Why Is Jackie Robinson The First Person Of Color?

Jackie Robinson said “I 'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me... All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.” Jackie Robinson was the first person of color to play major league baseball in 1947. He was on the Brooklyn Dodgers and played first base even though he was a second baseman. He was born on January 31, 1919, in Cairo, Georgia. His number 42 is the only number to be retired by all major league baseball teams. When he started playing for the MLB the fans hated him and made death threats but now is remembered as a hero. Jackie Robinson was the first colored person to play in the MLB,through his suffering he allowed more colored people to play major league sports and he also abolished segregation.

Jackie impacts began when he

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