Manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and vice president, Branch Rickey, had always been bothered by the unwritten and unspoken color line in major league baseball. In 1945, he took advantage of his power as manager and called for a meeting with Jackie Robinson from the Kansas City Monarchs, a Negro League team (“About Jackie Robinson”). He had always secretly scouted Negro League teams in hopes of finding the right candidate. One who had enough talent, but also had enough guts to not jeer back at the harsh remarks of racist fans, players, and even coaches (Rubinstein). Rickey was driven to partake in this great experiment because he was bothered by his experience while checking his team into a hotel one night as the varsity baseball coach for Ohio-Wesleyan University (Nicholson). The desk clerk told Rickey they had available rooms for everyone except for Charley Thomas, who was black. Rickey questioned their policy and requested that Thomas stay in his room with him. After long contemplations, the desk clerk gave in, but when Rickey got to his room Charley Thomas was sitting on the chair crying. “‘Charley was pulling frantically at his hands, pulling his hands. He looked at me and said ‘It’s my skin. If I could just tear it off, I’d be like everybody else. It’s my skin, it’s my skin, Mr. Rickey!’’” (Nicholson). Rickey’s decision upon signing Jackie Robinson from the Kansas City Monarchs to the Montreal Royals, a farm team for the Brooklyn Dodgers, in 1946, and later bringing him up to the Brooklyn Dodgers, a Major league team, in April of 1947, impacted more lives than he ever would have imagined (“Robinson as a Dodger: 1947-1956”). Breaking the color line in professional sports contributed to the elimination of greater social issues... ... middle of paper ... ...with the 1955 World Series title over the New York Yankees” (“Remembering Jackie”). Following the desegregation of major league baseball, in 1948, President Harry S. Truman officially desegregated the United States Military. In 1954, segregation was ruled unconstitutional by Brown v. Board of Education. In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, outlawing discrimination in voting, employment, and the use of public activities (“Timeline of Desegregation and Civil Rights”). These important events may have occurred without the help of Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson, but breaking the color line in professional sports directly and indirectly made the United States a better nation. Jackie Robinson breaking the color line in 1947 created a domino effect and helped to diminish some of the greatest social issues throughout the United States.
Jackie Robinson, a famous black baseball player, proved to the world that just because you have a different skin color does not mean that you aren’t as good as someone with a different color skin. Jackie was the first black man to ever sign with and play for a team that was a part of the all-white major league baseball organization. He along with Branch Rickey, the manager of the dodgers who signed Robinson, broke the color barrier in baseball and led the way for other talented Negro ball players to get into the majors.
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
Branch Rickey was the club president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and had the secret goal of signing the Negro Leagues' top players to the team. Although there was no official ban on blacks in organized baseball, previous attempts at signing black ballplayers had been thwarted by league officials and rival clubs in the past, and so Rickey operated undercover. His scouts were told that they were seeking players for a new all-black league Rickey was forming; not even the scouts knew his true objective.
For a long time, it was assumed that blacks were not allowed to play in the Major Leagues simply because they had not for so long. When Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the commissioner of baseball at the time, declared that there was no rule preventing integration of the Major Leagues, the idea of an African-American joining the league was realized for the first time by a lot of people. In 1943, Branch Rickey, general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers at the time, had an idea though to be outrageous by many during that period. He considered signing some black players to make up for the wartime shortage of talent. He narrowed down the list of prospects, searching for the best player to integrate baseball. The likely choices for talent would have been Satchel Paige or Josh Gibson. Rickey, however, wanted not only a star but a person who could deal with the harassment from the public, some teammates, and the overall opposition. Knowing of Jackie's talent and his hate for segregation, Rickey set up an interview hoping he could convince Robinson to sign a contract. When Rickey told Robinson why he had been brought to see him, Jackie's reaction was a combination of several emotions. "I was thrilled, scared, and excited.
Without Jackie Robinson entering the game of baseball, there may have not been a Muhammed Ali, Arthur Ashe, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, or even Tiger Woods. Of course the possibility of another African American taking the throne and leading the fight for African rights through the game of baseball is justified but Jackie’s timing in the movement was impeccable. So impeccable, that it empowered others to stand up in a time of oppression. “All of us had to wait for Jackie,” said pitcher Joe Black. Joe Black says it well, Jackie Robinson is more than an African American baseball player, he was the beacon of light that sprouted the growth of blacks in the game of baseball, and sports nationwide. Even President’s gave credit to Jackie’s accomplishments. President Ronald Reagan stated, “He struck a mighty blow for equality, freedom and the American way of life, Jackie Robinson was a good citizen, a great man, and a true American champion.” Once his career was over, he did not quit pushing for Black American success. He became a vocalist for Black rights and became an analyst for major league baseball. He was hired by ABC to go on television for miscellaneous things and was the first Black vice president of an American corporation, Chock Full O’ Nuts, and helped establish the Freedom National Bank. Jackie also joined the board
As an African-American during the late 1800s to 1960, the Negro Leagues was the only chance at being a part of professional baseball until Branch Rickey, an owner of professional baseball teams, put his ‘great experiment’ into motion with the aid of Jackie Robinson who became the first African-American to break the color barrier in 1947. Some coaches, who wanted African-Americans on their teams in order to increase their chances of winning games, would take part in a process called barnstorming. Barnstorming is when a team would hire an African-American but label that player as either Hispanic or Native American in order for them to play because at the time, African-American were not allowed to play on professional white baseball teams (The Library of Congress). Two contrasting economic sides leading to the desegregation of baseball include at the time when team members knew that if baseball were to integrate, the Negro Leagues would disappear as they would lose their best players to major league teams, which was beneficial to the major league teams whereas the other side was that if black players were integrated into white professional teams, white fans would be more reluctant to watch games with black players participating (The Library of Congress). It wasn’t until after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier by putting on the official jersey of the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming an official member of an integrated professional baseball team, that the relevance of Negro Leagues began to decrease, until they disappeared in 1960 as more teams began to integrate as well.
In the short story ”The Noble Experiment”, from I Never Had it Made, by Jackie Robinson as told to Alfred Duckett, Branch Rickey had a magnificent plan to integrate blacks into Major League Baseball, rather than the Negro leagues where many blacks played baseball. Branch Rickey’s quest for the perfect black candidate took him beyond national borders, his search was brilliantly disguised to the public as if he was created a black-baseball league. Rickey said that the ideal candidate,”...had to be able to stand up in the face of merciless persecution and not retaliate”(Duckett 290). When Jackie Robinson met Branch Rickey for the first time, Rickey told Robinson that the opposition would taunt him,
Jackie Robinson was the first black baseball player to play on the professional level, he was fearless, courageous, willful and strong. He was an advocate for civil rights, as well as a great baseball player. He had to try to keep quiet, and keep to himself while playing, but became a stronger and more extreme advocate over time. A leader on and off the fields dealing with much more than just baseball, he also had to deal with the criticism and racial tensions of a prominently white game. Branch Rickey, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, was a showman who knew how to make money and fame in baseball “he had made a fortune for the cardinals as well as himself, and black talent could argument his bottom line by transforming his struggling dodgers into a power house” (Zeiler, 17). He wanted to make his team great by any means possible. He put his eyes on Jackie Robinson. Jackie Robinson changed the game and the world, and will always be a huge figure in baseball and civil rights.
Jackie Robinson first played baseball for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues in 1945. Robinson was first pursued by the Boston Red Sox, a Major League team, but they never replied back to him after his workout (Rampersad 89). Later on in August of 1945 Branch Rickey, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, sent a scout to observe and bring in Jackie Robinson (Rampersad 125). When the scout approached Robinson he told him that Rickey was going to start a Negro League team called the Brooklyn Brown Dodgers. What the scout and Robinson did not understand was the persistence of Rickey to meet and speak with him. Robinson eventually agreed and on August 28 in Brooklyn met with Branch Rickey. Rickey immediately told him to marry because he knew that if Robinson accepted he would need the support of a loving wife (Rampersad 126). Rickey then shocked him when he said he wanted
"Over the decades, African American teams played 445-recorded games against white teams, winning sixty-one percent of them." (Conrads, pg.8) The Negro Leagues were an alternative baseball group for African American baseball player that were denied the right to play with the white baseball payers in the Major League Baseball Association. In 1920, the first African American League was formed, and that paved the way for numerous African American innovation and movements. Fences, and Jackie Robinson: The Biography, raises consciousness about the baseball players that have been overlooked, and the struggle they had to endure simply because of their color.
Just as most sports before World War II, baseball was racially segregated. Some African Americans participated in dominantly white leagues but for the most part baseball remained segregated especially between 1900 and 1947. The desegregation of baseball was very important to American culture. The Major Leagues was desegregated before America's public education system. The success of players in the Negro Leagues and the circumstances of World War II helped lead the way towards the signing of Jackie Robinson. However, economic opportunities were the core reasons for Robinson's signing. The desegregation of American baseball was slow, but it still preceded the Civil Rights revolution.
Simon, Scott. 2002. Jackie Robinson and the integration of Baseball. Turning points. Hoboken, N.J.: J. Wiley & Sons.
“Jackie Robinson and the Intergration of Major League Baseball.” History Today. N.p.,n.d. Web 24 Mar. 2014
His period of trials and triumphs were significant to changing American perception for the Civil Rights revolution. By becoming the first African-American baseball player to play in the major leagues he brought down an old misconception that black athletes were inferior to white athletes. Successively his example would inspire those advocating for their civil rights, he lived out a message of nonviolence similar to the one Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lived out. Despite the constant prejudice he faced in his sport, he was able to keep himself composed and never retaliate. Instead of fighting hate with hate, Robinson was able to gain the respect of his white peers for his calmness and his courage. In ending segregation in baseball before any other institution in America, Jackie Robinson demonstrated to American society that African Americans were to be treated with respect and dignity. Robinson was never afraid to speak up against injustices, on one occasion when a service station attendant refused to allow Robinson to use the restroom, Robinson protested by refusing to fill the bus’s 50-gallon tanks at that gas station (cite to pg 47). His protests are a foreshadowing of civil rights movements such as the montgomery bus boycott. Robinson’s moral indignation with the injustices in his world would serve to inspire
One of the major stands that were made during a black athlete’s tenure during his or her sport were their statements on racism. Racism in America was an ongoing situation in the 1900’s that seemed to have no resolve before black athletes took a stand. One prime example can be Jackie Robinson who became the first African-American athlete to play baseball in the modern era. Jackie grew up in one of the most racist towns in Pasadena, California and came from a poor family as his parents were sharecroppers and...