How Did 42 Change The Game

Alex Dughi

Mr. Taylor

US History

April 8th, 2017

How 42 Changed the Game Forever

In the early 1900’s, segregation was prominent among professional sports teams and had been going on for about 50 years at this point. On April 15th, 1947 that all changed when Jackie Robinson, at the age of 28, stepped onto the field in Dodger’s uniform as the first African-American to ever play in a Major League Baseball game. Besides from his amazing performance on the field, Jackie received threats and had been racially profiled, but he never let it affect him in a negative manner. Jackie was sending a message and he had to fight for what was right. Jackie had just broken the color barrier in a professional sport that had been segregated for more than

The blacks did not mix with the whites, and the whites did not involve themselves with the blacks and kept them out of their daily life as much as possible(History.com). African Americans were not allowed as much access as the whites. They were not allowed to do daily everyday things such as riding on the front of the bus, they had to drink out of the “colored” water fountains, and were not allowed to eat in certain restaurants and the list goes on. When the Dodgers signed Jackie to play for their team it caused outrage and confusion for many people across the United States. Other teams did not like that Jackie was playing against them and even some players on his own team did not agree with this decision(History.com). Jackie took on a lot of harassment for being the first African-American to play in the Major Leagues, but he was use to it at this point. He grew up in a very racist city in California called

Jackie was born into a family of sharecroppers where jackie was raised by his single mother who raised 5 children. Jackie attended John Muir High School in Pasadena California and then later went on to attend Pasadena Junior College where he also played 4 sports, Football, Basketball, Baseball, and ran Track. He was named the region's most valuable player in baseball in 1938(Biography.com). Jackies older brother, Matt Robinson inspired jackie to become an athlete because matt had competed in the olympic games and excelled as a very good track athlete. Jackie later on had gone to UCLA where he was the first student to win varsity letters in four sports just like he did at his junior college. At the end of Jackie's senior year at UCLA, his college career was cut off due to a financial hardship where jackie could not afford to go there anymore. He moved to Honolulu, Hawaii where jackie went on to play football for the Honolulu Bears until the bears season was cut short due to the United States entering World War 2. Jackie served in the United States army for about 3 years, from 1942-1944 but Robinson never saw combat(Biography.com). In 1944, Robinson took a seat on the front of the bus and refused to move to the back of a segregated bus so Mr. Robinson was arrested on scene. Jackies actions made headlines. He started popping up on