Jackie Robinson Impact On Society

Civil rights was an important American social movement throughout the late 40s to the 60s. There was once a time where African Americans and whites used separate bathrooms, separate drinking fountains and sat on separate spots on the bus. They also played on separate baseball teams. During this time period Baseball was “America’s Pastime, “and a major social get together for white and black Americans (Kenny 2013). In 1947 both of these American social aspects collided turbulently, when the Brooklyn Dodgers gave Jackie Robinson a chance to play professional baseball. Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play major league baseball, is the target of my biography. Robinson had a hall of fame career, and eventually had his number retired

Twenty-five days preceding Jackie’s birth President Roosevelt died, so his family gave him the middle name Roosevelt (Obias 2013). Shortly after his birth, his family moved and settled in Pasadena, Calif. Robinson was the youngest of five children and was raised in poverty by a single mother. (Sailer 1996) Despite his family’s economic problems, Jackie excelled at sports and was a great athlete. Jackie competed in four different sports in high school, and came from a very athletic family. His brother competed against Jesse Owens in the Olympics, and Jackie himself played college football at UCLA himself (Obias 2013). Jackie had the potential to become a professional in football, but during Jackie’s early adulthood World War 2 was occurring, and Jackie was drafted into the service. His time in the service did not last long, as Jackie received a court martial for refusing to move to the back of the bus for a White soldier. Jackie never saw war action as the incident occurred during boot camp. Robinson however had an excellent reputation, and with the support of others who knew Robinson was able to grant him an honorable discharge from the military (Ofari

General Information was easy to find, but in-depth information was more difficult to find on Robinson. My research methods differ in the fact that I needed to be more thorough with a nationally known athlete such as Robinson. Information however readily available, and no interviewing was needed. Robinson’s perspective differs from my own because while we both played some form of organized baseball, Robinson faced many more obstacles because of his race, while I faced my own obstacles because of my own talent. While Robinson was a different race than me, he support something very important that all races should be welcomed regardless of which race they are. The only thing I really have in common with Jackie is that we were both baseball players that played with a tremendous love of the game and we were both determined to