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Jackie Robinson: The First Black Player In Major League Baseball

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In 1946 fans were very excited for the baseball season to begin because this would be the first time the world would lay eyes on a black player in Major League Baseball (MLB). Jackie Robinson, the first black baseball player, was born on January 31, 1919 in Cairo, Georgia. Georgia was a place where racism and oppression was very prevalent and it made life very difficult for the Robinson family. What made life even harder was that Jerry Robinson, Jackie’s father, ran away from home and left Jackie’s mother, Mallie, with five children and almost no money (Robinson 4). Jackie was determined to help his mother in any way possible. He ended up helping not only his mother but all black baseball players to come. Jackie Robinson was faced by much …show more content…

This was the beginning of his athletic career. From the start there was prejudice and racist remarks towards Jackie but he let all of them roll right off his back and excelled at all sports he participated in. After college Jackie Robinson went to Hawaii to play for the Honolulu Bears football team. Jackie Robinson left Hawaii just days before Pearl Harbor was bombed, on the boat the captain said that the USA has declared war on Japan. At that moment Jackie told himself that he is prepared to serve his country with honor in the war(Robinson 12). After the war Robinson went to play in the Negro Leagues and was one of the best players in the league. Simultaneously the Brooklyn Dodgers president Branch Rickey was looking to have an experiment and bring black players into the MLB. This was a lofty goal but Rickey felt that if he found the right man for the job it would be a great league changing succes. One player that caught his eye was Jackie Robinson so he sent out a scout to watch him play. The scout reported that he was more than talented enough for the job. So a meeting between Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson was set up. Rickey told Robinson that he had three criteria that the first black baseball player must have. The first was skill to play the game, second was the composure to never lose his temper, the third was to be able to play under any amount …show more content…

Jackie showed that people of all races and ethnicities can get along and play competitively without being prejudice towards each other. Hank Aaron, another black baseball player, said this about Jackie “I’ve always looked at Jackie as some kind of icon… he was a pillar of strength, and gave me a lot of inner strength.” Jackie Robinson was such a pivotal inspirational person that he was able to give this aura of inner strength to not just Hank Aaron but too the hundreds of thousands of black athletes that are now able to compete just like anyone else. There was a path paved into professional sports for African Americans that forever changed the game, and all this change came from one extremely special man Jackie

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