Jackie Robinson was the first African American baseball player who changed the history of Major League Baseball in the 20th century. “Jackie Robinson graphically symbolized and personified the challenge to the vicious legacy and ideology of white supremacy in American history.” (Robinson & Duckett 1955) Robinson faced countless amounts of hate from people because he was an African American in an all white Major League Baseball team, but with the fame he received from baseball, he spoke out about the inequality between whites and African Americans because he wanted to bring out to the light to make people aware of what was going on. Jackie Robinson was born in a Cairo, Georgia where his parents were farmers. Father left him when he was just a baby, so it was just his mom, his brothers and sisters. From Georgia, they came to Pasadena, California, where they were the only African American family in the community. The environment in which Jackie Robinson lived in limited him to what he could really do or say about segregation and at that age he was not involved with baseball and civil rights movements. Robinson lived during the 1940’s indicating that whites and African …show more content…
He was forced to sign a contract to which he agreed that despite the death threats, hate mail and hatred from others he was never going to fight back at all. After two years of being on the team, Robinson, however, finally broke his emotional and political silence in 1949, becoming an outspoken and controversial opponent of racial discrimination.(History.com Staff) Making sure his voice was heard, he critiqued slow pace of baseball integration and the objection to Jim Crow laws in southern states where they trained.(History.com 6) He was mainly influenced by the political issues that Africans Americans were facing, especially during the period in which he played