THESIS: Jackie Robinson changed the way people view baseball from the moment he became the first African American player in baseball history. His legacy inspired many people to reach for their goals and was a memorable leader. |
Jackie Robinson Early Life:
Jackie Robinson was the fifth child born to sharecroppers, Mallie Robinson and Jerry Robinson, of Cairo, Georgia. Robinson’s grandparents were slaves. When he was six months old, his father abandoned the family, and a year later his mother took the family and moved to Pasadena, California, where Robinson grew up. Although poor, Robinson’s mother saved money and ultimately purchased a house in a previously all-white neighborhood. This was Robinson’s first experience as a pioneer in integration. As a child, Robinson excelled in all sports. In high school, community college, and at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Robinson starred in baseball, basketball, football, and track. In 1938, at Pasadena Junior College, he broke the national community college record for the broad jump, previously set by his older brother, Mack Robinson, who himself had won a silver medal at the 1936 Olympics. In 1939, he entered UCLA, where he became the school’s first letterman in four sports. Robinson’s best sport was football; in 1941, he was named an All-American. That year, he dropped out of college to earn money for his family. In 1941, Robinson played professional football with the Honolulu Bears. Drafted in 1942, Robinson applied for Officer’s Candidate School at Fort Riley, Kansas. Although admitted to the program, Robinson and the other black candidates received no training until pressure from Washington forced the local commander to admit blacks to the base training school. Robinson’s reputation as a sports hero helped to generate that pressure. As a Second Lieutenant, Robinson successfully challenged some of the Jim Crow policies at the base post exchange. He quit the base football team in protest when the Army agreed to keep him out of a game with the nearby University of Missouri, because that school refused to play against black opponents. Transferred to Fort Hood, Texas, Robinson protested segregation on an Army bus. His protests led to a court-martial, for which he was acquitted. In November, 1944, he was honorably discharged. The Army had little desire to keep the person who kept fighting against racism, and for his part, Robinson was, as he later wrote in his autobiography, “pretty much fed up with the service.” (Finkelman, Paul, and Finkelman Paul. "Jackie Robinson." Great Lives From History: The Twentieth Century (2008): 1. Biography Reference Center. Web. 13 Dec. 2014.) Website made by: Ryan Nawrocki and Will Boyd Word count: 504 |