Jackie Robinson a Hero of Social Justice Social justice is the judicious distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. So, a Social Justice Hero is someone who made significant contributions to the advancement of social justice. My social justice hero is Jackie Robinson. I will demonstrate that he deserves to be inducted into the Zion Museum of Social Justice Heroes. I had no prior knowledge of social justice or who Jackie Robinson was. I was drawn to him because he was a baseball player and I play baseball occasionally. After some research I realized that Jackie Robinson and his baseball story was much deeper than baseball.
Jackie Robinson should be inducted because of his profound courage. He was the first black person to play in Major League Baseball (MLB). No other black person played before him because racism was deeply entrenched not only in baseball but also in everyday life in America. The practice of segregation was common but was tested when on Oct. 23, 1945 Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers signed Jackie Robinson for $600 (about $8,000 today). There was however one condition: he had to promise not to respond to the
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His play on the baseball diamond and the way he acted towards racism inspired a generation of African Americans to question the doctrine of “separate but equal” that 17 states had adopted in the US. Robinson finally broke his emotional and political silence in 1949 (4 years into his MLB career) and became an outspoken and controversial opponent of racial discrimination. He also objected to the Jim Crow practices in the southern states where most baseball clubs conducted spring training. What African Americans admired him for was that he was a black man with courage to stand up against injustice. He paved the way for the Civil Rights Movement with the help of other great activists and