Life Of Jackie Robinson: The Man Who Changed More Than Baseball

The Man Who Changed More Than Baseball

“I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me... all I ask is that you respect me as a human being.” Jackie Robinson was born into an era of inequality and racist standards that would crush most under the weight of it all. Although he was raised in poverty where street life and gangs took easy hold, Jackie’s life would grow to take a different direction. From the

Military to baseball and on to the NAACP, Jackie Robinson would create change, the likes of which the country had never seen.

Robinson’s military career began in 1942, when he was drafted and assigned to a segregated unit in the Army. While there, Robinson applied for Officers Candidate School also known as OCS. Although the Army

Robinson did not only change the game of baseball by breaking the color barrier, but also by the way he lived his life with humility, poise and an unwavering commitment to equality. Legendary number 42 went on to continue to inspire the lives of others and effectively creating change.

Robinson once told future Hall of Fame inductee Hank Aaron, “the game of baseball is great, but the greatest thing is what you do after your career is over.” Jackie was the chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Fight for Freedom campaign. He traveled around the country giving lectures and speaking about equality. He wrote letters and sent telegrams to Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon about equality and the wait for it for his people. He believed Kennedy would be a good President but said he would openly criticize him if he didn’t make civil rights a priority. Jackie Robinson was a brave and strong individual who believed in standing and fighting for what you believed in. It was by this morality that he was elected to the board of directors of the NAACP in 1958. In October

1959, Robinson entered the Greenville municipal airport’s white only waiting room.

He chose to impact society by implementing change. Change in the Military, change to Americas favorite past time- baseball, change to a divided country. He demanded equality and requested to simply be seen as a human being. In the military by refusing to accept that although he was qualified he would be denied entrance into the OCS, he banned together with other black activists. Together they raised enough attention and awareness to the unjust cause and gained entry for not only himself but other black Americans. In baseball he shook the standard that had been in place since the 1880’s by breaking the color barrier and becoming the first black man in the Major Leagues. He set a precedent that would stand for all those who followed. Today baseball is as we know it because of Robinson’s initial commitment to remain silent and be a vision rather than a voice in baseball. He allowed his induction to be the display of change he so eagerly urned for. After years of remaining silent on the field, Jackie was quiet no longer