Jackie Robinson was one of the best players that proffesional baseball hasever seen and greatly helped major league baseball accept African Americanplayers that otherwise would not have palyed. Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born January 31, 1919 in Cairo, Georgia (Hill 1).
Jackies grandfather was a slave and his father a sharecropper (1). Hismom and dad got a divorce when Jackie was just a baby (1). He, his mother andfour siblings moved after his parents got a divorce (1). His mother took all thechildren and moved to Pasedena, California (1).
Not long after the family moved to Pasedena, Jackies mother enrolled himinto Pasedena Junior College (Robinson, Jackie). He went on to University ofCalifornia at Los Angeles (UCLA) (1). Jackie was a standout in school sports atUCLA, he played football, baseball, basketball, and track (1). He later leftcollege in the middle of his junior year to join the Army in 1941 (1).
Four yearsafter entering the Army Jackie was discharged because of a confrentation withanother officer when he would not give up his seat on a military bus (1). He wasdischarged as a first Lieutenant (1). 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 MonarchsNegro League Team (Hill 1). The Negro League schedule was very tuff. Theteam was always on the road playing games.
Jackie did not like the life style ofbeing on the Monarchs (Robinson, Jackie). He and his teammates would haveto withstand the racial tensions everywhere they went (Ward, Burns 285) . While Jackie was playing in the Negro Leagues, Branch Rickey, the LosAngeles Dodgers manager was secretly sending out scouts to look at Jackie andother players in the Negro leagues that stood out above the rest fo their baseballtalent (Hill 1). Rickey made the excuse to the scouts that he wanted to puttogether an all black baseball team called the Brown Dodgers (2).
He wasreally looking for the right black player that would break the color barrier inprofessional baseball (1). Rickey looked at all his options and he chose JackieRobinson of the Kansas City Monarchs (1). He chose Jackie because of hisskills in baseball and his courage (1). Branch and Jackie met on August 28, 1945 to discuss his signing to theLA Dodgers (1). The meeting was very important because rickey wanted tomake sure Robinson would not retaliate against the racist comments that he willbe facing if he was moved up to the LA Dodgers (2). Rickey sent Robinson tothe semi-professional team the Dodgers had, the Montreal Royals (Robinson,Jackie).
While Robinson was with the Royals, he was he was an athleticstandout with a lot of talent for playing professional baseball (Hill 1). He enjoyedplaying on the Montreal Royals because race was not really an issue in Canadaand he was very popular all over the country (Robinson, Jackie). He led the Royals to the minor league championship (Rydell 86). The next season Robinson got moved up to the Los Angeles Dodgersprofessional team late in spring training, only five days before the Dodgers firstgame (86). This gave the critics not much time to react to the new player in theleague (86).
On April 15, 1947 Jackie became the first black player to playmajor league baseball in the United States (87). Robinsons moving to the teamcaused national outrage between coaches, teams, and fans (87). His newteammates signed a petition to get him off the team just because he was black(Ward, Burns 283). The general managers and head coaches of the Dodgersincluding Branch Rickey and Pee Wee Reese kept him on the team andencouraged him to stay and ignore the racial slurs and name calling (Ward,Burns 283).
Other teams tried to boycott, but it did not work (Rydell 86). Robinsons first games were the hardest (86). He had many death threats madeagainst him (Robinson, Jackie). The hotels that Robinson went to with theteam would not serve him because blacks were not allowed (Robinson,Jackie).
Even though he would not get served at restaurants and hotels, healways kept his composier and never lost his temper (Ward, Burns 283). Robinson was always called names but he just ignored them and took anon-violent approach to the situation (Robinson, Jackie). .
