Briana Algarin's List: Game Changer: Jackie Robinson

• Baseball player, civil rights activist
• January 31, 1919
• Cairo, Georgia.
• first African–American to play in baseball's major leagues
• youngest of five children,
• raised in relative poverty by a single mother
• played four sports: football, basketball, track, and baseball
• region's Most Valuable Player in baseball in 1938.
• Matthew won a silver medal in the 200-meter dash—just behind Jesse Owens–at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.
• university's first student to win varsity letters in four sports
• Robinson was forced to leave UCLA just shy of graduation due to financial hardship
• moved to Honolulu, Hawaii, where he played football for the semi–professional Honolulu Bears
• season with the Bears was cut short when the United States entered into World War II.
• 1942 to 1944, Robinson served as a second lieutenant in the United States Army
• ever saw combat,
• arrested and court–martialed during boot camp after he refused to move to the back of a segregated bus during training.
• acquitted of the charges and received an honorable discharge.
• After his discharge from the Army in 1944, Robinson played baseball professionally.
• sport was segregated, and African–Americans and whites played in separate leagues.
• joined the all–white Montreal Royals, a farm team for the Brooklyn Dodgers, in 1945
• played his first game on March 17 of that same year.
• moved to Florida in 1946 to begin spring training with the Royals
• made Robinson promise to not fight back when confronted with racism
• some of his new teammates objected to having an African–American on their team
• Robinson had an outstanding start with the Royals, leading the International League with a .349 batting average and .985 fielding percentage
• His debut game on April 15, 1947, marked the first time an African–American athlete played in the major leagues.
• Philadelphia Phillies and their manager Ben Chapman. During one infamous game, Chapman and his team shouted derogatory terms at Robinson from their dugout.
• any players on opposing teams threatened not to play against the Dodgers. Even his own teammates threatened to sit out.
• Dodgers manager Leo Durocher informed them that he would sooner trade them than Robinson.
• Others defended Jackie Robinson's right to play in the major leagues, including League President Ford Frick, Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler, Jewish baseball star Hank Greenberg and Dodgers shortstop and team captain Pee Wee Reese.
• Reese walked over and put his arm around his teammate, a gesture that has become legendary in baseball history.
• his first year, he hit 12 home runs and helped the Dodgers win the National League pennant
• Robinson led the National League in stolen bases and was selected as Rookie of the Year.
• outstanding .342 batting average during the 1949 season.

• led in stolen bases that year and earned the National League's Most Valuable Player Award. 

   
• exceptional base runner, Robinson stole home 19 times in his career, setting a league record.
• popular song, "Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?"
• became the highest–paid athlete in Dodgers history, and his success in the major leagues opened the door for other African–American players, such as Satchel Paige, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron.
• July 1949, he testified on discrimination before the House Un–American Activities Committee.
• In 1952, he publicly called out the Yankees as a racist organization for not having broken the color barrier five years after he began playing with the Dodgers.
• decade–long career with the Dodgers, Robinson and his team won the National League pennant several times.
• 1955, he helped them achieve the ultimate victory: the World Series.
• failing before in four other series match–ups, the Dodgers beat the New York Yankees.
• ackie Robinson retired shortly after the trade, on January 5, 1957, with an impressive career batting average of .311.
• After baseball, Robinson became active in business and continued his work as an activist for social change.
• executive for the Chock Full O' Nuts coffee company and restaurant chain and helped establish the Freedom National Bank.
• board of the NAACP until 1967
• first African–American to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962
• 1972, the Dodgers retired his uniform number of 42

  • "About Jackie Robinson." The Jackie Robinson Foundation. Jackie Robinson Foundation, n.d. Web. 21 May 2013.

  • One of the greatest honors in baseball history: to have your number retired
• He died from heart problems and diabetes complications on October 24, 1972
• Stamford, Connecticut
• survived by his wife, Rachel Isum, and two children.
• his wife established the Jackie Robinson Foundation dedicated to honoring his life and work
• foundation helps young people in need by providing scholarships and mentoring programs.

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• April 10, 1947, Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey announced he had purchased the contract of Jackie Robinson,
• Robinson to break Major League Baseball’s color barrier.
• over 50 years, beginning in 1890, owners in the top professional baseball leagues had a “gentleman’s agreement” to exclude black players from the field
• motivated both by the ideal of racial equality and the desire to win ballgames, wanted to break this agreement and add a black player to his team.
• black ballplayer with great talent and personal character.
• “I wanted a man of exceptional intelligence, a man who was able to grasp and control the responsibilities of himself to his race and could carry that load,” he explained in a 1956 speech.
• Jackie Robinson, a former four-sport star at UCLA who played the 1945
• Robinson played 1946 with the Montreal Royals of the International League, breaking the professional baseball color barrier.
• April 10, 1947
• He made his major league debut on April 15
• “Jackie Robinson had to be bigger than life,” writes Hall of Famer Hank Aaron in Time. “He had to be bigger than the Brooklyn teammates who got up a petition to keep him off the ball club, bigger than the pitchers who threw at him or the base runners who dug their spikes into his shin, bigger than the bench jockeys who hollered for him to carry their bags and shine their shoes, bigger than the so-called fans who mocked him with mops on their heads and wrote him death threats.”
• Robinson played second base with the Dodgers for 10 years
• winning a National League MVP Award
• Dodgers to the 1955 World Series.
• inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962, his first year of eligibility.
• Robinson was not the first black player to play alongside white professionals.
• 1880s, several black players competed in prominent leagues throughout the country

  • The picture below pertains to my research because it shows how the team slowly started warming to the dark skinned young man after not only did he prove himself physically but also morally.

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