title for a jackie robinson essay

Jackie Robinson: A National Hero Essay (Biography)

Jackie Robinson was an outstanding baseball player. With his talents for the game, his impressive achievements, and the records he set over his ten-year career, he would have certainly made it into the history of one of America’s favorite sports. However, he was more than just a high-scoring sportsman. Years before the Civil Rights Movement, Jackie Robinson courageously opposed racial segregation and discrimination, contributing greatly to the struggle for equal opportunity and becoming a national hero.

Robinson was born in 1919 in Georgia and grew up in Pasadena, California. He discovered his pronounced aptitude for sports early, playing football, basketball, baseball, and other games at school. He had three older brothers who always supported him and encouraged him to pursue a career in sports (Falkner). However, in 1942, Robinson was drafted into the US Army. The army was segregated during that time, but throughout his service, Robinson challenged the injustice with bravery. In 1944, he was court-martialed for defying orders to sit in the back of a bus. This act resembles the same famously brave deed of Rosa Parks, but it happened eight years earlier. The court eventually decided that the order violated US Army regulations, and Robinson was acquitted (Robinson and Kerry). After being discharged, Robinson started playing baseball in Negro leagues and proved to be a very promising player. By 1946, he was already playing for a minor league team, the Montreal Royals, in Daytona Beach, Florida. While in Florida, he was not allowed to live in the same hotel as his teammates, so he had to stay at the house of a local African American (Robinson and Duckett 41). That year, Robinson became the first black player to play against a major league team, the Dodgers, and the following year, he broke the baseball color line by joining this team.

In 1947, at the age of 28, Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play Major League Baseball. Before this, since the 1880s, black people had been excluded from Major League Baseball. Although this so-called color line was not an official written rule, it had been there for 60 years as a symbol of segregation. Robinson played for ten seasons until 1956, demonstrating outstanding achievements, new techniques, and innovative game strategies. David Falkner has called him “the father of modern base-stealing” (171). At that time, even as a major baseball star, Robinson still had to face racism and bigotry. Dodgers President Branch Rickey wrote that Robinson repeatedly received “hate letters and death threats” and was “the target… of pitchers throwing at his head and legs, and catchers spitting on his shoes” (Robinson and Kerry). Karl Erskine, a former Dodgers player, emphasized Robinson’s inner strength when he wrote that “[m]ost mortal men would have cracked” if, while at the happiest of moments of their lives, they had been forced to deal with racial indignities on a daily basis (Williams and Sielski 1). Allan H. “Bud” Selig, the commissioner of Major League Baseball at that time, remembers that in 1947, he went to see the newest star, Jackie Robinson; when he and his friend were climbing to their seats, Selig noticed something that impressed him to his very core: they were the only white fans in the entire section. He writes, “I began to understand the impact that Jackie had made on his fellow African Americans” (Williams and Sielski x). In a segregated society, Robinson became more than a new baseball star.

Jackie Robinson was acknowledged with many honors throughout his life, both as a remarkable baseball player and a civil rights pioneer. He was introduced into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962, and his uniform number, 42, was retired by Major League Baseball. Robinson participated in six All-Star Games and won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949 (Falkner). It was an incredible success for an African-American man in an area that had been closed to African Americans for decades. He achieved this success at a time when many major universities did not admit black people, and drinking fountains in many American cities were still marked “white” or “colored.” After he retired from sports, Robinson continued his civil rights activities, co-founding the African American-owned Freedom National Bank in Harlem and founding the Jackie Robinson Construction Co. to build low-income housing (Robinson and Kerry). He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. He truly became a national hero, “a man to be emulated, a life to be studied, a legacy to be treasured” (Williams and Sielski xvi). Revealing the importance of Robinson’s pioneering role in the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called him ”a legend and a symbol in his own time” who ”challenged the dark skies of intolerance and frustration” (Robinson and Kerry).

Jackie Robinson’s life was a story of overcoming intolerance and oppression with courage and strength. He not only managed to make his way into an area from which he had been excluded because of the color of his skin, but he also managed to succeed in it. Jackie Robinson’s role in history is hugely significant: he was one of the first people in the 20th century to symbolize hope for equality and justice in American society.

Falkner, David. Great Time Coming: The Life of Jackie Robinson, from Baseball to Birmingham . New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995. Print.

Robinson, Jackie, and Alfred Duckett. I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography of Jackie Robinson . Hopewell, N.J: Ecco Press, 1995. Print.

Robinson, Rachel, and John F. Kerry. “A Pioneer in Civil Rights.” The Boston Globe 2005. Web.

Williams, Pat, and Mike Sielski. How to Be Like Jackie Robinson: Life Lessons from Baseball’s Greatest Hero . Deerfield Beach, Fla: Health Communications, 2004. Print.

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1. IvyPanda . "Jackie Robinson: A National Hero." June 2, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/jackie-robinson-a-national-hero/.

Bibliography

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Jackie Robinson

By: History.com Editors

Updated: March 29, 2023 | Original: October 29, 2009

Jackie Robinson was an African American professional baseball player who broke Major Leagues Baseball’s infamous “ color barrier ” when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. Until that time, professional ballplayers of color suited up for teams only in the Negro Leagues . Today, April 15th is observed as Jackie Robinson Day throughout MLB franchises, with players wearing the former Dodgers’ jersey number 42. Robinson’s dazzling athletic prowess and grace under pressure effectively led to the integration of the Major Leagues, and his 10-year career with the Dodgers — and his outspoken activism in his later years — helped set the stage for the burgeoning civil rights movement .

When Was Jackie Robinson Born?

Jackie Robinson was born on January 31, 1919, in Cairo, Georgia, to a family of sharecroppers . He was the youngest of five children.

After his father abandoned the family in 1920, they moved to Pasadena , California, where his mother, Mallie, worked a series of odd jobs to support herself and her children. Though Pasadena was a fairly affluent suburb of Los Angeles at the time, the Robinsons were poor, and Jackie and his friends in the city’s small Black community were often excluded from recreational activities.

That began to change when Jackie enrolled at John Muir High School in 1935. His older brother Mack, a silver medalist in track and field at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin , inspired him to pursue his interest in athletics, and the younger Robinson ultimately earned varsity letters in baseball, basketball, football and track while at Muir.

After graduating high school, Jackie attended Pasadena Junior College for two years, where he continued to have success in all four sports. Following the death of another older brother, Frank, in a motorcycle accident, Jackie decided to honor his memory by enrolling at UCLA in 1939.

There, he became the first Bruin to earn varsity letters in four sports — the same four in which he starred in high school — and he won the NCAA long jump championship in 1940. Jackie also met his future wife, Rachel, while at UCLA.

Did you know? In 1997, 50 years after Robinson integrated baseball, his number, 42, was permanently retired by every team in Major League Baseball.

Jackie Robinson in the U.S. Army

Jackie ultimately left college in the spring of his senior year, just a few credits short of his graduation. He accepted a job as an athletic administrator, but his dreams remained focused on the field of play.

He spent two years playing semi-professional football for integrated teams in leagues in Hawaii and California before being drafted into the U.S. Army in the spring of 1942, during World War II , although he never saw combat.

He was accepted into Officer Candidate School and was assigned to segregated Army units, first in Kansas and then in Texas. During this time, however, he remained close to Rachel, with whom he became engaged in 1943.

In 1944, Jackie was nearly court-martialed after he boarded a bus at Fort Hood in Texas and refused the driver’s order to sit in the back, as segregationist practices in the United States dictated at the time.

He was acquitted on all the charges and court-martialed, but it has been said that his experiences during the proceedings likely shaped his response to the racist taunts he received, a few years later, from fans and fellow players at the start of his professional baseball career.

Jackie was honorably discharged from the Army in November 1944, and he took a job coaching basketball at a college in Austin , Texas.

Jackie Robinson's Professional Sports Career

In early 1945, Jackie Robinson was signed by the Negro League team the Kansas City Monarchs, where he starred for one season, hitting .387.

At the time, Brooklyn Dodgers executive Branch Rickey was scouting the Negro Leagues, looking for players who not only had the talent but the demeanor to withstand the pressures associated with integrating Major League Baseball . Robinson was one of several players Rickey interviewed in August 1945 for assignment to the Dodgers’ farm team in Montreal, the Royals.

It is said that during the interview, Rickey demanded that Robinson not respond when on the receiving end of racial abuse. Robinson reportedly said, “Are you looking for a Negro who is afraid to fight back?” To which Rickey replied that he was looking for a person “with guts enough not to fight back.”

Once Robinson agreed to “turn the other cheek,” a Biblical phrase used by the religious baseball executive, he was assigned to the Royals for the 1946 season, where he was embraced by Montreal fans and batted an impressive .349. His performance both on and off the field earned him a call-up to Brooklyn the following season.

Jackie Robinson and the Dodgers

His debut with the Dodgers in 1947 was greeted with a lot of attention—not all of it positive. Although Robinson quickly proved he belonged as a player, the color of his skin was an issue for opposing teams and fans.

Hearing racist taunts from fans and players prior to a game, Dodgers teammate Pee Wee Reese is said to have put his arm around Robinson on the field to indicate that he was accepted by those wearing a Brooklyn uniform. Still, Robinson endured racist obscenities, hate mail and death threats for much of his career.

It was his play in the field that ultimately silenced his critics. In 1947, his first year with the Dodgers, he earned the inaugural “Rookie of the Year” award. Despite having been signed by the Dodgers at the relatively old age of 28, Robinson would go on to hit .311 over a 10-year career. He became the first Black player to win the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949, when he led the league in hitting with a .342 average, most stolen bases (37) and achieving a career-high 124 RBI. Robinson was an All-Star every year from 1949-1954. He led Brooklyn to a World Series championship over the rival New York Yankees in 1955.

Robinson retired after that season, and thus didn’t follow the Dodgers when the club moved to Los Angeles following the 1957 campaign.

Jackie Robinson Quotes

“I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me … all I ask is that you respect me as a human being.”

“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”

"Baseball is like a poker game. Nobody wants to quit when he's losing; nobody wants you to quit when you're ahead.”

"Life is not a spectator sport. If you're going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you're wasting your life."

"There's not an American in this country free until every one of us is free."

"As I write these words now I cannot stand and sing the National Anthem. I have learned that I remain a Black in a white world."

"Above anything else, I hate to lose."

Jackie Robinson: Legacy and Death

After retiring from the Dodgers, Robinson acted as a sportscaster, worked as a business executive at Chock full o'Nuts and was active in the NAACP and other civil rights groups.

Weakened by heart disease and diabetes, Robinson died in 1972 at the age of 53 from a heart attack suffered at his home in Stamford , Connecticut.

Thousands attended his funeral service, including former teammates and other professional athletes. His eulogy was delivered by the Reverend Jesse Jackson , who declared, “When Jackie took the field, something reminded us of our birthright to be free.”

Jackie Robinson Foundation Scholarship

Following his death, his wife Rachel, by then an assistant professor in the Yale School of Nursing , established the Jackie Robinson Foundation . In addition to recognizing other trailblazers in sports, the foundation awards the Jackie Robinson Foundation Scholarship to minority students.

Robinson’s jersey number 42 was retired by all big-league teams in 1997, meaning it could no longer be worn by any player. Those players already wearing the number were allowed to keep it.

The gesture was meant to honor Robinson’s legacy and the historic impact he had on professional baseball, sports in general and, by extension, American society, and in recognition of the difficulties the athlete faced in breaking Major League Baseball’s color barrier.

Jackie Robinson Movies: ‘The Jackie Robinson Story’ and ‘42’

In 1950, Robinson played himself in a movie on his life called “ The Jackie Robinson Story .” And in 2013, a movie about Robinson’s life called “ 42 ” was released to critical acclaim, with his widow involved in the production.

Baseball Hall of Fame. “Jackie Robinson.” BaseballHall.org . Lamb, C. (2019). “How Jackie Robinson’s wife, Rachel, helped him break baseball’s color line.” TheConversation.com . Breslin, Jimmy. (2011). Branch Rickey: A Life . Penguin Random House . Jackie Robinson: 7 memorable quotes. ABC7NY.com . Jackie Robinson. Baseball Reference .

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Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson became the first Black athlete to play Major League Baseball, breaking the color barrier in 1947.

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Quick Facts

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Baseball player Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier as its first Black athlete. The infielder made his debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947, and went on to have a decade-long Hall of Fame career despite repeated threats and abuse from fans and opponents. Also a vocal civil rights activist , Robinson served on the board of the NAACP and advocated for greater racial integration in sports. He died in 1972 at age 53. MLB retired Robinson’s jersey, No. 42, in 1997, and the league celebrates his legacy and accomplishments annually on Jackie Robinson Day.

FULL NAME: Jack Roosevelt Robinson BORN: January 31, 1919 DIED: October 24, 1972 BIRTHPLACE: Cairo, Georgia SPOUSE: Rachel Robinson (1946-1972) CHILDREN: Jack Jr., Sharon, and David ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aquarius

Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born on January 31, 1919, in Cairo, Georgia. The youngest of five children, he was raised in relative poverty by a single mother. His older brother, Matthew, inspired Robinson to pursue his talent and love of athletics. Matthew won a silver medal in the 200-meter dash—just behind Jesse Owens —at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.

Robinson attended John Muir High School in Pasadena, California, and Pasadena Junior College, where he was an excellent athlete and played four sports: football, basketball, track, and baseball. He was named the region’s MVP in baseball in 1938.

He continued his education at UCLA, where he became the university’s first student to win varsity letters in four sports. In 1941, despite his athletic success, Robinson was forced to leave UCLA just shy of graduation due to financial hardship.

After moving to Honolulu, Robinson he played football for the semi-professional Honolulu Bears. His season with the Bears was cut short when the United States entered into World War II.

From 1942 to 1944, Robinson served as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. However, he never saw combat.

During boot camp at Fort Hood, Texas, Robinson was arrested and court-martialed in 1944 for refusing to give up his seat and move to the back of a segregated bus. Robinson’s excellent reputation—combined with the efforts of friends, the NAACP, and various Black newspapers—shed public light on the injustice.

Ultimately, he was acquitted of the charges and received an honorable discharge. His courage and moral objection to racial segregation were precursors to the impact Robinson would have in Major League Baseball.

After his discharge from the Army in 1944, Robinson began to play baseball professionally. At the time, the sport was segregated, with Black and white people playing in separate leagues.

Robinson began his pro career in the Negro Leagues with the Kansas City Monarchs, but he was soon chosen by Brooklyn Dodgers President Branch Rickey to integrate Major League Baseball. He joined the all-white Montreal Royals, a farm team for the Brooklyn Dodgers, in 1946. Robinson later moved to Florida to begin spring training with the Royals.

Rickey knew there would be difficult times ahead for the young athlete, so he made Robinson promise to not fight back when confronted with racism. Rickey also personally tested Robinson’s reactions to the racial slurs and insults he knew the player would endure.

Robinson played his first game at Ebbets Field for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947, making history as the first Black athlete to play MLB.

From the beginning of his career with the Dodgers, Robinson’s will was tested. Some of his new teammates objected to having an African American on their team. People in the crowds sometimes jeered at Robinson, and he and his family received threats.

Despite the racial abuse, particularly at away games, Robinson had an outstanding start with the Royals, leading the International League with a .349 batting average and .985 fielding percentage.

His successful year in the minors led to his promotion to the Dodgers. The harassment continued in the majors, however, most notably from the Philadelphia Phillies and their manager Ben Chapman. During one infamous game, Chapman and his team shouted derogatory terms at Robinson from their dugout.

Many players on opposing teams threatened not to play against the Dodgers. Even some of Robinson’s own teammates threatened to sit out. But Dodgers manager Leo Durocher informed them that he would sooner trade them than Robinson. His loyalty to the player set the tone for the rest of Robinson’s career with the team.

Others defended Robinson’s right to play in the major leagues, including National League President Ford Frick, Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler, Jewish baseball star Hank Greenberg, as well as Dodgers shortstop and team captain Pee Wee Reese. In one incident, while fans harassed Robinson from the stands, Reese walked over and put his arm around his teammate, a gesture that has become legendary in baseball history.

Robinson succeeded in putting the prejudice and racial strife aside and showed everyone what a talented player he was. Although he predominantly played second base, Robinson was versatile enough to be positioned all over the infield. In his first year, he batted .297 with 12 home runs and helped the Dodgers win the National League pennant.

That year, Robinson led the National League in stolen bases and was selected as Rookie of the Year. He continued to wow fans and critics alike with impressive feats, such as an outstanding .342 batting average during the 1949 season. He led in stolen bases that year and earned the National League’s MVP Award.

Robinson soon became a hero of the sport, even among former critics, and was the subject of the popular song, “Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?” His success in the major leagues opened the door for other Black players, such as Satchel Paige , Willie Mays , and Hank Aaron .

An exceptional base runner, Robinson stole home 19 times in his career, setting a league record. Before he retired, he also became the highest-paid athlete in Dodgers history.

Over the course of his MLB career, from 1947 to 1956, Robinson had a .311 average over 4,877 at-bats and recorded the following stats:

• 137 home runs

• 1,518 hits

• 734 runs batted in

• 197 stolen bases

• .409 on-base percentage

• .883 on-base plus slugging

Robinson’s wins above replacement value, or WAR, was later calculated to be 63.8, according to Baseball Reference. This means, just with Robinson in their lineup, the Dodgers won almost 64 more games than they would have with a replacement-level player instead.

Other notable honors include being named Rookie of the Year in 1947 and National League MVP in 1949, as well as becoming a World Series champion in 1955.

In his decade-long career with the Dodgers, Robinson and his team won the National League pennant several times. Finally, in 1955, he helped them achieve the ultimate victory: winning the World Series. After failing before in four other series matchups, the Dodgers beat the New York Yankees in seven games. Robinson helped the team win one more National League pennant the following season.

In December 1956, Robinson was traded to the New York Giants, but he never played a game for the team. He retired on January 5, 1957. Five years later, in 1962, Robinson became the first African American to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

After baseball, Robinson became active in business and continued his work as an activist. He worked as an executive for the Chock Full O’ Nuts coffee company and restaurant chain and helped establish Black-owned Freedom Bank.

In the early 1940s, Robinson met nurse-in-training Rachel Isum when they were both attending UCLA. The couple married on February 10, 1946.

As Robinson forged his career in the major leagues, the couple faced mounting racism, from insults to death threats. Later in life, both Jackie and Rachel became actively involved in the Civil Rights Movement.

Jackie and Rachel had three children together: Jack Robinson Jr., Sharon, and David. Rachel said that she and Jackie went to great lengths to create a nurturing home that sheltered their kids from racism.

In 1971, the couple mourned the death of their oldest child, Jack, who was in a car accident. According to The New York Times , the 24-year-old was reportedly driving at high speed toward his parents’ home when he crashed into a fence and then an abutment on the parkway.

Jack had been the assistant regional director of Daytop Inc., a rehabilitation center he previously attended for two years after becoming addicted to drugs following his Vietnam War service. He suffered shrapnel injuries in combat while trying to rescue a friend that later died.

Robinson was a vocal champion for Black athletes, civil rights, and other social and political causes, serving on the board of the NAACP until 1967. In July 1949, he testified about discrimination before the House Un-American Activities Committee.

In 1952, he publicly called out the New York Yankees as a racist organization for not having broken the color barrier five years after he began playing with the Dodgers. In his later years, Robinson continued to lobby for greater racial integration in sports.

Robinson was close friends with Martin Luther King Jr. and attended the March on Washington, where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech on August 28, 1963. Robinson and his wife, Rachel, also organized a jazz concert at their home to raise bail money for King and other activists arrested during protests.

Robinson collapsed in his Stamford, Connecticut, home from a heart attack in the early morning of October 24, 1972, and died shortly after. He was 53 years old.

Although the heart attack was ruled the immediate cause of death, Robinson had also suffered from type 2 diabetes complications for years. This heart attack was his third in a span of four years, and he had needed cardiology care for congestive heart failure.

Robinson also lost sight in one eye and was growing blind in the other. His blood pressure was abnormally high for years, and he suffered pain and burning sensations in his legs from diabetic nerve and artery damage.

Robinson’s funeral was held at the Riverside Church in New York City on October 27, 1972. Author Kostya Kennedy wrote about the service in his 2022 book True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson . Although the church’s official capacity was only 2,500 people, thousands more either squeezed into its doors or gathered along nearby streets to honor the baseball hero.

Among the pallbearers carrying Robinson’s casket were NBA legend Bill Russell , as well as teammates and peers like Pee Wee Reese, Larry Doby, and Ralph Branca. Other sports greats such as boxer Joe Louis and MLB stars Hank Greenberg, Hank Aaron , Ernie Banks, and Willie Stargell attended.

Reverend Jesse Jackson gave Robinson’s formal eulogy. “[Robinson] didn’t integrate baseball for himself,” Jackson said. “He infiltrated baseball for all of us, seeking and looking for more oxygen for Black survival, and looking for new possibility.”

Robinson was buried next to his son Jackie Jr. at Cypress Hills Cemetery, six miles from the site of his former home ballpark Ebbets Field.

Since his death, Robinson’s life has been memorialized in many ways. A New York City park in Harlem bears his name , Nike released released a shoe celebrating him called the Nike Dunk Low, and his jersey has been retired throughout the MLB. He also has a dedicated museum and an annual MLB honorary event, Jackie Robinson Day.

Jersey Retirement

The Dodgers were the first to retire Robinson’s jersey number of 42. They did so in 1972, the same year he died.

Decades later on the 50 th anniversary of Robinson’s historic debut—April 15, 1997—MLB executive Bud Selig retired No. 42 from the major leagues entirely. Hall of Fame New York Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera was the last player to wear the number full-time, as players who had it at the time of Selig’s decree were allowed to keep it until retirement.

Jackie Robinson Museum and Foundation

After Robinson’s death in 1972, his wife, Rachel, established the Jackie Robinson Foundation dedicated to honoring his life and work. The foundation helps young people in need by providing scholarships and mentoring programs.

In September 2022, the foundation debuted the Jackie Robinson Museum located in New York City. The museum possesses 4,500 artifacts from Robinson’s life and career, including many directly from the Robinson family. A few items displayed are his original plaque from the National Baseball Hall of Fame, trophies from throughout his career, vintage scorecards, ticket stubs, trading cards, and jerseys.

Jackie Robinson Day

In 2004, MLB began celebrating Jackie Robinson Day on April 15 to honor the legendary player’s accomplishments on the anniversary of when he broke baseball’s color barrier. Pre-game festivities were held to commemorate Robinson, with scholars from the Jackie Robinson Foundation throwing out the first pitch at every game.

Since 2009, all uniformed MLB personnel have worn 42 on Jackie Robinson Day as a tribute. On the 75 th anniversary of Robinson’s first game in 2022, all players, coaches, and umpires wore the number in famed Dodger blue.

In 1950, Robinson starred in The Jackie Robinson Story , a biographical movie directed by Alfred E. Green and co-starring Ruby Dee as Robinson’s wife.

Robinson’s book I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography of Jackie Robinson initially published in October 1972 and delves into his life, baseball career, activism, and troubled relationship with his son Jack Jr. Numerous other books about Robinson’s career and effect on baseball have been written.

Robinson’s life was the subject of the acclaimed 2013 Brian Helgeland movie 42 , which starred Chadwick Boseman as Robinson and Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey . The film helped turn Boseman into a bona fide Hollywood star.

In 2016, filmmaker Ken Burns premiered a documentary about the baseball legend on PBS simply titled Jackie Robinson .

• There’s not an American in this country free until every one of us is free.
• The way I figured it, I was even with baseball and baseball with me. The game had done much for me, and I had done much for it.
• A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.
• Baseball is like a poker game. Nobody wants to quit when he’s losing; nobody wants you to quit when you’re ahead.
• Not being able to fight back is a form of severe punishment.
• A Black man, even after he has proven himself on and off the playing field, will still be denied his rights.
• I’m grateful for all the breaks and honors and opportunities I’ve had, but I always believe I won’t have it made until the humblest Black kid in the most remote backwoods of America has it made.
• I had learned that I was in two wars: one against the foreign enemy, the other against prejudice at home.
• I want to thank all of the people throughout this country who were just so wonderful during those trying days.
• I like friends just as much as other people. But if it comes down to the question of having a choice between the friendship of some of these writers and their respect, I’ll take their respect.
• I’m going to be tremendously pleased and more proud when I look at the third base coaching line one day and see a Black face managing in baseball.
• Black America has asked so little, but if you can’t see the anger that comes from rejection, you are treading a dangerous course.
• If I had to choose tomorrow between the Baseball Hall of Fame and full citizenship for my people, I would choose full citizenship time and again.
• The right of every American to first-class citizenship is the most important issue of our time.
• Above anything else, I hate to lose.
• I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me… All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.

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Opinion: Jackie Robinson was a true sports hero

Scott Simon

A portrait of the Brooklyn Dodgers' infielder Jackie Robinson in uniform. Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

A portrait of the Brooklyn Dodgers' infielder Jackie Robinson in uniform.

Editor's note: Seventy-five years ago today, on April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson stepped onto the diamond at Ebbets Field and broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball. Scott Simon wrote this essay in 2019 for what would have been Robinson's 100th birthday.

I try not to say, "sports hero." An athlete may be electrifying and adored, and do much for their communities. But real heroes are people who run into burning buildings to save lives. Heroes are people who enrich the lives of others — and sometimes — move along history.

There is one athlete who has to be called a hero.

Jackie Robinson was born a hundred years ago next week, Jan. 31, 1919, in the small, segregated town of Cairo, Ga., the youngest of five children. A year later, his father left, and the Robinsons moved to southern California, where Jackie Robinson became one of the most celebrated young athletes in America.

He became 2nd Lt. Robinson in the segregated U.S. Army during World War II, but was court-martialed for refusing to move to the back of a bus on the U.S. Army base in Ft. Hood, Texas.

Jackie Robinson was proudly unapologetic and was acquitted. As he said — many times — "I am not concerned with your liking or disliking me. ... All I ask is that you respect me."

He began to play baseball in the old Negro Leagues after the war. There were many talented stars there, like Larry Doby and Satchel Paige, who could and would eventually be signed. But Branch Rickey, who ran the Brooklyn Dodgers, foresaw that the first African-American player in major league baseball would also be the star of a daily national drama.

"I had to get a man who could carry the burden," said Mr. Rickey. "I needed a man to carry the badge of martyrdom."

He signed Jackie Robinson.

He broke into the big leagues in 1947. Most Americans saw baseball then in black and white. Jackie Robinson brought fire. Bigots in the stands hurled curses — and sometimes bottles and threats. Some opposing players slid into him with their spikes. Some opposing pitchers threw at his head. Jackie Robinson played, calmly, nobly and superbly under that profane hail.

When civil rights marchers of the 1960s walked across a bridge in Selma, or the streets of Birmingham, through a blizzard of police sticks, snarling dogs and water cannons, they could hold in their minds the image of Jackie Robinson, walking brave and unbowed to home plate.

Jackie Robinson was an athlete, not Martin Luther King Jr. in baseball stripes. But his own story galvanized his life, and when he left baseball, he became an activist for integration and justice. As President Barack Obama said, "There's a direct line between Jackie Robinson and me." The history Jackie Robinson made helped make America better.

• Brooklyn Dodgers
• Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson

Written by: Paul Dickson, Independent Historian

By the end of this section, you will:.

• Explain how and why various groups responded to calls for the expansion of civil rights from 1960 to 1980

Suggested Sequencing

Use this narrative with the Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Montgomery Bus Boycott Narrative, The Little Rock Nine Narrative, The Murder of Emmett Till Narrative, and the Rosa Parks’s Account of the Montgomery Bus Boycott (Radio Interview), April 1956 Primary Source to discuss the rise of the African American civil rights movement pre-1960.

In the spring of 1946, Jackie Robinson was on his way from California to Florida in the hope of becoming the first African American player in the twentieth century to make the roster of a major league baseball team. Robinson was up against an unwritten rule that for decades had prohibited major and minor league teams from signing black athletes. The rule was known as the color bar, and it forced black ballplayers to perform on their own teams in loosely organized groups known as the Negro leagues. The color bar was part of an insidious system of written and unwritten rules, known as Jim Crow, that kept blacks in a separate and unequal position in the Southern states.

However, that spring, Branch Rickey, general manager and part owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League, decided he was going to lift the color bar and challenge Jim Crow. He had been scouting talent from the Negro leagues for several seasons and looking for the right man to sign first. His fear was that such a pioneer would face a torrent of racism and fight back, impeding progress toward integration. Jackie Robinson appealed to him not only because of his talent but also because of his poise and self-control. During one early meeting, Rickey tested whether Robinson had the ability to turn the other cheek by hurling slurs and insults at him. Robinson demonstrated the strength of character to ignore the taunts. On October 23, 1945, Rickey signed Robinson to play on the Montreal Royals of the International League, a minor league team for the Dodgers, in the 1946 baseball season.

Jackie Robinson, pictured here in November 1945 while playing for the Kansas City Monarchs, was signed to the Montreal Royals as the first black baseball player in the International League since the 1880s.

Both Rickey and Robinson knew the road ahead was going to be rocky, but neither could have foreseen how difficult it would actually be. During the 1946 trip from California to the Royals’ spring training camp in Sanford, Florida, Robinson and his new wife Rachel were not allowed into segregated restaurants and hotels and were bumped from airplanes while white passengers boarded. At one point, a Greyhound bus driver called Robinson “boy” and ordered him to sit in the section designated for African Americans.

By the time Robinson reached the spring training site of the Montreal club, he was considering walking away from the challenge that lay ahead. However, he spoke with two black journalists, Wendell Smith and Billy Rowe, who worked for the traditionally black newspaper the Pittsburgh Courier . They persuaded Robinson that he had an historic opportunity to expand opportunities for African Americans if he were able to face the coming trial.

The courage needed to go on at this point was significant. As Chris Lamb, author of Blackout – The Untold Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Spring Training, put it :

Never before – and never since – in American sports has so much been riding on an athlete, in surroundings so hostile as Robinson found himself in Florida, where segregation was legal and brutally enforced, and where blacks who challenged discrimination were often jailed, beaten or murdered. At least nine blacks were lynched in 1946 and more than 20 others were rescued from angry mobs.

After deciding to stay, Robinson joined the team during the first two days of spring training. But the second evening, Smith received a warning from a white man that a white mob was preparing to threaten Robinson. At this point, Rickey moved the Robinsons, another black player he was considering, and the black newspaper writers to Daytona Beach, where the Dodgers were located and where the group boarded with an African American family.

On March 17, the manager penciled Robinson into the starting lineup for a game against the Dodgers in downtown Daytona Beach. He failed at the plate that first day, but Leo Durocher, the Dodgers’ manager, was the first to come to his defense. “Although Robinson didn’t get a hit today, he looked like a real ballplayer out there,” he told Wendell Smith of the Courier . “Don’t forget he was under terrific pressure. He was cast in the middle of a situation that neither he nor the fans had ever experienced before. But he came through it like a champion. He’s a ballplayer.”

Though Daytona Beach was strictly segregated, Robinson encountered no other major troubles there, but that was not the case on the road, because he was excluded from play elsewhere in Florida. Owners locked stadiums, canceled games, and called the police while he was on the field to prevent him from playing.

Nevertheless, his first year in Montreal was a resounding success. The 27-year-old Robinson led the league in batting average (.349), runs scored (113), stolen bases (40), and runs batted in (66). Nevertheless, racist taunts were still a problem, especially when the team was on the road. In Syracuse, New York, Robinson was taunted as one member of the local team threw a black cat on the field, yelling that it was the ballplayer’s “cousin”.

Jackie Robinson, number 30, is pictured here during his first year playing in the minor leagues for the Royals. (credit: modification of “Jackie Robinson, Montréal Royals 1946, Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, St. Marys Ontario 2956 (4871300431)” by Robert Taylor/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0)

In the spring of 1947, Robinson was sent to Cuba, where the Dodgers and Royals were holding spring training. Robinson expected he would not suffer racist abuse there. But he and three other black players under consideration by Rickey were stuck at a ramshackle hotel while the white players stayed at luxurious beachfront accommodations. Rickey later confessed to Robinson that he had segregated the men, explaining, “I can’t afford to take a chance and have a single incident occur.”

There was still a final indignity facing Robinson. After his first game in a Montreal uniform against the Brooklyn “B” squad on March 13 in Cuba, it was off to Panama for a series of exhibition games with local teams and then with the Dodgers. Both the Dodgers and the Royals were housed inside the Canal Zone, where all the games were played and which was then still part of the United States. As such, it was administered under Jim Crow segregation, so Robinson and another black player had to sleep outside the Zone in Panama City, where there was no racial segregation to speak of.

As sports reporter Tommy Holmes of the Brooklyn Eagle put it, Robinson had gotten a far better break in Florida than he was getting in a territory under the control of the U.S. federal government. In Florida, at least he knew the rules and got to bed and board with local families. Here he was exiled – literally forced to leave the United States – to find a bed. This put added pressure on Robinson and fueled the anger he had already expressed over his living conditions in Havana. However, Robinson was able to keep his feelings under control and earned himself a spot in the opening-day line up of the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers.

Jackie Robinson in 1950, in his Brooklyn Dodgers uniform.

During his rookie season, Robinson performed extraordinarily well. Despite having to confront racial slurs and pitches thrown at his head, he prevailed and was named Rookie of the Year.

Robinson had integrated the National League, but what about the American League? Eleven weeks after Robinson’s baseball debut, Bill Veeck, the owner of the Cleveland Indians, shocked his fellow owners in the American League by signing Larry Doby of the Negro league’s Newark Eagles. Some of the same racist name-calling that had afflicted Robinson’s rookie season was addressed to Doby, but his most horrific trials came in 1948. Hoping to avoid the racism and racial segregation in Florida, the Cleveland Indians moved their spring training camp to Arizona, but when they got there, it was as bad as in Florida, if not worse. Not only was Doby not allowed to stay in the team hotel in Tucson but his wife, pregnant and feeling faint, could not even get a glass of water at a whites-only hotel. Later that spring, Doby had to be pulled from an exhibition game in Texas as rocks and bottles were thrown at him.

The battle for integration in baseball was eventually won, but victory was slow in coming. The last major league team to sign its first black player, the Boston Red Sox, did not do so until 1959.

The stories of Robinson, Doby, and other African American pioneers are often seen as simply part of the history of baseball rather than as a turning point in American history that served as a spark for the larger civil rights movement. As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, Jackie Robinson was “a pilgrim that walked in the lonesome byways toward the high road of Freedom. He was a sit-inner before sit-ins, a freedom rider before freedom rides.”

Review Questions

1. Jim Crow is best described as

• a comic book character who stereotyped African Americans as less intelligent
• the systematic segregation and/or exclusion of African Americans in the South
• a genre of southern folk songs that called for segregation of the races
• a famous African American baseball player from the nineteenth century

2. Branch Rickey can best be described as the

• last well-known African American to play major league baseball in the nineteenth century
• outspoken baseball manager who kept African Americans out of the major leagues
• first major league team owner to sign an African American in the twentieth century
• Negro League player who was more talented than Jackie Robinson but refused to sign with a major league team

3. During spring training in Florida, Jackie Robinson experienced all the following except

• an inherently racist society
• acceptance by most baseball fans
• racial slurs
• encouragement from members of the press to continue playing for the Dodgers

4. As part of the Brooklyn Dodgers organization, Jackie Robinson faced

• complete equality
• acceptance only on the field of play
• discrimination but only by the other players
• discrimination by the team’s ownership

5. The owner of the Cleveland Indians moved his team’s spring training site from Florida to Arizona because

• it was more cost effective for the team to train in Arizona
• he thought Arizona would be free of the racial segregation found in Florida
• his players demanded the move to help end the controversy over race
• he wanted to be closer to his home in Arizona

6. As his rookie season came to an end, Jackie Robinson’s experience in major league baseball

• came to an end as he returned to the Negro Leagues
• led him to leave the Brooklyn Dodgers to make more money with another team
• forced his retirement from the sport
• led to his being honored as the National League’s Rookie of the Year

Free Response Questions

• Describe Martin Luther King Jr.’s analysis of the contributions of Jackie Robinson to the African American civil rights movement.
• Describe Jackie Robinson’s experiences during his first spring training season in Florida.

AP Practice Questions

“The recruitment of Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 occurred against the backdrop of the united-front of blacks and whites, leftists and moderates, and labor and civil rights organizations in various parts of the city (New York). Robinson’s recruitment is exemplary of labor civil rights activism over the integration of job sectors in this case baseball. Although Dodgers owner Branch Rickey recalled the year 1942 as the time when he decided to hire a black player, his recruitment of Robinson occurred later, amid a broad-based community campaign.”

John Hope Franklin, historian, From Slavery to Freedom A History of African Americans 9e, 2011 Source: McGraw Hill (New York) © 2011, pg. 496

1. According to the excerpt, the desire for African Americans to play in major league baseball came from

• the African American community in New York
• a variety of political and social groups
• the owners of all major league baseball teams
• the major league players

2. Arguments for the integration of major league sports, such as those expressed in the excerpt, were similar to arguments for

• women’s suffrage
• the abolition of slavery
• the integration of the military
• the legalization of labor unions

Primary Sources

Robinson, Jackie, and Alfred Duckett. I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography . Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press, 1995.

Suggested Resources

Lamb, Chris. Blackout: The Untold Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Spring Training . Lincoln, NE: Bison Books, 2006.

Moore, Joseph Thomas, and Paul Dickson. Larry Doby: The Struggle of the American League’s First Black Player . Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2011.

Rampersad, Arnold. Jackie Robinson: A Biography . New York: Ballantine Books, 1998.

Robinson, Sharon. Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America . New York: Scholastic Press, 2004.

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Heroes: What They Do & Why We Need Them

A commentary on today's heroes, jackie robinson: the fearless and determined hero.

It is hard to believe that the grandson of a slave and the son of a sharecropper would go on to become baseball’s civil rights legend and not only change the way we look at sports but also the way we look at race relations in the United States. Jackie Roosevelt Robinson was ambitious, determined, and fearless on his journey to break through the prevailing race barriers of his time.

Born in a cabin in Cairo, Georgia, on January 31, 1919 and one of four children in the Robinson family, Jackie grew up extremely poor. The Robinsons sharecropped for a white family called the Sassers, where they planted and grew crops in exchange for a place to live. Six months into Jackie’s life, his father deserted the family and soon after, Marlie Robinson, Jackie’s mother, decided to move to Pepper Street in Pasadena, California with the hope of giving her children a better life. Soon, Jackie realized his athletic ability, and the rest was history.

After his tour of duty, Jackie left the military with the rank of second lieutenant. Later on while playing baseball for the Monarchs of the Negro American Baseball League, Branch Rickey, manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, saw Jackie as the perfect candidate to fulfill his vision of bringing African-Americans in into league. In 1947, his first year with the Dodgers, Robinson earned rookie of the year and even though some people respected Robinson for his abilities and courage, others issued him death threats. During Robinson’s ten year career with the Brooklyn Dodgers, the team won a total of six national league titles, the World Series in 1955 and he personally won the title of most valuable player in the league in 1949. He retired with a .311 batting average and stole home 19 times.

After examining the actions and life of Jackie Robinson it becomes clear that he is both a highly moral individual, as well as highly competent. In the words of Rev. Jesse Jackson, “Jackie Robinson’s impact was greater than just that of baseball. He was a transforming agent and in the face of such hostility and such meanness and violence, he did it with such amazing dignity. He had to set the course for the country,” Robinson was strong, resilient, charismatic, and inspiring, many qualities that make up the great eight of characteristics for a hero.

However, these qualities were not just present during his years playing baseball. After he retired from the sport, he used his unique position and fame as a platform to call for an end to racial injustice. His work with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and with the Southern Christian Leadership Council helped create many new opportunities for african-americans as he spoke on the injustices of racial segregation.

It was in the year 1962, his first year of eligibility, that Robinson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Jackie Robinson’s actions both on and off the field served as a means of inspiration to a whole generation of minorities who were in desperate need of a hero of their own. His breaking of the baseball color line helped to also break various other color lines all across the United States. His unbending principles and control under this intense and demanding role was equally balanced against his passion for winning. Because of this, Jackie Robinson is a hero for both the sport of baseball and all African-Americans.

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4 thoughts on “ jackie robinson: the fearless and determined hero ”.

This article gave a very insightful background to Jackie Robinson. I liked how Jackson related Jackie Robinson’s life and actions to the hero’s cycle and identified some of the “Great Eight” qualities associated with Robinson. Furthermore, I liked how Jackson described Robinson’s work after his baseball career. By telling us his whole journey, from the beginning, growing up very poor to the work he did for the NAACP, the essay itself finishes off the hero’s cycle.

I agree with Cheuk. I felt that you clearly illustrated how Jackie Robinson’s life mirrors the hero’s journey. In particular, I really liked how you described the point in which Robinson crosses the threshold into the unknown to be later in his life when he was dealing with racial discrimination. By mentioning the racial discrimination, you highlight Robinson’s heroic aspects and demonstrate why he was such a great hero.

I think this blog was really well written and very nicely summed up Jackie’s hero journey. I like that you brought Joseph Campbell’s ideas into it and were able to connect them to Jackie’s life and career. He might not come to someone’s mind at first as a hero, but you explain very well how he should be considered one.

I think you did a good job of capturing his true heroic essence as a hero in both the world of sports and the world of civil rights.

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The Jackie Robinson Foundation: A Legacy of Excellence and Impact

This article was written by  Mark Harnischfeger

This article was published in Jackie Robinson: Perspectives on 42

Jackie Robinson and young fan, Stephen Rozansky in 1951 at the Hall of Fame Game in Cooperstown. Inspiring youth remains a goal of today’s Jackie Robinson Foundation.

“After two years at UCLA, I decided to leave. I was convinced that no amount of education would help a black man get a job.” – Jackie Robinson 1

Three decades after he left college, the Jackie Robinson Foundation was established to encourage, promote, and fund higher education for African American students. The cultural, economic, and political landscapes of America were changing, and Jackie Robinson had played a pivotal role.

The year was 1940 and in America, 44 years after the United States Supreme Court launched an era of legalized segregation in its Plessey v. Ferguson decision, Jack Robinson knew that it was going to take more than education to advance the cause of African Americans. Throughout the country, in the North, South, East, and West, African Americans could not stay at the same hotels as Whites, eat in the same restaurants, or even drink from the same water fountains. It was a time when Robinson’s older brother, Mack, second only to Jesse Owens in the 200-meter event in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, returned home only to wear his Olympic jacket to his street-sweeping job. And where Jack, a five-sport athlete at UCLA, was described by the Los Angeles Times as carrying a football “like it was a watermelon and the guy who owned it was after him with a shotgun.” 2 It was a time when schools and neighborhoods were segregated, in some places by law, in others by unwritten codes and traditions.

April 15, 1947, was a day unlike any other. For the first time in the twentieth century, a Black man played on a White major-league baseball team. And although much of America’s focus that day was on the now-broken color line of professional baseball, the true impact of that event crossed much greater lines. The late author and former New York Post and New York Daily News editor, Pete Hamill, experienced that impact and described it years later: “The great accomplishment of Robinson in 1947 was not so much that he integrated baseball, but that he integrated those stands. Which is to say he started to integrate his country, our country. And so when Robinson jittered off second base, upsetting the enemy pitcher, the number 42 sending signals of possible amazement, we all roared. Whites and blacks roaring for Robinson.” 3

“The right of every American to first-class citizenship is the most important issue of our time. … If I had to choose between baseball’s Hall of Fame and first-class citizenship for all of my people, I would choose first-class citizenship time and again.” — Jackie Robinson 4

His baseball career behind him, his passion for equal rights for all still burning brightly, Robinson embarked on a journey of political and social activism. With his wife, Rachel, at his side, herself a social activist with a fire and commitment to rival that of her husband, the couple reflected Jack’s assertion that “life is not a spectator sport.” Throughout the 1960s, he conferred with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil-rights leaders and was an established presence in the movement, as the host or special guest at numerous gatherings and fundraising events.

In January 1963 Jack co-founded the Freedom National Bank in New York City to address discrimination in mortgage applications by Black people and to encourage Black entrepreneurship. It went on to become the largest Black-owned and -operated bank in New York state. 5 In June of that year, he and Rachel hosted a jazz concert at their home in Connecticut to raise bail money for jailed civil-rights activists, an event that raised funds for social and education programs until 2001. Jack’s passing in October 1972 cut short his commitment to “full citizenship” for African Americans, but Rachel was undeterred.

That December, less than two months after his death, she took over the presidency of the Jackie Robinson Construction Corporation, renamed it the Jackie Robinson Development Corporation, and oversaw the company’s focus on providing housing for those with low to moderate incomes. 6 In May of 1973, with the assistance of several others and a gift of corporate sponsorship, she founded the Jackie Robinson Foundation (JRF), with a mission to honor his life and legacy and to continue his vision for advancement and equal opportunity, specifically the growth toward “full citizenship” that defined her husband’s life work.

The JRF was founded to not only address the financial needs of minority students who aspired to attend college but to also guide them through the process of higher education. Rachel Robinson and the co-founders of the foundation recognized an achievement gap for minority students when it came to the pursuit of higher education. Years of economic and social discrimination had left many deserving students of color frequently unable to take advantage of these opportunities to the same extent as their White counterparts. If full equality was ever to be achieved, educational opportunity was deemed to be a key component.

However, the founders astutely realized that opportunity – admission to a college or university – was but the first step toward achieving academic success. Unequal access to educational opportunity had meant a historical inequality in the kinds of experience that would contribute to the development of the kinds of skills needed to not only survive in the higher-education environment, but to thrive.

Consequently, JRF provides an extensive curriculum for its “JRF Scholars,” titled “42 Strategies for Success,” focused not only on active support to achieve academic success but on the development and enrichment of character, responsibility, and citizenship. A sampling of curriculum topics – Navigating Campus Resources, Time Management, Money Matters 101, Health and Wellness, How to Interview, Résumé Writing, Social Etiquette, Career Discernment – reveals the broad scope of information that is provided and the skill development that is expected. Attention is also paid to professional dress and behavior. And as JRF board chairman Gregg Gonsalves emphatically states: “We make sure every scholar passes.” 7

Good citizenship is introduced and developed as all scholars must participate in community service, helping to instill a sense of sense of belonging to something greater than oneself and a pay-it-forward mentality. This commitment is described by Ashley Kyalawzi, a 2018 graduate as a JRF scholar: “Jackie’s legacy challenges each and every one of us actively to do what we can with whatever resources we have, big or small, and to use our own voices to really lift up other people in tough times.” 8

And finally, the curriculum includes extensive exposure to Black success. Reginald Livingston, Class of 1996, described the environment he walked into at one of the foundation’s annual weekend conferences: “Here are actual doctors we can talk to, actual lawyers we can talk to.” 9 Years later, there is still a sense of wonder and amazement in his voice as he describes the experience. Jermain Robertson, ’17, echoes that wonder: “To be able to walk into the room with so (many) people who are striving to be excellent, (to be) literally drowning in Black excellence.” 10 The exposure to role models of success and the ensuing advice, mentoring, and networking opportunities serve to excite and further motivate JRF scholars, and they can begin to see what is possible. As stated by JRF’s CEO and president, Della Britton Baiza, education is the initial goal, “[B]ut what’s more, JRF scholars become self-actualized, they go on to become leaders in their field and in the community.” 11

The first step, as is the initial step in most social endeavors, is financial and it begins with the awarding of a scholarship. JRF advances higher-education opportunities by providing generous multiyear scholarship awards to deserving minority students. The JRF scholarship is awarded to outstanding high-school graduates who plan to earn a bachelor’s degree from an accredited four-year college or university. The selection process is a national one and the JFR Scholars who are selected receive a grant of up to $28,000 over four years to assist with the cost of the college of their choice, complementing the financial aid they receive from the college. In addition, they are enrolled in the foundation’s comprehensive mentoring program, 42 Strategies for Success.

To again emphasize, 42 Strategies at its core is an experiential, hands-on program of support and encouragement. JRF staff, volunteer Scholar Advisory Committee members, corporate and university partners, community leaders, JRF alumni, and volunteer staff that comprise the Scholar Advisory Committee combine to provide academic, professional, and practical life mentoring to JRF Scholars on an individualized, year-round basis. JRF sponsors and institutional partners offer valuable career opportunities to JRF Scholars, providing internships, permanent employment and exposure to a rich network of professionals. The JRF staff works on a customized basis with corporations, community leaders, government agencies, and other employers to identify “good fit” job opportunities and to prepare JRF Scholars to become leaders in a global economy. In recent years JRF scholars have received over 275 internships and full-time jobs at companies like General Electric, Nike, Coca-Cola, Boeing, Bloomberg, Unilever, and the United Health Foundation. 12 Noteworthy examples of scholar opportunity include Jermaine Medley, ’17, who after interning at Boeing accepted an offer as a structural engineer, and Chelsea Miller, ’18, who spent a semester interning at the White House, learning about the criminal justice system. 13

The mentoring program consists of a number of specific components, all designed to help support not only ongoing academic success but to prepare for a rewarding career. In addition to the scholarship award, funding is also provided for students to attend JRF’s annual four-day Mentoring and Leadership Conference, a key component of the foundation’s curriculum.

Originally called the Scholars’ Networking Weekend, the first such conference took place at the Robinson home in 1983. It has expanded to an annual four-day event held in New York City each spring, hosted for all JRF Scholars. It is held in conjunction with JRF’s annual alumni reunion, providing the opportunity for important mentor and networking interaction between scholars and alumni. Students participate in workshops focused on career exploration, leadership development and practical life skills. They will network with corporate executives, dozens of community leaders, and government officials. This engagement is further enhanced through cultural, recreational, and community service outings. At the 2019 weekend, scholars participated in the Rise Against Hunger Project and listened to Lauren Underwood trace her path from a JRF Scholar at the University of Michigan to an advisory role at the White House to her current position as a congresswoman from Illinois. 14

The Mentoring and Leadership Conference is a highlight of JRF’s year-round mentoring efforts and culminates in scholars attending the foundation’s annual Robie Awards Dinner, an event that pays tribute to individuals who embody the humanitarian ideals of Jackie Robinson, while also serving as a fundraiser for the JRF. The first recipients of the award, in spring 1979, were Arthur Ashe and Ralph Ward, the latter the chairman of the board of Chesebrough-Pond Inc. (now part of Unilever), the first corporate sponsor of JRF from its very inception in 1973. In 1989 Ward established the Ralph E. Ward Achievement Award, which he gave annually to recognize the graduating JRF Scholar with the highest cumulative grade-point average. The Robie Awards have since gone on to recognize many of the most celebrated names in business, politics, education, media, sports, and the arts. Recipients have included Henry Aaron, Clive Davis, J.W. Marriott, George Lucas, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Michael Jordan, Stevie Wonder, Robert Manfred, and Maverick Carter, all of whom have in some way contributed to the promotion of social justice and human dignity and shared their success with underserved communities.

The four-day MLC conference is not a standalone event, as smaller, regional gatherings and events are held throughout the year. These events include webinars and on-site workshops focused on the development of effective study habits, practical life skills, strong character traits and leadership. Program topics include public speaking, time management, conflict resolution, personal financial management, professional and personal etiquette, and strategies to address stress and social challenges. JRF Scholars are afforded opportunities to practice and hone these skills through networking, participating in public events, engagement in national and local media, and other ambassadorial platforms facilitated by JRF. A primary example of this is the Point/Counterpoint activity that is included in the conference, in which teams of students engage in active debate. For those participating as well for those watching, it’s an opportunity to engage and to model critical thinking, an important focus of the 42 Strategies.

JRF Scholars are required to perform community service throughout their JRF experience and they are held accountable for it, an important character trait of focus and emphasis throughout the curriculum. Students must document the specifics of their work and keep all accounts on file with JRF staff. In addition to establishing their accountability, students gain practical skills that enhance their self-confidence and self-esteem and in turn impact the lives of the many others who benefit from their community-based projects. JRF Scholars contribute over 4,500 hours of community service annually. 15 The vast majority of this service is of the grass-roots level, delivered locally within their home communities. Internet videos abound with displays of JRF Scholars sitting in elementary-school classrooms and working with young children. Others can be seen painting gymnasiums and restoring playgrounds. As is the case when reaching out to help others, the scholars always note that they are receiving as much as or more than they’re providing. It’s a lesson they carry with them in their subsequent careers.

Opportunities for JRF Scholars became international in 2008 with the establishment of the Rachel Robinson International Fellowship. Established to promote and support international service and study opportunities, it chooses students by a competitive process among JRF Scholars who apply, and they may use the grant for a variety of initiatives. Eligible examples include financial support for a study-abroad program, an international volunteer or philanthropic effort, or in conjunction with an approved internship or course of study abroad. To date, over 77 scholars have participated in more than 39 countries. 16 Examples include Jermaine Medley, ’17, who built bathrooms in a rural village in Bolivia; Cinneah El-Amin, ’16, who traveled to both Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Cape Town, South Africa, to explore the evolution of cities in the twenty-first century; 17 and Riley Jones IV, ’16, who taught financial literacy to a rural village in Panama. 18 And in conjunction with the Me to We Foundation, JRF is engaging in a groundbreaking project called Project Tanzania, in which the entire graduating class of 2021 will journey to that African country to volunteer in local Masai tribe communities. Part adventure, part giving back, it will be one more way that JRF scholars are realizing Rachel Robinson’s vision in making an impact on lives around the world. 19

In addition to the addition of international opportunity, JRF has expanded to include graduate education. The Extra Innings Fellowship was established to help highly motivated JRF Scholars fund the cost of advanced professional or graduate training. Through Extra Innings fellowships, JRF seeks to promote the study of a broad range of topics and disciplines that address communities in need both across the country and around the world. Extra Innings fellows receive multiyear gifts of up to $10,000 per year depending on need.

As of 2019, JRF has disbursed over $85 million in grants and direct program support to 1,500 students who have attended over 260 colleges and universities. 20 With the support of JRF’s support and program curriculum, JRF Scholars have consistently achieved a 98 percent college graduation rate. JRF alumni are leaders in their communities and across a broad range of professional fields, true ambassadors of Jackie Robinson’s legacy of service and humanitarianism.

The year 2019 marked the 100th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s birth and JRF was set to culminate a yearlong schedule of special events with a significant expansion of its mission of education and the Robinson legacy. The foundation had been preparing for the anniversary year by initiating two major additions to its programming. Project IMPACT was launched in 2018, a digital online service that could offer the 42 Strategies to a larger population of college students. And ground had been broken on April 27, 2017, on the foundation’s crowning project, the Jackie Robinson Museum.

Located in Lower Manhattan’s burgeoning cultural district, just a few blocks from the World Trade Center and Freedom Tower, it will occupy the first two floors of the 16-story Hudson Square tower. It was initially scheduled to open in December 2019 as a way to culminate the yearlong celebration. Various delays, first in funding and construction and most recently the Covid virus pandemic, postponed the opening until sometime in 2021. In the absence of personal visitation, virtual experiences opened and are available at https://jrlegacy.org . Educational programming for elementary and middle-school students is offered and podcasts, specifically targeted toward teachers and parents, are also available.

The general public has a number of options as well. Once the museum opened, Jackie Robinson’s athletic career and his social impact was to be chronicled through artifacts, state-of-the-art exhibits, film, and other media, with an emphasis on interactive programming. In addition, the museum planned to partner with public schools to enrich curriculum, further functioning as a catalyst for social change. With a mission to “Educate, Inspire and Challenge, this physical tribute to Jackie Robinson will serve as a destination for those seeking innovative, educational programming and a venue for vibrant dialogue on critical social issues.” 21 Its location is destined to become a dynamic venue for lectures, concerts, and receptions, all designed to provide a forum for interaction, dialogue, and debate.

On the field and off, throughout his athletic career and his decades of subsequent public service and social activism, Jackie Robinson was a profile in courage. And on April 15, 1997, during a celebration honoring the 50th anniversary of his first regular-season game with the Brooklyn Dodgers, his widow, Rachel Robinson, took a moment to remember. Waiting with their daughter, Sharon, and son, Jesse, to be introduced to a sold-out crowd at Shea Stadium in New York City, Mike Lupica, a sportswriter covering the event for MLB.com, turned to her and asked what she most remembered best about her husband. “My husband was good,” she replied, “and he was brave.” 22

Fast forward 23 years to April 15, 2020, and ballparks across the United States are dark. Within the midst of a growing viral pandemic, a wave of uncertainty and fear began to grow as well. Americans were being asked to be brave and for their behavior to make a difference in their communities. Robinson would be the captain of both of those teams. His life and his legacy are embodied in the mission of the Jackie Robinson Foundation, offering students the opportunity to practice his words carved on his gravestone: “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” Years after leaving college with a view of the futility of education for African American advancement, the foundation in his name provides a beacon of promise and hope through education that he felt was unrealistic in his own time. The Jackie Robinson Foundation serves to honor the ideal that one life can make a difference and the life of Jackie Robinson is that example: A pretty good baseball player who embraced and embodied ideals well beyond the confines of a sport and devoted his life to making a difference.

To contact the Jackie Robinson Foundation and learn more about its work, visit https://jackierobinson.org .

MARK HARNISCHFEGER is a longtime Pittsburgh Pirates fan who resides in Rochester, New York. As the published author of two books and several related articles about Negro League baseball and civil rights, he has presented at numerous national and regional conferences and events. He holds a master’s degree in education from the SUNY College at Brockport with certifications in Social Studies (5-12) and Inclusive Education (7-12.) He has taught in the Rochester City School District and several surrounding districts after a three-decade career in community mental health, and currently works in admissions at the University of Tampa.

1 Jackie Robinson, I Never Had It Made (New York: HarperCollins, 1995), 11.

2 Paul Zimmerman, “Jackie Robinson: Big Threat on U.C.L.A. Football Eleven,” Los Angeles Times , August 27, 1939: A15.

3 https:/www./brooklyndodgermemories.com/pete-hamill-on-ebbets-field-t900.xhtml.

4 https:/www.thejackierobinsonproject42.weebly.com/leadership.xhtml.

5 https://jackierobinson.org

6 https://youtube.com/watch?v=MKZNcCbQ-4s.

7 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOmOsh-Aryk.

8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOmOsh-Aryk.

9 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOmOsh-Aryk.

10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOmOsh-Aryk.

11 https://www.jackierobinson.org/our-programs/jrf-efect.

12 https://www.jackierobinson.org/about/sponsors.

13 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfQGj5h6tzk.

14 https://jackierobinson.org.

15 https://www.jackierobinson.org/our-programs/jrf-efect.

16 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOmOsh-Aryk.

17 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOmOsh-Aryk.

18 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKZNcCbQ-4s.

19 https://www.jackierobinson.org/category/rrif/?page=1.

20 https://www.jackierobinson.org/museum.

21 https://www.jackierobinson.org/museum.

22 Mike Lupica, “The Consummate Captain of Braveness,” MLB.com , April 14, 2020. https://www.mlb.com/news/jackie-robinson-braveness-still-holds-true .

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Narrative Essay: Biography of Jackie Robinson

Jack Roosevelt Robinson, otherwise known as Jackie Robinson, was born in 1919 to sharecropping parents living in Cairo, Georgia. In 1920, Jackie’s father left the family and his mother moved him and his siblings to Pasadena, California. Because Jackie was African American, he experience a good share of racism and exclusion from various activities throughout his childhood. However, this never stopped Jackie from fostering his passion for sports.

Despite his childhood struggles with racism and poverty, Jackie Robinson went on to become the first African American to play professional baseball. He started with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947 and played first base. Signing Jackie Robinson to the Dodgers officially ended segregation in Major League Baseball, which has been in place since the 1880s.

Over the next 10 years, Jackie Robinson had a stellar baseball career, earning himself the MLB Rookie of the Year award in 1947 and all-star status in 1949 through 1954. In 1949, Jackie won the National League Most Valuable Player Award and was the first black player to earn it. Jackie played in a total of six World Series Games, including the Dodgers World Series win in 1955. In 1997, Jackie’s number 42 was officially retired by Major League Baseball and in 2004, Jackie Robinson day was declared a holiday and every current player wears number 42.

His illustrious baseball career was just one of Jackie Robinson’s contributions to his community and the world around him. Jackie was a major supporter of the Civil Rights Movement. Before entering Major League baseball, Jackie served in the segregated Army cavalry, based in Fort Riley, Kansas. He was later accepted into Officer Candidate School and served in several regiments of the army thereafter. Unfortunately, a racial incident on the bus meant that Jackie later got a couple of marks against him for subordination.

On January 5, 1957, Jackie Robinson officially retired from baseball, but didn’t stop leaving a legacy behind him. He later served as an analyst for ABC’s Major League Baseball Game of the Week, being the first black person to do so. He also kept up with politics and used his influence to help black people all over America get their rights under the Constitution.

Jackie Robinson also had a family, including his wife Rachel and three children. After the birth of one his sons in a car accident, Jackie became involved in the anti-drug crusade to help other families learn about the dangers of drug use and prevent other parents from having to lose their children.

On October 24, 1972, Jackie Robinson died due to complications from heart disease and diabetes. His cause of death was ruled a heart attack and he was 53 years old when he died. Jackie’s funeral brought in 2,500 mourners and Revered Jesse Jackson gave the eulogy at the funeral, which was filled with previous baseball teammates. Jackie was buried in Cypress Hill Cemetery in Brooklyn, next to his mother and son. The world lost a legend that day, but his name lives on even to this day.

After his death, Rachel Robinson started the Jackie Robinson Foundation, which carries on the famous baseball player’s legacy to this day. Many books have been authored about Jackie Robinson and the influence he had on the world is evident anytime people talk about the former baseball great.

After his death, Jackie Robinson was memorialized on postage stamps in 1982, 1999 and 2000. His name is also used on many highways, ballparks and museums across the United States. He might have born a humble sharecroppers son, but Jackie Robinson went on to change the world for the world of baseball and those who love the sport.

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A Letter from Jackie Robinson: Civil Rights Advocate

Jackie Robinson, undated Records of the United States Information Agency Record Group 306 (306-PS-50-4730)

Jack Roosevelt Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball; on April 10, 1947, Branch Rickey, president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, announced that Robinson had signed with his team. As the first African American to play in the major leagues in the 20th century, Jackie Robinson became the target of vicious racial abuse. Recalling his first season with the Brooklyn Dodgers in his autobiography, Robinson described how he played the best baseball he could as torrents of abuse were heaped upon him, and the entire nation focused its attention on his game. Having established a "reputation as a black man who never tolerated affronts to his dignity," he now found it in himself to resist the urge to strike back. In the ballpark, he answered the people he called "haters" with the perfect eloquence of a base hit. In 1949, his best year, Robinson was named the league's Most Valuable Player, and in 1962 he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He retired from the major leagues in 1956.

Jackie Robinson continued to champion the cause of civil rights after he left baseball. Having captured the attention of the American public in the ballpark, he now delivered the message that racial integration in every facet of American society would enrich the nation, just as surely as it had enriched the sport of baseball. Every American President who held office between 1956 and 1972 received letters from Jackie Robinson expressing varying levels of rebuke for not going far enough to advance the cause of civil rights. Indifferent to party affiliation and unwilling to compromise, he measured a President's performance by his level of commitment to civil rights. Robinson's stand was firm and nonnegotiable. The letters reveal the passionate and, at times, combative spirit with which Robinson worked to remove the racial barriers in American society.

"Life is not a spectator sport. . . . If you're going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you're escaping your life."

-- Jackie Robinson, 1964

Letter from Jackie Robinson to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, May 13, 1958

Robinson responded to Presidential civil rights comments amid continuing controversy over school desegregation efforts in Little Rock, AR, and the South. In September 1957, Governor Orval Faubus had ordered the Arkansas National Guard to prevent entry of nine African American students into that city's Central High School. President Eisenhower reluctantly sent U.S. troops to enforce the school's integration. From his position as a prominent executive of the Chock Full o'Nuts Corporation, Robinson continued his advocacy of social justice. View in the National Archives Catalog .

Letter from Jackie Robinson to President Eisenhower of May 13, 1958 Page 1. National Archives Identifier: 186627

Letter from Jackie Robinson to President Eisenhower of May 13, 1958 Page 2. National Archives Identifier: 186627

Select Resources

• Teaching With Documents: Jackie Robinson: Beyond the Playing Field , a collection of documents and three lesson plans that focus on civil rights history, character education, and civic responsibility. Though intended for teaching purposes, anyone interested in the life of this baseball legend will find the collection insightful.
• View in the National Archives Catalog .

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Thanks, UCLA, For Jackie and Rachel Robinson

Campus sports let jackie shine. campus life put him together with rachel..

by Scott Simon | April 12, 2013

Brooklyn earns a special place in the Jackie Robinson story. The borough’s robust mix of striving immigrants and progressive politics made for congenial fans when Jackie Robinson brought down the color bar in baseball (although, to be fair, within a few weeks Robinson was earning plaudits and admiration in the rest of the country too—even Philadelphia, where the racial harangues at the time were especially poisonous).

But UCLA deserves a chapter, too.

Jackie Robinson was born in the segregated South but was just a few months old in 1920 when his family arrived in Southern California. Pasadena, where the Robinsons settled, wasn’t Palmetto, Georgia, but there was still plenty of unofficially enshrined segregation (an unwritten law at local movie theaters put black families in the balcony and whites on the main floor). But Jackie Robinson wouldn’t be commanded to move to the back of the bus until serving as an officer in the U.S. Army at Fort Hood, Texas, in 1944. The same U.S. Army that so valiantly vaulted oceans to fight for freedom was segregated.

Jack Roosevelt Robinson was, by all accounts, the best all-around athlete at Pasadena’s John Muir High School. He played shortstop and catcher on the baseball team, quarterbacked the football team, played guard on the basketball team, and won both broad jump awards for the track team and the city-wide junior boys’ singles tennis championship. After similar athletic success at Pasadena Junior College, Jackie Robinson transferred to UCLA. And that’s where America first saw Jackie Robinson—on stadium fields wearing the university’s colors.

In 1940 and 1941, UCLA’s Jackie Robinson was probably the most versatile and accomplished college athlete in America. Baseball was actually his worst sport: He batted just .097 during the 1940 UCLA season, though reportedly a brilliant defensive shortstop (he’d have to be to stay in the game batting just .097). Jackie Robinson Stadium on the UCLA campus is probably named for the history-making major league baseball player that Jackie Robinson became, not the weak-hitting player he was in Westwood.

Playing Bruins baseball caused him to miss most of the 1940 track season, but he still managed to win a national collegiate long jump title with a leap of 24 feet, 10 and ¼ inches.

Jackie Robinson, Woody Strode, and Kenny Washington played in the backfield of the country’s most conspicuously integrated major college football team in 1940. Robinson led the nation in punt return average (21 yards) and led UCLA in rushing, passing, scoring, and total offense.

(For all their talent, the Bruins could do no better than a 0-0 tie against USC that year. After World War II, Washington and Strode would write their own integration story into history by breaking football’s unofficial color barrier in 1946 for the Los Angeles Rams—a year before Robinson took the field in Brooklyn.)

Robinson also excelled at basketball. He played forward while leading the Pacific Coast Conference Southern Division in scoring in 1940 and 1941. John Isaacs, who played for a trailblazing black barnstorming team called the New York Renaissance, saw Robinson lead a fast-break attack—different than the more studied and deliberate East Coast offenses—and recalled, “The first player I ever saw dunking as part of his game was Jackie Robinson.”

The Chicago Defender , perhaps the nation’s most prominent African-American newspaper of the time, reported, “Scoring is the least of the dusky marvel’s accomplishment.” (That’s how newspapers, black and white, spoke in the 1940s.) “A lightning dribbler and glue-fingered ball handler, his terrific speed makes it impossible for one man to hold him in check.”

So when Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey surrounded himself with scouting reports to choose the man he would suit up and send to break down the color bar in major league baseball, Jackie Robinson’s two years at UCLA conferred a lot of assets. Because of UCLA, he had played sports at the major college level and excelled. He had played alongside and won the admiration of white teammates and fans. He had learned how to cope with the questions and attentions of sportswriters. Integrating major league baseball would be an incomparable test of any man’s endurance and character. But Rickey knew that Robinson had already played—and superbly—under the glare of national attention.

For Robinson, UCLA held even deeper meaning that the professional and sporting preparation he did there. It was on the campus that Jackie Robinson, a senior and BMOC, had met Rachel Isum, a freshman who was studying for her BSN (Bachelor of Science in Nursing).

She was smart, funny, startlingly attractive, spirited and wise (and still is). Robinson started talking about marriage in their student days. She accepted his proposal in … well, a New York second. But she said she needed to finish school. He said he needed to be able to support her. Then World War II intervened, and then the minor leagues, and suddenly the engagement had lasted five years.

When Rickey first met Robinson in his office, he asked, “Do you have a girl, Jackie?”

“I think so,” was Robinson’s reply.

“The love of the right girl is so important,” Mr. Rickey told him, and told him truly.

They were married before Robinson went to that first spring training, and together confronted the insults and epithets. UCLA’s Rachel Robinson would give her husband strength, solace, and wisdom during their trials (and it really was their trials). She has embodied and enlarged Jackie Robinson’s legacy of courage and justice in the 65 years that have followed the path they so bravely forged.

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Jackie Robinson: A Life of Impact

The life as well as the Major League Baseball career of Jackie Robinson during the Civil Rights Movement opened doors and had an impact for the future generations of African Americans to find equality in Major League Baseball organizations.  When Robinson agreed to wear the number 42 jersey for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15th, 1947, he was the first man to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball.  Not only was this an event that was eagerly awaited in baseball history, but also a significant event in the history of racial equality in the United States of America.

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            Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia to a sharecropper named Jerry Robinson and his wife Mallie.  He was the youngest of five children.  After moving to Florida as an infant, his father abandoned his family.  His mother Mallie Robinson moved her family to Pasadena, California to an all white community.  The Robinson family became victims of prejudice and discrimination almost immediately.  Mallie Robinson was strong woman who refused to move, instead, she taught her children to be careful of their environment without losing their sense of dignity.  From his mother, Jackie Robinson learned the meaning of his African American heritage at a young age, listening to family slave stories of how relatives were treated by their masters.  She also taught him that when the slaves were given their freedom, many were afraid to live free because they knew no other way of life.

            As a boy, Robinson belonged to “The Pepper Street Gang” which was a group of poor black, Japanese, and Mexican children.  The object of the group was friendship; they played sports together and helped each other deal with being deprived of the advantages given to the white children of Pasadena.  An example of one of these advantages was that white children could swim in the local municipal pool everyday, and black children could only use the pool on Tuesdays.    When “The Pepper Street Gang” became resentful against the white children, Robinson’s mother made him quit.  She said, “It didn’t take guts to be in a group; rather it took courage and intelligence to be willing to be different.”(Allen)  Robinson began breaking barriers at a much younger age than most realize.

            Robinson was a sports star at John Muir High School and Pasadena Junior College.  Later Robinson enrolled at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where Robinson became the first four-sport letterman (baseball, football, basketball & track) in UCLA history (Encarta).  After just two years Robinson decided to quit college because he felt that even with a degree he couldn’t succeed in a white man’s society.

            The next major move that Robinson made was to join a professional football team in Hawaii called the Honolulu Bears for one season.  Two days after the season ended, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and Robinson joined the United States Army in May of 1942.  It did not take Robinson long to learn about the “Jim Crow Army” in which white soldiers had advantages that the black soldiers didn’t.  One example of this discrimination is that qualified African Americans were not permitted to enter the Officer’s Candidate Program which in was located in Fort Riley in the 1940’s.  Another example of discrimination that the white military personal were given the better equipment; and what was left went to the African-American personal.  After joining the Army football team, Robinson experienced discrimination aimed directly at him, because of his color he was sent home on leave because the Army team was going to play the University of Missouri and they threatened to cancel the game because they didn’t want to play a team with a black person on it. He quit the team and transferred to Fort Hood, Texas.

It was in Fort Hood, Texas that Robinson became known for a famous racial incident.  A bus driver ordered Robinson to move to the back of the military bus.  Robinson refused because Army regulations barred racial discrimination on any vehicle operating on base.  Robinson was arrested for insubordination, but later at a court-martial hearing was acquitted and given an honorable discharge from the Army.

            Although Robinson may have had more potential in another sport, he knew the best chance for black athletes to earn a living was baseball.  So, in 1945 Robinson began his professional career in the Negro Leagues with the Kansas City Monarchs.  In 1946, Robinson signed to the minor league Montreal Royals.  Robinson was accepted in Montreal, in fact he was a star, and after just one season was called up to the major leagues.

            When the ballplayers from the Negro League heard Robinson was going to be signed by a Major League Baseball team some of them expressed concern because he was chosen even though he had less than a year of professional baseball experience with the Negro League.  Others thought Robinson was chosen as a test case because he would fail, this would prove black players did not really belong in Major League Baseball.  Still other Negro League players were happy and supported Robinson. Roy Campanella who had played baseball for 10 years was one such player, he said; “I think it was jealousy (Houston Chronicle).” Campanella felt Robinson had talent and deserved to play for the Dodgers.

Branch Rickey, the general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers decided to challenge the league’s whites-only color barrier, he chose Jackie Robinson for this serious challenge, which Rickey knew would be met with fierce resistance from a great deal of players and fans alike. It was going to be an experiment, an experiment that Rickey and Robinson were going to take on together.  On April 15th, 1947 at the age 27, Robinson became the first black player to compete in Major League Baseball during the 20th century.

            One of the first acts of discrimination against Robinson after signing with the Dodgers was when he was on his way from New York to spring training in Daytona Beach, Florida.  He had a layover in New Orleans before continuing to Daytona.  During the layover Robinson was told that he had been bumped from the plane by white passengers.  Robinson became upset but stayed in control as to not call attention to himself.  The next scheduled plane did not leave until the next day, so he spent the night at a “colored” motel close by the airport.  The next day Robinson was bumped again twice in Pensacola, Florida.  Robinson ended up finishing the trip to Daytona by bus. Breaking the barrier was very difficult; Robinson was subjected to verbal abuse and racial slurs from both players and fans. Fans wore mops on their heads mocking Robinson, they also hollered for him to carry their bags and shine their shoes (Houston Chronicle).

 A particularly abusive situation took place on April 22, 1947, Ben Chapman, the manager of the Philadelphia Phillies encouraged his team to call Robinson a “nigger” from their bench, telling him continually to “go back to the jungle”(Wikipedia).  When the verbal abuse didn’t intimidate Robinson opposing teams threw pitches at his head, spit on him as he slid into the bases, and tried to injure him with the spikes on the baseball shoes.  Eventually, Robinson received anonymous death threats that warned him not to continue to play or else.

            Rickey, tried to downplay the breaking of the color barrier in an effort to not draw as much attention to Robinson, saying,

“I did not employ a Negro because he was a Negro, nor did I have in mind at all doing something for the Negro race, or even bringing up the issue. I simply wanted to win a pennant for the Brooklyn Dodgers and I wanted the best human beings I could find to help me win it.” (Houston Chronicle)

Rickey’s strategy failed to help Robinson at that time. White Major League players continued to speak out against Robinson.   Cleveland Indians ace pitcher, Bob Feller, was quoted as saying, “Robinson never would be able to hit big-league pitching because his shoulders were not constructed like white players.” Boston infielder, Alvin Dark said, “Negroes don’t think as quick as whites.”  (Houston Chronicle)

            The discrimination continued in May of 1947, when the Cardinals planned a strike in protest of Robinson’s presence in St. Louis.  Ford Frick, President of the National League said he would suspend any player who took place in the strike.  “They will be suspended and I don’t care if it wrecks the National League for five years,” Frick said, “This is the United States of America and one citizen has as much right to play as another.”(West)

Initially, Robinson’s teammates taunted him as well; they threatened to boycott playing if he was on the roster.  The boycott was led by Dixie Walker, but was supported by other teammates such as Tommy Brown, Eddie Miksis, Carl Furillo, Peter Reiser, Tommy Tatum,  Eddie Stackey, Dan Bankhead, and  Bobby Bragdon. The Dodgers manager, Branch Rickey told these ringleader players they could go play for a different team if they weren’t happy, but Robinson was going to play. Robinson did have support from one teammate, that was Pee Wee Reese who was a Kentucky-born shortstop, and later the two became close friends.

Being silent and concentrating on baseball was very difficult for Robinson at times, it took a great deal of inner strength to continue playing baseball as the only black man in the Major League. Robinson was told by the commissioner of baseball Albert Chandler that he could not acknowledge insults or retaliate in anyway because the first black Major League ballplayer would have enough against him without adding fuel to the fire. To spite his fiery temper Robinson never made any move to retaliate.

            To Robinson’s amazement, the barrier began to slowly breakdown, when the other teams couldn’t rattle him, they turned on his teammates with insults about having a black teammate.  During a game against the Phillies, Dodger Eddie Stankey had watched Robinson be insulted one to many times and screamed, “Listen, you yellow-bellied cowards, why don’t you yell at someone who can answer back!” (West)  The strength to turn the other cheek and remain silent; as well as his abilities on the baseball field had earned Robinson the respect of his teammates on the Brooklyn Dodgers.

            By the end of his rookie year, Robinson said this about the season, I had started the season as a lonely man, often feeling like a black Don Quixote tilting at a lot of white windmills, I ended it feeling like a member of a solid team.  The Dodgers were a championship team because all of us had learned something. I had to learn how to exercise self-control, to answer insults, violence, and injustice with silence, and I had learned how to earn the respect of my teammates.  They had learned that it’s not skin color but talent and ability that counts. Maybe even bigots had learned that, too. (West)

Having the respect of his teammates and admiration of his abilities as a Major League ballplayer, Robinson came out on top, playing for the Dodgers until 1956.  Through the adversity he led the National League in stolen bases, helped the Dodgers win the pennant in 1947.  During this same year Robinson was named rookie of the year in the major leagues.  This award would later be renamed in his honor.   In 1962 Robinson was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame; he was the first black player to receive this honor.

Robinson’s overall talent placed him in the position of being among the best players of his era, regardless of race.  His career batting average was.317, with the majority of is non-hitting at bats being walks rather than strikeouts. He had 137 career homeruns with 734 runs batted in, not leaving his teammates on base very often.  Robinson played several defensive positions including 1st base, 3rd base and outfield extremely well.  He was very aggressive as a base runner, especially stealing home quite often. When on base, Robinson’s physical presence would intimidate the opposing pitchers, catchers, and middle infielders causing them to lose their concentration.  Robinson is also remembered as a fierce competitor because he never gave up on a game even if his team was losing.

            Because of Robinson’s courage, his jersey, number 42 was retired by the Dodgers on June 4th, 1972.  He was further honored when all Major League Baseball teams retired jersey number 42 in 1997 which was the 50th anniversary of Robinson’s major league debut.  April 15th of every year is now declared “Jackie Robinson Day” in all major league baseball parks.

            In 1947, life in America was segregation; there were separate schools for blacks and whites, separate restaurants, separate hotels, separate drinking fountains and separate baseball leagues.  Before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to Montgomery, Alabama, before Brown vs. Board of Education, and before Martin Luther King, Jr. was very well known.  Jackie Robinson, one man, had the guts to slowly chip away at the color barrier that separated black from white so that other African Americans could join Major League Baseball without the discrimination he faced.

“He changed the sport and he changed the attitude of a lot of people in this country. When I think of Jackie Robinson, I think of all the people who fought and how fortunate a lot of us are especially the minority guys, to be able to play in the major leagues and the impact people of color have today.  I mean, you knew it was going to happen, sooner or later, but being the first of anything is always the toughest.”

 Said Giants Manager Dusty Baker (Allen). Dusty Baker was also an African American who played for the Dodgers from 1976-83.

Robinson opened the door for African Americans to play Major League Sports.   The initial impact was slow; in 1948 Larry Doby joined the Cleveland Indians, becoming the first African American to play for the American League.  The door stayed open, slowly eroding the color barrier for other African Americans. In 1948 Roy Campanelia also began his baseball career with the Cleveland Indians. In 1949 Monte Irvin signed with the New York Giants, and by 1950 other great African American baseball players like Willie Mays, Ernie Banks, and Hank Aaron all played for various Major League Ball teams. (IMA Hero)

By 1959 all Major League teams had at least one African American ballplayer on their roster but there has been a significant increase since that time.  As of 1970 African American and other minorities made up over half of the league rosters, with the African Americans making up 28% of the roster.  Although the amount of African Americans playing Major League Baseball has not increased, but is remaining about the same today. It is also important to remember that other professional sports such as football, basketball, & golf have seen an increase in African American players since the 1970’s which explains the leveling off of  numbers of African Americans playing Major League Baseball (Encarta).

“We want to make sure that no generation forgets the contribution Jackie Robinson made not just to baseball, but also to civil rights.” says Jacqueline Parkes, spokesperson for Major League Baseball.  “In many ways, baseball transcends sports. It has a social responsibility.”  Jackie Roosevelt Robinson died on October 24th, 1972, the epitaph that appears on his gravestone he wrote himself, it reads, “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” (Encarta)  Robinson is gone, but the impact he had is still larger than life, he removed the color barrier and paved the way for African Americans to participate in Major League Baseball today.

Works Cited

Allen, Maury. “Jackie Robinson: an American Hero.” Eves Magazine. 6 Feb. 2008 <http://www.evesmag.com/robinson.htm>.

“Jackie Robinson,” Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2007 http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2007 Microsoft Corporation.

Denenberg, Barry. Stealing Home: the Story of Jackie Robinson. Scholastic Paperbacks, 1990. 5-23.

“Jackie Robinson.” Chron.Com. May 1998. 6 Feb. 2008 <chron.com/content/chronicle/sports/special/barriers/history.htm>.

“Jackie Robinson.” Wikipedia. 12 Jan. 2008. 6 Feb. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Robinson>.

West, Jean. “Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson: Interview Essay.” Jim Crow History. New York Life. 6 Feb. 2008 <http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/resources/pdf/hs_in_robinson_rickey.pdf>.

“Jackie Robinson in-Depth.” IMA Hero Reading Program. 1999. StarRise Creations. 6 Feb. 2008 <http://www.imahero.com/readingprogram/jackierobinson.html>.

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I Never Had It Made

49 pages • 1 hour read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-4

Part 1, Chapters 5-9

Part 2, Chapters 10-15

Part 2, Chapter 16-Epilogue

Key Figures

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Taken from a Langston Hughes poem, the opening chapter of I Never Had It Made is titled “A Dream Deferred.” Analyze why Jackie Robinson chose this title for his first chapter. 

How did the racist incident in the Army that led to a court martial trial prepare Jackie Robinson for his rookie season in Major League Baseball? 

Analyze the consequences that Major League Baseball’s racial integration might have had on the Negro leagues in the years following 1947. 

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Jackie Robinson Ballpark ready for Daytona Tortugas' home opener

The gates to Jackie Robinson Ballpark swing open today, welcoming fans to the Daytona Tortugas’ home opener and the start of the team’s ninth season, the 82 nd  summer of minor league play on City Island.

The low-A team will play a six-game stand against the Palm Beach Cardinals.

The Tortugas’ 2024 season started on the road, and the team will return home with a 2-1 win-loss record against the St. Lucie Mets. A promising start, but everyone’s an optimist in April.

Returning fans who glance upward will immediately notice something different — the field lights. They are smaller yet brighter than the old lights, angular rather than bowl-shaped. They can even change colors and flash on and off to celebrate a home run, something fans hope to see a lot of this season.

The new LED lights are only the most noticeable of the first round of improvements to the park that the team and Daytona Beach agreed to in November.

Fans who pay an extra $3 to sit in the shaded grandstand area ($14 versus $11 in the general-admission bleachers for adults) may notice its new, refurbished metal roof. Thunderstorms, hurricanes, salty breezes, flyballs and rust did a number on the old roof. New seating will be installed soon. Over the weekend, workers were welding and electricians were wiring to get it ready for the big day.

Under the new 20-year lease agreement with Daytona Beach, the city will spend $17 million on upgrades to Jackie Robinson Ballpark over the next two years or so. Phase two will cost $11.6 million.

These are upgrades the team and city promised to undertake in their push to convince Major League Baseball to keep the franchise operating here after 2021’s dramatic reorganization that eliminated 42 minor league teams.

The facility may be old ― the oldest operating in the minor leagues ― but that also worked in its favor during the reorganization. Baseball traditionalists and sports historians across the nation complained that it would be a sacrilege to let the ballpark where Jackie Robinson, wearing a Montreal Royals uniform, played the first racially integrated pro baseball game in 1946, a spring training exhibition match, go dark.

Jackie Robinson Ballpark may be listed on the National Register of Historic Places but it is no museum. It has continually upgraded to meet the demands of professional baseball. In 2019, for example, the city invested in a modern artificial turf field that allows the playing surface to shake off the frequent thunderstorms of the late season.

Despite all these changes, the ballpark’s regular fans regularly gush about the place's old-time feel: its intimate scale and familiar layout, even the hook-and-panel, hand-operated green scoreboard.

It is a place where minor league baseball has been played since the 1920 home opener when downtown merchants closed their shops early and the Daytona Islanders took to this field to play against the Orlando Caps. A place where longtime local returning ballpark regulars might refer to the general admission bleachers as “the new section” because it was built in 1973.

And there will be new sections to come, but that is for another home opener day.

There are 119 games ahead, 66 at Jackie Robinson Ballpark, give or take some rainouts and hurricane cancellations, in a season that will stretch until Sept. 8.

The gates open at 5:30 p.m., and the first pitch will be thrown at 6:35 p.m. The calendar may say something different, but summer will arrive with the first shout of “play ball!”

Mark Lane is a News-Journal columnist. His email is  [email protected] .

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Jackie Robinson Ballpark ready for Daytona Tortugas' home opener

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Baseball — Biography, Career and Impact of Jackie Robinson

Biography, Career and Impact of Jackie Robinson

• Categories: Baseball Jackie Robinson

About this sample

Words: 556 |

Published: Feb 12, 2019

Words: 556 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Table of contents

Jackie robinson essay outline, jackie robinson essay example, introduction.

• Introduction to Jackie Robinson and his historic role in breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball
• Brief overview of his achievements and impact

Jackie Robinson's Baseball Career

• Discussion of Jackie Robinson's career in Major League Baseball
• Highlights of his achievements, including Rookie of the Year, National League MVP, and World Series champ
• Mention of his impressive batting average and base-running skills

Jackie Robinson's Impact on Baseball

• Description of Jackie Robinson's significance in the history of baseball
• Mention of Jackie Robinson Day, celebrated by all MLB teams in his honor
• Discussion of how he opened doors for other African-American players in the sport

Jackie Robinson's Civil Rights Activism

• Description of Robinson's activism for equal rights, including his refusal to move to the back of a segregated bus
• Mention of his honorable discharge from the Army
• Emphasis on his ability to endure opposition and threats with honor and grace
• Recap of Jackie Robinson's enduring impact on Major League Baseball and his contributions to civil rights
• Reflection on the significance of his legacy in both sports and society

Works Cited:

• American Psychological Association. (2017). Pornography and sexual violence. https://www.apa.org/pi/women/programs/violence/pornography
• Doyle, J. (2017). Effects of pornography on youth and the impact of pornography on society. Journal of Social Sciences, 5(2), 102-115.
• Lorde, A. (1981). Uses of the erotic: The erotic as power. The Crossing Press.
• Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Pornography. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary.
• Pornography Harms Research. (n.d.). Harvard Law School. https://law.harvard.edu/academics/clinical/wilmerhale/documents/Pornography_Harms_Research_Summary.pdf
• Price, J., & Hyde, J. S. (2009). When two isn't better than one: Predictors of early sexual activity in adolescence using a cumulative risk model. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 38(7), 1059-1071.
• Sabina, C., Wolak, J., & Finkelhor, D. (2008). The nature and dynamics of Internet pornography exposure for youth. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 11(6), 691-693.
• Stenberg, M. (2019). Pornography and normative sexual development: A review of the literature. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 36(9-10), 3075-3093.
• Szymanski, D. M., & Henning, S. L. (2007). The role of pornography in the context of dating and hook-up culture: A narrative review. Journal of Sex Research, 54(4-5), 518-531.
• Wolak, J., Janis, B., & Finkelhor, D. (2007). Unwanted and wanted exposure to online pornography in a national sample of youth Internet users. Pediatrics, 119(2), e247-e257.

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