Jackie Robinson's Pastime: African Americans In Major League Baseball

Blacks in Baseball Throughout the years, there has been an increase of African Americans in baseball. Baseball, also known as “Americas Pastime” is a sport that is many Americans favorite out of them all. Although many Americans love this sport, a great majority of them don’t know the rich history that it entails. For example, most people think Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play in the professionals with the whites, but this isn’t true. Baseball was a black man’s sport before Jackie Robinson started playing. The thing that Jackie Robinson did was that he made opportunities for other African Americans to play the sport that they love. Although many people go to Major League Baseball games each year, most of them don’t

He went to college at UCLA where he worked in a big stone building called Kerchoff Hall, a student lounge. Jackie Robinson was very involved in his academic studies as well as his sports. He played every sport in college and was very talented in football. He was a very obedient student because he was always in bed asleep by midnight on the night before a game. Jackie Robinson was also very involved in his church. He taught Sunday school at a local church so he didn’t have very much time to socialize with girls, until he laid his eyes on Rachel Isum. She was a freshman at UCLA who was also extremely intelligent. Jackie’s friend, Ray Bartlett, was the one that helped Jackie build up the courage to go and talk to her. In 1941, Jackie received a letter to play football for the Honolulu Bears. He worked on a construction crew during the week for $100 so they played games on Sundays. When Jackie was on the boat on his way home, the attacks on Pearl Harbor occurred. This meant that Jackie would be enlisted into the United States Army. While he was in the Army, his future wife was still at UCLA studying nursing. While Jackie was in the Army, he had an incident just like Rosa Parks’. He refused to move seats on a bus and went to trial almost getting kicked out of the Army. When he finally got out of the Army, he got the opportunity to play on the Kansas City Monarchs. He then got invited to a meeting

“Foul Lines: Teaching Race in Jim Crow America Through Baseball History.” History Teacher 46.3 (2013): 329-535. Academic Search Premier. Web. 20Feb.2017. Delphos St. John Library.

Dunn, Herb. Jackie Robinson Young Sports Trailblazer. New York, NY: Aladdin Paperbacks, 1999, Delphos St. John