"You don't belong here you n****r. Why don't you look in the mirror? This is a white man's game. Get that through your thick monkey skull. You hear me?"- Ben Chapman (Philadelphia Phillies Head Coach). Jackie Robinson would encounter comments like these on a daily basis. Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball on April 15, 1947. Jackie Robinson was born on January 31, 1919 in a small town in Georgia named Cairo. Jackie was the youngest of five children. After Jackie's father left the family in 1920, his mother moved herself and the kids to Pasadena, California. Jackie Robinson would …show more content…
In my eyes a leader has to be someone that you can look up to and know that they help the world. I chose Jackie Robinson to be my leader because he changed something that I love with a passion. Baseball would not be where baseball it is, without the guts and the courage this one individual had, because he loved the sport that much. Jackie Robinson was a better man, than he was a baseball player. Jackie displayed courage and pride. Although people tried to break him, while he was playing, he stayed tough and got through the hate. In my opinion Jackie Robinson did not just change baseball in America, he changed the world. Another event in history that he had a large part in was the integration in the army, which was put into effect in 1948 by President Truman. Jackie was ordered to sit in the back of a military bus. He refused, and was put on trial, but was later honorably discharged as a First Lieutenant. Those leadership skills that Jackie showed on the field translated into his army service, and the armed forces were integrated, mainly due to his leadership and charisma. The definition of a hero is a person, typically a man, who is admired or idealized for courage. These characteristics easily fit with Jackie, and they represent the person he was, until the day he passed