April 15, 1947 is the day that one of the most important events in American history took place. On that day, jackie robinson took the final step in making the biggest breakthrough in sports history, it was the day that Jackie Robinson played his first Major League Baseball game, which was also the first game of any kind in organized athletics in which a white man shared the field with an African-American. By doing so, he opened the door for future African-Americans to play organized athletics and now more than half of all athletes in major and professional sports are African-Americans.
Jackie Robinson has influenced the lives of many people facing adversity. He has been an inspiration to many across the world. Jackie Robinson forever changed the landscape of American sports by breaking the color barrier. By breaking through the baseball color barrier, Jackie Robinson has become a hero to many people and opened the doors for African-Americans politically, socially, and economically.
Jackie Roosevelt Robinson was born January 31, 1919 in Cairo, Georgia. Jackies grandfather was a slave and his father a sharecropper. His mom and dad got a divorce when Jackie was just a baby. He, his mother and four siblings moved after his parents got a divorce.
His mother took all the children and moved to Pasadena, California. Not long after the family moved to Pasadena, Jackies mother enrolled him into Pasadena Junior College, and later he went on to University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Jackie was a standout in school sports at UCLA, he played football, baseball, basketball, and track. Jackie later in 1941 left college in the middle of his junior year to join the Army. Four years after entering the Army Jackie was discharged because of a confrontation with another officer when he would not give up his seat on a military bus. He was discharged as a first Lieutenant.
After leaving the Army Jackie wanted to play baseball, his favorite sport. He tried out for many teams and was drafted by the Kansas City Monarchs Negro League Team. The Negro League schedule was very tuff. The team was always on the road playing games. Jackie did not like the life style of being on the Monarchs.
He and his teammates would have to withstand the racial tensions everywhere they went. While Jackie was playing in the Negro Leagues, Branch Rickey, the Los Angeles Dodgers manager was secretly sending out scouts to look at Jackie and other players in the Negro leagues that stood out above the rest of their baseball talent. Rickey made the excuse to the scouts that he wanted to put together an all black baseball team called the Brown Dodgers. He was really looking for the right black player that would break the color barrier in professional baseball. Rickey looked at all his options and he chose Jackie Robinson of the Kansas City Monarchs. He chose Jackie because of his skills in baseball and his courage.
Branch and Jackie met on August 28, 1945 to discuss his signing to the LA Dodgers. The meeting was very important because Rickey wanted to make sure Robinson would not retaliate against the racist comments that he will be facing if he was moved up to the LA Dodgers. Rickey sent Robinson to the semi-professional team the Dodgers had, the Montreal Royals. While Robinson was with the Royals, he was an athletic standout with a lot of talent for baseball. He enjoyed playing on the Montreal Royals because race was not really an issue in Canada and he was very popular all over the country. He led the Royals to the minor league championship.
The next season Robinson got moved up to the Los Angeles Dodgers professional team late in spring training, only five days before the Dodgers first game. This gave the critics not much time to react to the new player in the league. On April 15, 1947 Jackie became the first black player to play major league baseball in the United States. Robinsons moving to the team caused national outrage between coaches, teams, and fans.
His new teammates signed a petition to get him off the team just because he was .
