...Jackie Roosevelt Robinson was born on January 31, 1919 in Cairo, Georgia. He was the youngest of five children. Jackie’s father left the family shortly after he was born. Jackie never saw his father again. His mother raised him and his three brothers and one sister. About a year after Jackie was born, the family moved to Pasadena, California. There Jackie grew up watching is older brother excelling in sports. His brother became a track star who won a silver medal in the 200 meter dash the 1936 Olympics. Jackie loved to play sports. In high school he ran track like his older brother and also played other sports like football, baseball, tennis, and basketball. He was the quarterback of the football and the star player on the baseball team. Jackie had a deal to racism all through high school. Most of his teammates were white. Most of the white people would cheer him on the field. He was treated second class citizen off the field. After college, Robinson went to play professional football, but his career to a quick end with the start of World War II. He was drafted into the army. Jackie met the famous boxing champion Joe Lewis at basic training and they became friends. Joe helped Robinson get accepted into officer training. Once Jackie finished his officer...
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...you’re wasting your life.” Jackie Robinson once said. Jack “Jackie” Roosevelt Robinson was born January 31, 1919 in Cairo Georgia. His middle name, Roosevelt came from President Theodore Roosevelt. He was the youngest of 5 children; Robinson didn’t have a father figure in his life because he left their family just after Jackie was born. His mother Millie raised all 5 children by herself. Just a year after Jackie was born his family left the small town of Cairo, Georgia and set off for a town in California, called Pasadena. As a young boy, Jackie watched his older brothers as they excelled in sports during school....
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...30, 2014 Jackie Robinson Robinson, Jackie (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) baseball player, civil rights activist was born in Cairo, Georgia the youngest of five children. His parents were Jerry and Mallie Robinson. Mallie Robinson worked several different jobs after her husband Jerry left the family in 1920. At Muir Tech, Robinson played several sports at the varsity level and lettered in four of them: football, basketball, track, and baseball. Robinson attended Pasadena Junior College (PJC), where he continued his athletic career by participating in basketball, football, baseball, and track. After graduating from PJC in spring 1939, Robinson transferred to UCLA, where he became the school's first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football, and track. Robinson was one of four black football players on the UCLA Bruins football team. Robinson was also the 1940 NCAA Track and Field Champion in the long jump. Ironically baseball was Robinson worst sport at UCLA he only hit .098. While at UCLA, he met his future wife, Rachel Isum. Robinson's eligibility ended at the end of 1941, UCLA asked Robinson to stay and even offered financial support to him. He didn’t have much money, but he turned down the offer respectively. An interesting fact is Robinson never graduated from UCLA. Robinson then became an assistant athletic director with the government's National Youth Administration (NYA) in Atascadero, California. Robinson moved to Honolulu...
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...Evaluation of the Movie “42” When I first viewed this movie, I already knew some of Jackie Robinson’s history, but I was still moved by this revealing depiction of his life during the years 1945-1947. This true story, which was released April 12, 2013, followed what I had learned about Jackie and stayed accurate while still being extremely entertaining. Jackie Robinson’s number on his jersey was 42, he wore that number his entire Major League career with the Brooklyn Dodgers. The movie “42” is a biopic of the legendary baseball player Jackie Robinson, when in 1947 Jackie became the first African-American player to break Major League Baseball’s color barrier. The great directing, acting, and writing made this film enjoyable to watch. This well-made movie primarily tells the story of Jackie Robinson under the direction of his general manager Branch Rickey, while showing us Jackie’s battles with racism and a classic love story. “42” is a snapshot in the life of Jackie Robinson, which allows the movie to run at a nice pace. As Bernard Beck points out, in The Dark Knight Rises: In 42 Jackie Robinson Saves The American Dream, “Our attention is not fixed on how he became a great player, on how he succeeded in his career after that first year, or how they built a family. We are shown the great pressure they were under and that they handled it” (89). The movie starts out in 1946, when Branch Rickey the legendary general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers decides that he is going to bring...
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...“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”- Jackie Robinson A true leader is someone who people willingly follow and listen to as well as someone who has the ability to influence and motivate others. An outstanding example of a great leader is Jackie Robinson. On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson shocked the world and changed not only the history of sports, but changed America. Facing the criticism, ignoring the racial slurs, and following his true passion, Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball. Jack Roosevelt Robinson, better known as Jackie Robinson, was born in Cairo, Georgia on January 31, 1919. Him and his four siblings were taken care of by their single mother who was a sharecropper. Jackie Robinson grew up in a time of serious racial segregation. His family grew up on a street where they were the only black family and they often faced criticism, which evidently only strengthened their bond as a family. Restrictions on municipal pool or YMCA use for African-Americans were only on designated days, the movies were completely segregated, and many restaurants were completely closed to African-Americans (“Jackie”). This was considered normal and accepted, and despite it all, Jackie Robinson learned to have self-respect, high self-esteem, and how to be independent – the attributes of some of the world’s greatest leaders. Robinson learned to take out any anger or frustration by playing sports. As a young...
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...INTRODUCTION In the mid 1940’s Jackie Robinson decided to tryout for MLB. Branch Rickey gave Jackie a chance, and he succeeded . Many people were inspired that black people can be a professional athlete. He struggled with racism throughout his whole career but he overcame it by showing his talents. Jackie Robinson loved all sports. Even though he played for the Brooklyn Dodgers, baseball was never his favorite sport. Before he went into MLB he was drafted into the army in 1942. He did not mind being in the army, but he had other places he would rather be. He struggled with racism when he was drafted. While traveling, he performed an action similar to Rosa Parks. All the African Americans had to sit in the back of the bus, away from the...
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...needed to happen, and for this, many brave people were needed. Brave people who wanted change and were willing to do whatever was necessary to get it, to fight for the belief that all men were created equal and that they should be treated that way. Some of these key figures in the Civil Rights Movement were Jackie Robinson, Martin Luther King Jr., and John F. Kennedy. Jackie Robinson helped shape and influence the Civil Rights Movement. In the 1940’s, baseball was considered America’s game, and baseball was right at the heart of all Americans. Baseball at this time had an...
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...Though, something more complex and unusual also comes with activity of this nature, and this is the ability to forget the destitution and difficulty of everyday life and the capability to be on a level playing field with many people that believe the same way, no matter what socio-economic class they represent. One sport in particular has transcended all other games, has continually been a psychological shelter from pain and hardships of life, and also a cultural rocket breaking through the social barriers in the American society. That sport is simply the most beloved American game of all, baseball. The purpose of this essay is to critically explore a myriad of aspects of life that have been changed due to sports, all the while concentrating on baseball as the main focal point. Further, this work will continually pose the question of how it is conceivable that a single and simple sport could greatly impact a country the way baseball has the United States. At the time of the first foreign inhabitants of North America, life was more difficult than someone of the twenty-first century could have imagined. The hardships were endured by every colonist nearly twenty-four hours a day, with little to relieve their minds of the complexities of early American life. Nonetheless, there was at least one aspect of life that offered them the ability to escape the perennial cruelties of life, and that was sports. Throughout the colonies, no matter north or south,...
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...Movement, (w-w) there were other famous leaders. (2) In 1954-1968, people changed the course of history everywhere because (BC) of some incredible heroes. (3) Slowly (LY), the heroes effort to stop segregation payed off. (CL) When they protested, they only believed in harmless and nonviolent (SV) acts. The struggle for social justice killed some heroes. The Civil Rights was a fight that lasted horrible decades. (1) Daisy Bates, Jackie Robinson, and James Forman all were leaders and activists in our history. (1) Daisy Bates was a passionate (QA) woman, who wrote and published articles about recent events of discrimination in her local area. Bates reported the whole inspirational story start to end. (6) When (CL) she was born on November 11, 1914, she knew she was sent to this world for a reason. The most impacting (SV) thing she has ever willingly (LY) done was assisting the Little Rock 9 into an all white school. She was an important player in the Aaron v. Cooper case where African American children sued a Little Rock school for not allowing them to attend. This event became national news and set the stage for...
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...“Golden Age” for sports. Sports like Baseball, Boxing, and Football were some of the sports that grew very popular throughout this time period. Before the 20’s all professional sports were only played by white people. Before the 1920’s african americans were not allowed in professional sports, but during the ‘20’s things changed. In the beginning of the 20th century black athletes were set apart from being able to compete with white athletes. With black skinned athletes being banned to play baseball between 1903-1946 they created the negro baseball league. The negro baseball league was a professional baseball league for black athletes to play...
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...“42, 42” the crowd would chant as Jackie Robinson stepped onto the field. The name that will be remembered for centuries due to his great achievements, and impact he had on the game of baseball. The whites saw him for what he was an “African American”, others as a great civil rights leader, but who’s to say he couldn’t be a hero, and an athletes role model? Ambitious, determined, fearless, were all the characteristics that made him the remarkable man, and player he was. His perseverance and impact he had on America during the adversity and rough trails is what inspired individuals the most. Even after all the discrimination he faced, he was determined to be the first black player in the MLB. Which became a dream come true in 1947 as...
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...West Oakland ghetto neighborhood. By nine, he was the catcher for the junior’s Sweet Shop team in a local midget league. Nothing could of stop him from that point forward from pursuing his dreams as a professional baseball player. But his baseball legacy is fated to have little connection with his accomplishments on the field. Flood is best remembered for his courage in challenging the reserve clause, a move as crucial to the economic rights of players as all famous Jackie Robinson who broke the color barrier. He felt that the reserve clause was not unlike slavery. Before free agency existed, sports franchises generally held complete control over individual players. Their contracts contained reserve clauses, which specifically bound them to one team. Players who grew unhappy with their team had little leverage; sometimes they might be released from a contract, but their only real hope was that they might be traded to another team. | | In 1969, the Cardinals sent Flood to the Philadelphia Phillies as part of a seven-player trade. Flood had several problems with the deal. He didn't appreciate hearing about it from a front-office underling. He didn't like Philadelphia, a losing team in a rundown ballpark with hostile fans in a city he regarded as racist. But, most important, he didn't think he should...
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...talk about baseball. From who Invented baseball. To When did MLB come about. And how many teams there are in baseball. And lastly a person in MLB like Bryce Harper. Abner Doubleday, born June 26, 1819. And died January 26, 1893. He was a United States Army officer and Union general for most of the American civil war. But also had a very important role in the battle of Gettysburg. But let's talk about the main reason that we are really here. And it is that Abner Doubleday was one of the first people that had invented baseball. He invented the game we know and love today back in Cooperstown, New york. During the summer of 1839. He made the idea of the bases you had to run and in the early years of baseball he made it to where you could throw the ball at the runner to get him out. It was pretty extreme before the rules that they have today. But enough about him....
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...marches hoping to use violence and fear to continue segregation. On July 2nd 1964 The Civil Rights Act was passed by the senate making segregation at businesses and restaurants illegal. Baseball is Americas pastime and in 1886 it was no different. The start of professional baseball in St. Augustine began with an ad for a game between the black employees who worked at the Ponce de Leon vs Alcazar employees (26). Many of the colored players from the Ponce were born and raised in Lincolnville and played on the semiprofessional negro team the Cuban Giants. There is no evidence that any of the giant players were Cuban or that they even spoke Spanish. The most likely reason for being Cuban was to avoid the discrimination of white fans and players. Who had a problem watching or playing with black players but allowed Cubans or American Indians to play (27). Since the Flagler teams featured both amateurs and professional’s players they would be considered a semiprofessional which not only provided high level entertainment for Flagler’s hotel guests, but also improved employee morale. By 1964 baseball had become part of the culture of St. Augustine and Lincolnville. In 1947 Jackie Robinson became the first black player to play in the major leagues. 17 years later in 1964,...
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...height in the late 1950’s and throughout the 1960’s while Dr. Martin Luther King wrote his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. He compared his struggles to the apostle Paul who tried to spread the word of Christ from one small township to another, similar to Dr. King’s journey from town to town in the southern United States spreading the word of freedom and equality. Although Dr. King’s struggles lasted years, he faced an easier route than Indians during the 1700’s. Genocide was the European settler’s answer to different skin tone and differences in land agreements. Instead of marches in the street like the 1950’s, whites and Indians took to small battles and murder to resolve their issues. In America genocide has been unheard of locally for many years, but many genocides have taken place during 300 years in between the Indians and now, most famously the Nazi Holocaust. Currently in the 2000’s, in the United States, we experience more assimilation and pluralism than racism and genocide. Maybe the most significant example of pluralism is the election of our first black president Barack Obama, finally signifying that a minority could accomplish anything a white person could. Another big step before that as well was when Jackie Robinson took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 as the first African-American major league baseball player. The support for Jackie propelled America into the famous civil rights movement and helped begin the long lasting legacy of Dr. King. In politics...
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