Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born January 31, 1919. He was born in Cairo, Georgia and was the youngest of five children. He had a grandfather that was a slave, Jackie’s dad was a sharecropper and Mallie, Jackie’s mother, was a maid. His dad ran away from the family when Jackie was only an infant. Jackie fought racism in his California childhood, at collage and throughout his whole life. During his childhood at California he was always picked on at school. Kids taunted him so much and so badly that he developed a hot temper. When Jackie was growing up, whenever he would sense or be involved in legal injustice he would get really mad and there would be nothing he could of done about it. At the University of California in Los Angeles, …show more content…
There is nothing worse than being dishonorably discharged in the 1940’s. Back then if you were dishonorably discharged from the army, everyone knew you for it, it would be your entire reputation. Everyone would know you and tease you for what you did wrong to become dishonorably discharged from the Army. It’s a good thing that Jackie Robinson wasn’t dishonorably discharged, but he was acquitted instead. He wouldn’t have been playing in the MLB if he was dishonorably discharged because Branch Rickey would of picked someone else for his first black player. But it 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first black player to play in the MLB for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Jackie Robinson was the first black to play professional baseball in the MLB because Branch Rickey wanted to recruit black players onto his team. Rickey never clearly explained the motivations for this dramatic turnaround. “I couldn’t face my God much knowing that His black creatures are held separate and distinct from his white creatures in the game that has given me all I own.” Branch Rickey said. Jackie Robinson was a huge step to integration because he ended segregation for baseball. He was voted the National League’s MVP in 1949 when he hit a league-leading .342 and drove in 124 runs. But it wasn’t a party being the first black to play Major League Baseball when he first started because white America did not react so well to the integration in Major League
In 1919, Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia. His family being sharecroppers, Jackie's mother, Mallie, raised Jackie and his four other siblings.(JackieRobinson.com) Being the only black family on the block, his family faced discrimination and racism from neighbors all around. From a humble beginning, Jackie was an outstanding athlete.(larrylester42.com) Jackie was promoted from Washington Junior High. Later, he entered John Muir High School after his junior high career. Recognizing his athletic ability, Robinson's older brothers inspired Jackie to pursue sports.(Jackierobinson.com)
The grandson of a slave, Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born on January 31, 1919, in Cairo, Georgia; he was the youngest of five children. Jackie grew up very poor, but little did he know that his athletic ability would open the doors for his future. After his father deserted the family when Jackie was six months old, his mother, Mallie Robinson, moved the family to California in search of work. California also subjected blacks to segregation at that time, but to less of a degree than in the Deep South. The young Jackie defused his anger over this prejudice by immersing himself in sports. He displayed extraordinary athletic skills in high school, excelling at football, basketball, baseball, and track. After helping Pasadena Junior College
Jackie Robinson showed perseverance, courage, and determination wherever he went. Even when he was in the army, he moved ranks up quickly. This shows he was determined. When he was trying to achieve his goal of breaking the color barrier, he never gave up. Eventually, he integrated the major league baseball teams. When he first joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, he didn’t care about the prejudice. He just ignored it and carried on. In fact, he even stood up to it. In the text “ Free Minds and Hearts at Work” it states,” Whatever obstacles I found made me fight all the harder. But it would have been impossible for me to fight at
His passion for desegregation showed during his time in the army. As stated in the article Historic Impact, “He was court-martialed for failing to sit in the back of the bus at a Texas army base. The case became a national, political incident and the army was forced to dismiss the charges against him” (“Historic” 1,2)! Just because the Color Barrier was an impenetrable force did not mean Jackie Robinson was not willing to use every ounce of his body to burst through it!
“Robinson faced death threats, vulgar insults, and hate-filled fans”(Jackie Robinson para 3). It’s because he was the first African-American baseball player in major league baseball and nobody liked him because of that. Jackie Robinson was a brave, hardworking men that accomplished a lot in his life for baseball and African-American community. Jackie Robinson had a positive influence on African Americans because he was the first African-American baseball player in major league baseball, he was a founder of ways to help African-American and he was a civil rights advocate for African-Americans.
“Near six o’clock on the evening of January 31, 1919, Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born somewhere near the town of Cairo in Grandy County in southern Georgia” (Rampersad 10). Jackie’s parents, Jerry and Mallie Robinson, first lived together on a small plantation just south of Cairo. Mallie Robinson raised her five children single handedly, and they later moved to Pasadena, California, which was not the most racially friendly environment due to the Robinsons being the only black family on the block. Not having a father in the home, he looked up to his older brothers and saw them as his future, they are the ones who introduced him into the sports
On January 31, 1919, a kid by the name of Jackie Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia. He surely did not know that he would be one day an american hero. His father was Jerry Robinson, a plantation worker. His mother was Mallie, she was a domestic worker. Jackie had three brothers and one sister. The four brothers were: Edgar, Frank and Mack. The sister was Willa Mae. Frank and Edgar are no longer alive, but Mack and WIlla still live in Pasadena, California. His dad left Mallie and the children, never to return, when Jackie was six months old. When
Baseball has always been more than just a sport to the American people. For many, it is a way of life, teaching not just brute skills but life lessons and morals. In the wake of World War I, racism and bigotry abounded in the United States. Even though the integration of schools had recently been instated, Jim Crow laws severely limited the activity of African Americans in society, resulting in baseball teams being limited to whites. Jackie Robinson made an important step in gaining rights for African Americans when he broke the color barrier of baseball in 1947. He did this by making civil rights his ambition even before the protests began (Coombs 117). Jackie Robinson’s fame as a baseball player and determination to defeat adversity
Jackie eventually stayed out of trouble when Karl Downs and Carl Anderson came into his life. Throughout his teen years, Jackie looked up to Carl Anderson, a car mechanic and a local black scout leader (Schutz,pg.8). He also looked up to pastor Karl Downs (Schutz,pg.8). When Jackie was in high school he was the star of the football, baseball, basketball, and track team but he got no scholarship offers because of his skin color except for the local Pasadena Junior College (Schutz,pg.9).
Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play in the MLB. Back then many people's point of view about African Americans was that they had some things, but the things should be worse than what the things white people had, and because of that he was proud yet uneasy because he would get a lot of hate for playing, and he did. The thing is he didn’t only get hate, but he also got threats against him and his family to physically harm him,“The hate mail piled up. There were threats against me and my family and even out-and-out attempts at physical harm to me.” Being in the MLB was hard and he could’ve given up, but he didn’t. Jackie Robinson stayed strong and he changed our point of view about African Americans not doing things that only white people could do and he helped our country change for the better
After college, Jackie experimented with different jobs but he just didn’t like anyone. He had offers to play football and Negro league baseball but felt like he had no future in professional sports. After one the darkest days in American history, Pearl Harbor, Jackie was drafted into the war. Jackie had mixed emotions with the war because he was willing to do his part but didn’t like how blacks were being treated in the military. Jackie left for the military and from day one was called a n***** and other racial terms which left Jackie feeling down and out. “I never understood why they wouldn’t accept me, there was a good chance that we were going to die together, so we might as well be friends” (Chadwick 367). Jackie quickly began to gain a little respect when he was named an expert marksman, but not enough for them to let him play baseball with the whites. Jackie would spend three years in the military, which to this day, hasn’t talked a lot about and held anger and hostility towards
The retelling of Robinson’s story has been retold many times from the perspective of baseball. Jack Roosevelt Johnson was born on January 31, 1919 in Cairo Georgia, the youngest of five children during a Spanish flu and smallpox epidemic. When Jackie was very young his father abandoned the family. Now Jackie’s mother Mollie Robinson, had to find a better life for her family. Due to Jim Crow laws Mollie could not buy a house for her family, because they were barred from certain neighborhoods for whites only. Despite this fact Mollie didn’t care she persuaded a light skinned black man to act is if he was buying a house in Pasadena, California. (MSR News) Then the Robinson’s moved in, whites were furious and threatened to burn them out of the house. Mollie ignored the threats and went about her business. This strength and cunning shown b their mother showed the kids how to fight for what they believe in, and to never stop believing and pursuing
Jackie Roosevelt Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia, January 31 1919. He went to college at the University of UCLA. Where he was a star in four sports basketball, baseball, football, and track. He is the only bruin to letter in four sports. After college he went to pursue a career in the Army. He
To the average person, in the average American community, Jackie Robinson was just what the sports pages said he was, no more, no less. He was the first Negro to play baseball in the major leagues. Everybody knew that, but to see the real Jackie Robinson, you must de-emphasize him as a ball player and emphasize him as a civil rights leader. That part drops out, that which people forget. From his early army days, until well after his baseball days, Robinson had fought to achieve equality among whites and blacks. "Jackie acted out the philosophy of nonviolence of Martin Luther King Jr., before the future civil rights leader had thought of applying it to the problem of segregation in America"(Weidhorn 93). Robinson was an avid
Jackie was a phenomenal athlete for young kids to look up to. After the start of World War II he served in the military from 1942 to 1944. After the war he returned to his love for baseball, playing in the Black major leagues. He was chosen by Branch Rickey, vice president of the Brooklyn dodgers, to help integrate the Major Leagues. Rickey hated segregation just as much as Robinson and wanted to change things “Rickey had once seen a Black college player turned away from a hotel… Rickey never forgot seeing this player crying because he was denied a place to lay his weary head just because of the color of his skin” (Mackenzie). He was finally able to do something about segregation and help change baseball and the United States for the better. It wasn’t that all the teams were racist and didn’t want a black player but when the major league teams had an away game they would rent out the stadium to the black teams for them to play at. And the executives of teams didn’t want to loose the money that they were making off of the black teams. “League owners would lose significant rental revenue” (“Breaking”). He soon signed with the all-white Montreal Royals a farm team for the Dodgers. Robinson had an outstanding start with the Royals, “leading the International League with a .349 batting average and .985 fielding percentage” (Robinson). After Robinson’s outstanding year he was promoted to the Dodgers he played his first game on