonviolence of Martin Luther King Jr., before the future civil rights leader had thought of applying it to the problem of segregation in America"(Weidhorn 93). Robinson was an avid member of the NAACP and helped recruit members because of his fame from baseball. Jackie had leadership qualities and the courage to fight for his beliefs. Unwilling to accept the racism he had run into all his life, he had a strong need to be accepted at his true worth as a first-class citizen. Robinson was someone who would work for a cause - that of blacks and of America - as well as for himself and his team.

Eli Hickman Mrs. Harms English I 20 October 2016 Jackie Robinson: A Baseball Legend Did you know that Jackie Robinson won Rookie of the Year in 1947 with a batting average of .297, 175 hits, 12 home runs, and 48 runs batted in? Did you know that know that he also was a six time All-Star between the years of 1949 and 1954? Even though most people probably think Jackie Robinson was an amazing baseball player, he was also a great person and civil rights activist.