Jackie Robinson Biography Essay

“I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me... All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.” - Jackie Robinson. Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia on January 31, 1919. He was born into a family of sharecroppers and was the youngest of five children. Once his father left in 1920 the Robinson family moved to Pasadena, California. Growing up in poverty Jackie Robinson’s mother worked various odd jobs to support the family to the best extent she could. Due to being a minority and in poverty Jackie was excluded from many recreational activities as a child which would later lead to gang affiliation. However his good friend Carl Anderson convinced him to leave the gang before it was too late. In 1935 Robinson enrolled at John Muir High

After graduating high school Jackie continued to play sports at Pasadena Junior College where he continued to play four sports. In 1939 Robinson graduated from PJC and enrolled at UCLA where he again continued to play four sports and became the first athlete to letter in all four. After college Jackie Robinson was drafted into the army due to the Pearl Harbor bombings. Later he was discharged due to insubordination charges because he refused to move to the back of the bus. After being discharged he began playing in the negro leagues with the Kansas City Monarchs and then later was signed to the Brooklyn Dodgers and was the first African American in the MLB. Jackie Robinson revolutionized the sport of baseball in that he was the first African American to play professionally; despite threats to his wife and himself, he blazed a trail for other young athletes to follow, setting records in America's past time, and earning individual rights for other minority

While having the world against him, Robinson managed to still overcome his obstacles and proved he was worthy of playing in America’s national pastime. He not only stumped the nation, but “He criticized the slow pace of baseball integration and objected to the Jim Crow practices in the Southern states where most clubs held spring training’’ (Staff). This is how Robinson now not only made revelations in sports, but in the nation as well. He showed he had the ability to be as skilled as any other citizen in baseball, now he can show that the entire African-American culture can do the same in other aspects of the world as well. Using his platform due to his successful baseball career, “He continued to fight actively for civil rights long after his baseball career had ended, supporting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his call for the peaceful integration of American society” (Kashatus). His efforts went on to astronomically change the outlook of African-Americans in the US as his influence only grew more nationwide. Robinson began with changing racial perception in major league baseball, but this only manifested to later change the rest of the nation’s of racial equality in