If you’re a fan of baseball, in America or anywhere else in the world, you’ve heard the name Jackie Robinson. Jackie Robinson became a hero by overcoming racial barriers in American Baseball, therefore leading to the decline of the negro leagues, thus impacting our world today.
Jackie Robinson played for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues in 1945. Jackie got Branch Rickey’s attention due to his great playing ability and his integrity. Rickey was the general manager for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Rickey wanted to break racial barriers in the major leagues, but he had to find the right candidate first.
The person had to be able to withstand racial abuse on and off the field. Rickey found the perfect candidate in Robinson. He was
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Jim Crow was not a real person. In the early 1830’s there was a play called Jim Crow Jubilee. Caucasian actor Thomas Dartmouth (Daddy) Rice started his big career when he starred in the Jubilee. He played a dumb, clumsy black slave. Later, laws were passed against African-Americans and they were called the Jim Crow Laws. African-Americans were treated like second class citizens. These laws made racism legal. Black men couldn’t shake hands with a white man because it made it look like they were of equal status. Black people couldn’t show love or any sort of affection to each other in public. Teachers in Oklahoma that taught where blacks and whites were enrolled together would be charged with a misdemeanor and would therefore be fined. African-Americans who violated the Jim Crow laws would be subjected to punishment. White men could physically beat up African-Americans without having to worry about punishment. Violence was a way of control for the laws. Black people could be lynched for drinking out of a white water fountain. Between 1875 and 1955 life was hard for African-Americans. Jackie Robinson was born in 1919 so he had to put up with all of these laws and these unfair living conditions from the time he was born until he was 36. When he started playing major league baseball these laws were still in full effect. He couldn’t even ride the same bus as his teammates or stay in the same hotel as them. Over a 10 year career he made baseball become completely different. It went from an all white sport to integrating both African-Americans and Caucasians. Jackie Robinson made baseball completely different by overcoming racial barriers and proving to the world that African-Americans were just as equal as caucasians. With Robinson playing in the majors, he helped the decline of the negro