Jackie Robinson Impact On Society

It was 1943, a second lieutenant of a segregated Army Cavalry unit stationed in Texas walked onto a bus, an unsegregated bus. This man took a seat near the front of the bus but then was told that he must move to the back of the bus for a white man, and he refused to give up his seat. He was then arrested by the military police and was later brought to court for this “crime.” He was never allowed to be deployed overseas and never saw combat again, but these actions would symbolize a life full of pain, adversity, persistence, civil rights walls broken, and triumph… This is the life of Jackie Robinson (3). On January 31st, 1919, Jackie Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia but then shortly moved to Pasadena, California where he spent his childhood.

Branch Rickey, the president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, decided that he wanted to integrate baseball and bring an African American into the MLB. He went through many, many different players and had to look at much more than their ability to see if he wanted to give them an opportunity to play for his baseball club. Rickey finally decided that Jackie Robinson was the one he wanted to take a chance on, not because he was the best African American baseball player, but because he would be able to handle himself in the extremely difficult environment he was asking him to play baseball through (1). From being an outstanding multi-sport athlete to refusing to give up his seat in Texas, to Robinson’s courageous outlook on breaking the color barrier, Rickey knew that he was the right man for the job. In 1946, Robinson played in first year on the Montreal Royals, a minor league team in the Brooklyn Dodgers Organization. Branch Rickey forced Robinson to sign a contract if he wanted to play for his organization, but one that was unique to everyone else. He told Jackie he was not allowed to fight back to the racism physically and actually tested Robinson by saying racial slurs to his face to see if he was ready for what he was about to enter (1). Robinson signed the contract and it all

Robinson won the Rookie of the year in 1947. Robinson was a six time all star from 1949 to 1955 and the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the National League in 1949. He played in six world series and won a world series in 1955. In 1962, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame (3). His number was retired on June 4th, 1972 along with Sandy Koufax (32) and Roy Campanella (39). In 1997, the number 42 was retired through all of Major League baseball forever. Starred in a movie called The Jackie Robinson Story playing himself and was released in 1950 (3). After retiring at age thirty-seven in 1956 due to his diabetes, he took a position with a coffee company called “Chock Full O’ Nuts.” He became the first African American Vice President of a major American company ever when he took the Vice President job at “Chock Full O’ Nuts.” He later became a co-founder of Freedom National Bank, a black owned and operated bank in Harlem, New York (2). He was the first ever African American television sports analyst when he became a sports analyst for baseball in 1965 when he broadcasted for ABC’s Major League Baseball Game of the Week telecasts (1). His accomplishments seem to be endless but the reason every single one of these are important to know and hear about is what Robinson did with these God given