jackie robinson 5 paragraph essay

Jackie Robinson: A National Hero Essay (Biography)

Jackie Robinson was an outstanding baseball player. With his talents for the game, his impressive achievements, and the records he set over his ten-year career, he would have certainly made it into the history of one of America’s favorite sports. However, he was more than just a high-scoring sportsman. Years before the Civil Rights Movement, Jackie Robinson courageously opposed racial segregation and discrimination, contributing greatly to the struggle for equal opportunity and becoming a national hero.

Robinson was born in 1919 in Georgia and grew up in Pasadena, California. He discovered his pronounced aptitude for sports early, playing football, basketball, baseball, and other games at school. He had three older brothers who always supported him and encouraged him to pursue a career in sports (Falkner). However, in 1942, Robinson was drafted into the US Army. The army was segregated during that time, but throughout his service, Robinson challenged the injustice with bravery. In 1944, he was court-martialed for defying orders to sit in the back of a bus. This act resembles the same famously brave deed of Rosa Parks, but it happened eight years earlier. The court eventually decided that the order violated US Army regulations, and Robinson was acquitted (Robinson and Kerry). After being discharged, Robinson started playing baseball in Negro leagues and proved to be a very promising player. By 1946, he was already playing for a minor league team, the Montreal Royals, in Daytona Beach, Florida. While in Florida, he was not allowed to live in the same hotel as his teammates, so he had to stay at the house of a local African American (Robinson and Duckett 41). That year, Robinson became the first black player to play against a major league team, the Dodgers, and the following year, he broke the baseball color line by joining this team.

In 1947, at the age of 28, Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play Major League Baseball. Before this, since the 1880s, black people had been excluded from Major League Baseball. Although this so-called color line was not an official written rule, it had been there for 60 years as a symbol of segregation. Robinson played for ten seasons until 1956, demonstrating outstanding achievements, new techniques, and innovative game strategies. David Falkner has called him “the father of modern base-stealing” (171). At that time, even as a major baseball star, Robinson still had to face racism and bigotry. Dodgers President Branch Rickey wrote that Robinson repeatedly received “hate letters and death threats” and was “the target… of pitchers throwing at his head and legs, and catchers spitting on his shoes” (Robinson and Kerry). Karl Erskine, a former Dodgers player, emphasized Robinson’s inner strength when he wrote that “[m]ost mortal men would have cracked” if, while at the happiest of moments of their lives, they had been forced to deal with racial indignities on a daily basis (Williams and Sielski 1). Allan H. “Bud” Selig, the commissioner of Major League Baseball at that time, remembers that in 1947, he went to see the newest star, Jackie Robinson; when he and his friend were climbing to their seats, Selig noticed something that impressed him to his very core: they were the only white fans in the entire section. He writes, “I began to understand the impact that Jackie had made on his fellow African Americans” (Williams and Sielski x). In a segregated society, Robinson became more than a new baseball star.

Jackie Robinson was acknowledged with many honors throughout his life, both as a remarkable baseball player and a civil rights pioneer. He was introduced into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962, and his uniform number, 42, was retired by Major League Baseball. Robinson participated in six All-Star Games and won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949 (Falkner). It was an incredible success for an African-American man in an area that had been closed to African Americans for decades. He achieved this success at a time when many major universities did not admit black people, and drinking fountains in many American cities were still marked “white” or “colored.” After he retired from sports, Robinson continued his civil rights activities, co-founding the African American-owned Freedom National Bank in Harlem and founding the Jackie Robinson Construction Co. to build low-income housing (Robinson and Kerry). He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. He truly became a national hero, “a man to be emulated, a life to be studied, a legacy to be treasured” (Williams and Sielski xvi). Revealing the importance of Robinson’s pioneering role in the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called him ”a legend and a symbol in his own time” who ”challenged the dark skies of intolerance and frustration” (Robinson and Kerry).

Jackie Robinson’s life was a story of overcoming intolerance and oppression with courage and strength. He not only managed to make his way into an area from which he had been excluded because of the color of his skin, but he also managed to succeed in it. Jackie Robinson’s role in history is hugely significant: he was one of the first people in the 20th century to symbolize hope for equality and justice in American society.

Falkner, David. Great Time Coming: The Life of Jackie Robinson, from Baseball to Birmingham . New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995. Print.

Robinson, Jackie, and Alfred Duckett. I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography of Jackie Robinson . Hopewell, N.J: Ecco Press, 1995. Print.

Robinson, Rachel, and John F. Kerry. “A Pioneer in Civil Rights.” The Boston Globe 2005. Web.

Williams, Pat, and Mike Sielski. How to Be Like Jackie Robinson: Life Lessons from Baseball’s Greatest Hero . Deerfield Beach, Fla: Health Communications, 2004. Print.

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Jackie Robinson

By: History.com Editors

Updated: March 29, 2023 | Original: October 29, 2009

Jackie Robinson was an African American professional baseball player who broke Major Leagues Baseball’s infamous “ color barrier ” when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. Until that time, professional ballplayers of color suited up for teams only in the Negro Leagues . Today, April 15th is observed as Jackie Robinson Day throughout MLB franchises, with players wearing the former Dodgers’ jersey number 42. Robinson’s dazzling athletic prowess and grace under pressure effectively led to the integration of the Major Leagues, and his 10-year career with the Dodgers — and his outspoken activism in his later years — helped set the stage for the burgeoning civil rights movement .

When Was Jackie Robinson Born?

Jackie Robinson was born on January 31, 1919, in Cairo, Georgia, to a family of sharecroppers . He was the youngest of five children.

After his father abandoned the family in 1920, they moved to Pasadena , California, where his mother, Mallie, worked a series of odd jobs to support herself and her children. Though Pasadena was a fairly affluent suburb of Los Angeles at the time, the Robinsons were poor, and Jackie and his friends in the city’s small Black community were often excluded from recreational activities.

That began to change when Jackie enrolled at John Muir High School in 1935. His older brother Mack, a silver medalist in track and field at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin , inspired him to pursue his interest in athletics, and the younger Robinson ultimately earned varsity letters in baseball, basketball, football and track while at Muir.

After graduating high school, Jackie attended Pasadena Junior College for two years, where he continued to have success in all four sports. Following the death of another older brother, Frank, in a motorcycle accident, Jackie decided to honor his memory by enrolling at UCLA in 1939.

There, he became the first Bruin to earn varsity letters in four sports — the same four in which he starred in high school — and he won the NCAA long jump championship in 1940. Jackie also met his future wife, Rachel, while at UCLA.

Did you know? In 1997, 50 years after Robinson integrated baseball, his number, 42, was permanently retired by every team in Major League Baseball.

Jackie Robinson in the U.S. Army

Jackie ultimately left college in the spring of his senior year, just a few credits short of his graduation. He accepted a job as an athletic administrator, but his dreams remained focused on the field of play.

He spent two years playing semi-professional football for integrated teams in leagues in Hawaii and California before being drafted into the U.S. Army in the spring of 1942, during World War II , although he never saw combat.

He was accepted into Officer Candidate School and was assigned to segregated Army units, first in Kansas and then in Texas. During this time, however, he remained close to Rachel, with whom he became engaged in 1943.

In 1944, Jackie was nearly court-martialed after he boarded a bus at Fort Hood in Texas and refused the driver’s order to sit in the back, as segregationist practices in the United States dictated at the time.

He was acquitted on all the charges and court-martialed, but it has been said that his experiences during the proceedings likely shaped his response to the racist taunts he received, a few years later, from fans and fellow players at the start of his professional baseball career.

Jackie was honorably discharged from the Army in November 1944, and he took a job coaching basketball at a college in Austin , Texas.

Jackie Robinson's Professional Sports Career

In early 1945, Jackie Robinson was signed by the Negro League team the Kansas City Monarchs, where he starred for one season, hitting .387.

At the time, Brooklyn Dodgers executive Branch Rickey was scouting the Negro Leagues, looking for players who not only had the talent but the demeanor to withstand the pressures associated with integrating Major League Baseball . Robinson was one of several players Rickey interviewed in August 1945 for assignment to the Dodgers’ farm team in Montreal, the Royals.

It is said that during the interview, Rickey demanded that Robinson not respond when on the receiving end of racial abuse. Robinson reportedly said, “Are you looking for a Negro who is afraid to fight back?” To which Rickey replied that he was looking for a person “with guts enough not to fight back.”

Once Robinson agreed to “turn the other cheek,” a Biblical phrase used by the religious baseball executive, he was assigned to the Royals for the 1946 season, where he was embraced by Montreal fans and batted an impressive .349. His performance both on and off the field earned him a call-up to Brooklyn the following season.

Jackie Robinson and the Dodgers

His debut with the Dodgers in 1947 was greeted with a lot of attention—not all of it positive. Although Robinson quickly proved he belonged as a player, the color of his skin was an issue for opposing teams and fans.

Hearing racist taunts from fans and players prior to a game, Dodgers teammate Pee Wee Reese is said to have put his arm around Robinson on the field to indicate that he was accepted by those wearing a Brooklyn uniform. Still, Robinson endured racist obscenities, hate mail and death threats for much of his career.

It was his play in the field that ultimately silenced his critics. In 1947, his first year with the Dodgers, he earned the inaugural “Rookie of the Year” award. Despite having been signed by the Dodgers at the relatively old age of 28, Robinson would go on to hit .311 over a 10-year career. He became the first Black player to win the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949, when he led the league in hitting with a .342 average, most stolen bases (37) and achieving a career-high 124 RBI. Robinson was an All-Star every year from 1949-1954. He led Brooklyn to a World Series championship over the rival New York Yankees in 1955.

Robinson retired after that season, and thus didn’t follow the Dodgers when the club moved to Los Angeles following the 1957 campaign.

Jackie Robinson Quotes

“I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me … all I ask is that you respect me as a human being.”

“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”

"Baseball is like a poker game. Nobody wants to quit when he's losing; nobody wants you to quit when you're ahead.”

"Life is not a spectator sport. If you're going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you're wasting your life."

"There's not an American in this country free until every one of us is free."

"As I write these words now I cannot stand and sing the National Anthem. I have learned that I remain a Black in a white world."

"Above anything else, I hate to lose."

Jackie Robinson: Legacy and Death

After retiring from the Dodgers, Robinson acted as a sportscaster, worked as a business executive at Chock full o'Nuts and was active in the NAACP and other civil rights groups.

Weakened by heart disease and diabetes, Robinson died in 1972 at the age of 53 from a heart attack suffered at his home in Stamford , Connecticut.

Thousands attended his funeral service, including former teammates and other professional athletes. His eulogy was delivered by the Reverend Jesse Jackson , who declared, “When Jackie took the field, something reminded us of our birthright to be free.”

Jackie Robinson Foundation Scholarship

Following his death, his wife Rachel, by then an assistant professor in the Yale School of Nursing , established the Jackie Robinson Foundation . In addition to recognizing other trailblazers in sports, the foundation awards the Jackie Robinson Foundation Scholarship to minority students.

Robinson’s jersey number 42 was retired by all big-league teams in 1997, meaning it could no longer be worn by any player. Those players already wearing the number were allowed to keep it.

The gesture was meant to honor Robinson’s legacy and the historic impact he had on professional baseball, sports in general and, by extension, American society, and in recognition of the difficulties the athlete faced in breaking Major League Baseball’s color barrier.

Jackie Robinson Movies: ‘The Jackie Robinson Story’ and ‘42’

In 1950, Robinson played himself in a movie on his life called “ The Jackie Robinson Story .” And in 2013, a movie about Robinson’s life called “ 42 ” was released to critical acclaim, with his widow involved in the production.

Baseball Hall of Fame. “Jackie Robinson.” BaseballHall.org . Lamb, C. (2019). “How Jackie Robinson’s wife, Rachel, helped him break baseball’s color line.” TheConversation.com . Breslin, Jimmy. (2011). Branch Rickey: A Life . Penguin Random House . Jackie Robinson: 7 memorable quotes. ABC7NY.com . Jackie Robinson. Baseball Reference .

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Jackie Robinson

Written by: Paul Dickson, Independent Historian

By the end of this section, you will:.

• Explain how and why various groups responded to calls for the expansion of civil rights from 1960 to 1980

Suggested Sequencing

Use this narrative with the Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Montgomery Bus Boycott Narrative, The Little Rock Nine Narrative, The Murder of Emmett Till Narrative, and the Rosa Parks’s Account of the Montgomery Bus Boycott (Radio Interview), April 1956 Primary Source to discuss the rise of the African American civil rights movement pre-1960.

In the spring of 1946, Jackie Robinson was on his way from California to Florida in the hope of becoming the first African American player in the twentieth century to make the roster of a major league baseball team. Robinson was up against an unwritten rule that for decades had prohibited major and minor league teams from signing black athletes. The rule was known as the color bar, and it forced black ballplayers to perform on their own teams in loosely organized groups known as the Negro leagues. The color bar was part of an insidious system of written and unwritten rules, known as Jim Crow, that kept blacks in a separate and unequal position in the Southern states.

However, that spring, Branch Rickey, general manager and part owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League, decided he was going to lift the color bar and challenge Jim Crow. He had been scouting talent from the Negro leagues for several seasons and looking for the right man to sign first. His fear was that such a pioneer would face a torrent of racism and fight back, impeding progress toward integration. Jackie Robinson appealed to him not only because of his talent but also because of his poise and self-control. During one early meeting, Rickey tested whether Robinson had the ability to turn the other cheek by hurling slurs and insults at him. Robinson demonstrated the strength of character to ignore the taunts. On October 23, 1945, Rickey signed Robinson to play on the Montreal Royals of the International League, a minor league team for the Dodgers, in the 1946 baseball season.

Jackie Robinson, pictured here in November 1945 while playing for the Kansas City Monarchs, was signed to the Montreal Royals as the first black baseball player in the International League since the 1880s.

Both Rickey and Robinson knew the road ahead was going to be rocky, but neither could have foreseen how difficult it would actually be. During the 1946 trip from California to the Royals’ spring training camp in Sanford, Florida, Robinson and his new wife Rachel were not allowed into segregated restaurants and hotels and were bumped from airplanes while white passengers boarded. At one point, a Greyhound bus driver called Robinson “boy” and ordered him to sit in the section designated for African Americans.

By the time Robinson reached the spring training site of the Montreal club, he was considering walking away from the challenge that lay ahead. However, he spoke with two black journalists, Wendell Smith and Billy Rowe, who worked for the traditionally black newspaper the Pittsburgh Courier . They persuaded Robinson that he had an historic opportunity to expand opportunities for African Americans if he were able to face the coming trial.

The courage needed to go on at this point was significant. As Chris Lamb, author of Blackout – The Untold Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Spring Training, put it :

Never before – and never since – in American sports has so much been riding on an athlete, in surroundings so hostile as Robinson found himself in Florida, where segregation was legal and brutally enforced, and where blacks who challenged discrimination were often jailed, beaten or murdered. At least nine blacks were lynched in 1946 and more than 20 others were rescued from angry mobs.

After deciding to stay, Robinson joined the team during the first two days of spring training. But the second evening, Smith received a warning from a white man that a white mob was preparing to threaten Robinson. At this point, Rickey moved the Robinsons, another black player he was considering, and the black newspaper writers to Daytona Beach, where the Dodgers were located and where the group boarded with an African American family.

On March 17, the manager penciled Robinson into the starting lineup for a game against the Dodgers in downtown Daytona Beach. He failed at the plate that first day, but Leo Durocher, the Dodgers’ manager, was the first to come to his defense. “Although Robinson didn’t get a hit today, he looked like a real ballplayer out there,” he told Wendell Smith of the Courier . “Don’t forget he was under terrific pressure. He was cast in the middle of a situation that neither he nor the fans had ever experienced before. But he came through it like a champion. He’s a ballplayer.”

Though Daytona Beach was strictly segregated, Robinson encountered no other major troubles there, but that was not the case on the road, because he was excluded from play elsewhere in Florida. Owners locked stadiums, canceled games, and called the police while he was on the field to prevent him from playing.

Nevertheless, his first year in Montreal was a resounding success. The 27-year-old Robinson led the league in batting average (.349), runs scored (113), stolen bases (40), and runs batted in (66). Nevertheless, racist taunts were still a problem, especially when the team was on the road. In Syracuse, New York, Robinson was taunted as one member of the local team threw a black cat on the field, yelling that it was the ballplayer’s “cousin”.

Jackie Robinson, number 30, is pictured here during his first year playing in the minor leagues for the Royals. (credit: modification of “Jackie Robinson, Montréal Royals 1946, Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, St. Marys Ontario 2956 (4871300431)” by Robert Taylor/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0)

In the spring of 1947, Robinson was sent to Cuba, where the Dodgers and Royals were holding spring training. Robinson expected he would not suffer racist abuse there. But he and three other black players under consideration by Rickey were stuck at a ramshackle hotel while the white players stayed at luxurious beachfront accommodations. Rickey later confessed to Robinson that he had segregated the men, explaining, “I can’t afford to take a chance and have a single incident occur.”

There was still a final indignity facing Robinson. After his first game in a Montreal uniform against the Brooklyn “B” squad on March 13 in Cuba, it was off to Panama for a series of exhibition games with local teams and then with the Dodgers. Both the Dodgers and the Royals were housed inside the Canal Zone, where all the games were played and which was then still part of the United States. As such, it was administered under Jim Crow segregation, so Robinson and another black player had to sleep outside the Zone in Panama City, where there was no racial segregation to speak of.

As sports reporter Tommy Holmes of the Brooklyn Eagle put it, Robinson had gotten a far better break in Florida than he was getting in a territory under the control of the U.S. federal government. In Florida, at least he knew the rules and got to bed and board with local families. Here he was exiled – literally forced to leave the United States – to find a bed. This put added pressure on Robinson and fueled the anger he had already expressed over his living conditions in Havana. However, Robinson was able to keep his feelings under control and earned himself a spot in the opening-day line up of the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers.

Jackie Robinson in 1950, in his Brooklyn Dodgers uniform.

During his rookie season, Robinson performed extraordinarily well. Despite having to confront racial slurs and pitches thrown at his head, he prevailed and was named Rookie of the Year.

Robinson had integrated the National League, but what about the American League? Eleven weeks after Robinson’s baseball debut, Bill Veeck, the owner of the Cleveland Indians, shocked his fellow owners in the American League by signing Larry Doby of the Negro league’s Newark Eagles. Some of the same racist name-calling that had afflicted Robinson’s rookie season was addressed to Doby, but his most horrific trials came in 1948. Hoping to avoid the racism and racial segregation in Florida, the Cleveland Indians moved their spring training camp to Arizona, but when they got there, it was as bad as in Florida, if not worse. Not only was Doby not allowed to stay in the team hotel in Tucson but his wife, pregnant and feeling faint, could not even get a glass of water at a whites-only hotel. Later that spring, Doby had to be pulled from an exhibition game in Texas as rocks and bottles were thrown at him.

The battle for integration in baseball was eventually won, but victory was slow in coming. The last major league team to sign its first black player, the Boston Red Sox, did not do so until 1959.

The stories of Robinson, Doby, and other African American pioneers are often seen as simply part of the history of baseball rather than as a turning point in American history that served as a spark for the larger civil rights movement. As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, Jackie Robinson was “a pilgrim that walked in the lonesome byways toward the high road of Freedom. He was a sit-inner before sit-ins, a freedom rider before freedom rides.”

Review Questions

1. Jim Crow is best described as

• a comic book character who stereotyped African Americans as less intelligent
• the systematic segregation and/or exclusion of African Americans in the South
• a genre of southern folk songs that called for segregation of the races
• a famous African American baseball player from the nineteenth century

2. Branch Rickey can best be described as the

• last well-known African American to play major league baseball in the nineteenth century
• outspoken baseball manager who kept African Americans out of the major leagues
• first major league team owner to sign an African American in the twentieth century
• Negro League player who was more talented than Jackie Robinson but refused to sign with a major league team

3. During spring training in Florida, Jackie Robinson experienced all the following except

• an inherently racist society
• acceptance by most baseball fans
• racial slurs
• encouragement from members of the press to continue playing for the Dodgers

4. As part of the Brooklyn Dodgers organization, Jackie Robinson faced

• complete equality
• acceptance only on the field of play
• discrimination but only by the other players
• discrimination by the team’s ownership

5. The owner of the Cleveland Indians moved his team’s spring training site from Florida to Arizona because

• it was more cost effective for the team to train in Arizona
• he thought Arizona would be free of the racial segregation found in Florida
• his players demanded the move to help end the controversy over race
• he wanted to be closer to his home in Arizona

6. As his rookie season came to an end, Jackie Robinson’s experience in major league baseball

• came to an end as he returned to the Negro Leagues
• led him to leave the Brooklyn Dodgers to make more money with another team
• forced his retirement from the sport
• led to his being honored as the National League’s Rookie of the Year

Free Response Questions

• Describe Martin Luther King Jr.’s analysis of the contributions of Jackie Robinson to the African American civil rights movement.
• Describe Jackie Robinson’s experiences during his first spring training season in Florida.

AP Practice Questions

“The recruitment of Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 occurred against the backdrop of the united-front of blacks and whites, leftists and moderates, and labor and civil rights organizations in various parts of the city (New York). Robinson’s recruitment is exemplary of labor civil rights activism over the integration of job sectors in this case baseball. Although Dodgers owner Branch Rickey recalled the year 1942 as the time when he decided to hire a black player, his recruitment of Robinson occurred later, amid a broad-based community campaign.”

John Hope Franklin, historian, From Slavery to Freedom A History of African Americans 9e, 2011 Source: McGraw Hill (New York) © 2011, pg. 496

1. According to the excerpt, the desire for African Americans to play in major league baseball came from

• the African American community in New York
• a variety of political and social groups
• the owners of all major league baseball teams
• the major league players

2. Arguments for the integration of major league sports, such as those expressed in the excerpt, were similar to arguments for

• women’s suffrage
• the abolition of slavery
• the integration of the military
• the legalization of labor unions

Primary Sources

Robinson, Jackie, and Alfred Duckett. I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography . Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press, 1995.

Suggested Resources

Lamb, Chris. Blackout: The Untold Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Spring Training . Lincoln, NE: Bison Books, 2006.

Moore, Joseph Thomas, and Paul Dickson. Larry Doby: The Struggle of the American League’s First Black Player . Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2011.

Rampersad, Arnold. Jackie Robinson: A Biography . New York: Ballantine Books, 1998.

Robinson, Sharon. Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America . New York: Scholastic Press, 2004.

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Opinion: Jackie Robinson was a true sports hero

Scott Simon

A portrait of the Brooklyn Dodgers' infielder Jackie Robinson in uniform. Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

A portrait of the Brooklyn Dodgers' infielder Jackie Robinson in uniform.

Editor's note: Seventy-five years ago today, on April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson stepped onto the diamond at Ebbets Field and broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball. Scott Simon wrote this essay in 2019 for what would have been Robinson's 100th birthday.

I try not to say, "sports hero." An athlete may be electrifying and adored, and do much for their communities. But real heroes are people who run into burning buildings to save lives. Heroes are people who enrich the lives of others — and sometimes — move along history.

There is one athlete who has to be called a hero.

Jackie Robinson was born a hundred years ago next week, Jan. 31, 1919, in the small, segregated town of Cairo, Ga., the youngest of five children. A year later, his father left, and the Robinsons moved to southern California, where Jackie Robinson became one of the most celebrated young athletes in America.

He became 2nd Lt. Robinson in the segregated U.S. Army during World War II, but was court-martialed for refusing to move to the back of a bus on the U.S. Army base in Ft. Hood, Texas.

Jackie Robinson was proudly unapologetic and was acquitted. As he said — many times — "I am not concerned with your liking or disliking me. ... All I ask is that you respect me."

He began to play baseball in the old Negro Leagues after the war. There were many talented stars there, like Larry Doby and Satchel Paige, who could and would eventually be signed. But Branch Rickey, who ran the Brooklyn Dodgers, foresaw that the first African-American player in major league baseball would also be the star of a daily national drama.

"I had to get a man who could carry the burden," said Mr. Rickey. "I needed a man to carry the badge of martyrdom."

He signed Jackie Robinson.

He broke into the big leagues in 1947. Most Americans saw baseball then in black and white. Jackie Robinson brought fire. Bigots in the stands hurled curses — and sometimes bottles and threats. Some opposing players slid into him with their spikes. Some opposing pitchers threw at his head. Jackie Robinson played, calmly, nobly and superbly under that profane hail.

When civil rights marchers of the 1960s walked across a bridge in Selma, or the streets of Birmingham, through a blizzard of police sticks, snarling dogs and water cannons, they could hold in their minds the image of Jackie Robinson, walking brave and unbowed to home plate.

Jackie Robinson was an athlete, not Martin Luther King Jr. in baseball stripes. But his own story galvanized his life, and when he left baseball, he became an activist for integration and justice. As President Barack Obama said, "There's a direct line between Jackie Robinson and me." The history Jackie Robinson made helped make America better.

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Narrative Essay: Biography of Jackie Robinson

Jack Roosevelt Robinson, otherwise known as Jackie Robinson, was born in 1919 to sharecropping parents living in Cairo, Georgia. In 1920, Jackie’s father left the family and his mother moved him and his siblings to Pasadena, California. Because Jackie was African American, he experience a good share of racism and exclusion from various activities throughout his childhood. However, this never stopped Jackie from fostering his passion for sports.

Despite his childhood struggles with racism and poverty, Jackie Robinson went on to become the first African American to play professional baseball. He started with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947 and played first base. Signing Jackie Robinson to the Dodgers officially ended segregation in Major League Baseball, which has been in place since the 1880s.

Over the next 10 years, Jackie Robinson had a stellar baseball career, earning himself the MLB Rookie of the Year award in 1947 and all-star status in 1949 through 1954. In 1949, Jackie won the National League Most Valuable Player Award and was the first black player to earn it. Jackie played in a total of six World Series Games, including the Dodgers World Series win in 1955. In 1997, Jackie’s number 42 was officially retired by Major League Baseball and in 2004, Jackie Robinson day was declared a holiday and every current player wears number 42.

His illustrious baseball career was just one of Jackie Robinson’s contributions to his community and the world around him. Jackie was a major supporter of the Civil Rights Movement. Before entering Major League baseball, Jackie served in the segregated Army cavalry, based in Fort Riley, Kansas. He was later accepted into Officer Candidate School and served in several regiments of the army thereafter. Unfortunately, a racial incident on the bus meant that Jackie later got a couple of marks against him for subordination.

On January 5, 1957, Jackie Robinson officially retired from baseball, but didn’t stop leaving a legacy behind him. He later served as an analyst for ABC’s Major League Baseball Game of the Week, being the first black person to do so. He also kept up with politics and used his influence to help black people all over America get their rights under the Constitution.

Jackie Robinson also had a family, including his wife Rachel and three children. After the birth of one his sons in a car accident, Jackie became involved in the anti-drug crusade to help other families learn about the dangers of drug use and prevent other parents from having to lose their children.

On October 24, 1972, Jackie Robinson died due to complications from heart disease and diabetes. His cause of death was ruled a heart attack and he was 53 years old when he died. Jackie’s funeral brought in 2,500 mourners and Revered Jesse Jackson gave the eulogy at the funeral, which was filled with previous baseball teammates. Jackie was buried in Cypress Hill Cemetery in Brooklyn, next to his mother and son. The world lost a legend that day, but his name lives on even to this day.

After his death, Rachel Robinson started the Jackie Robinson Foundation, which carries on the famous baseball player’s legacy to this day. Many books have been authored about Jackie Robinson and the influence he had on the world is evident anytime people talk about the former baseball great.

After his death, Jackie Robinson was memorialized on postage stamps in 1982, 1999 and 2000. His name is also used on many highways, ballparks and museums across the United States. He might have born a humble sharecroppers son, but Jackie Robinson went on to change the world for the world of baseball and those who love the sport.

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Jackie Robinson

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Jackie Robinson: A Life of Impact

The life as well as the Major League Baseball career of Jackie Robinson during the Civil Rights Movement opened doors and had an impact for the future generations of African Americans to find equality in Major League Baseball organizations.  When Robinson agreed to wear the number 42 jersey for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15th, 1947, he was the first man to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball.  Not only was this an event that was eagerly awaited in baseball history, but also a significant event in the history of racial equality in the United States of America.

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            Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia to a sharecropper named Jerry Robinson and his wife Mallie.  He was the youngest of five children.  After moving to Florida as an infant, his father abandoned his family.  His mother Mallie Robinson moved her family to Pasadena, California to an all white community.  The Robinson family became victims of prejudice and discrimination almost immediately.  Mallie Robinson was strong woman who refused to move, instead, she taught her children to be careful of their environment without losing their sense of dignity.  From his mother, Jackie Robinson learned the meaning of his African American heritage at a young age, listening to family slave stories of how relatives were treated by their masters.  She also taught him that when the slaves were given their freedom, many were afraid to live free because they knew no other way of life.

            As a boy, Robinson belonged to “The Pepper Street Gang” which was a group of poor black, Japanese, and Mexican children.  The object of the group was friendship; they played sports together and helped each other deal with being deprived of the advantages given to the white children of Pasadena.  An example of one of these advantages was that white children could swim in the local municipal pool everyday, and black children could only use the pool on Tuesdays.    When “The Pepper Street Gang” became resentful against the white children, Robinson’s mother made him quit.  She said, “It didn’t take guts to be in a group; rather it took courage and intelligence to be willing to be different.”(Allen)  Robinson began breaking barriers at a much younger age than most realize.

            Robinson was a sports star at John Muir High School and Pasadena Junior College.  Later Robinson enrolled at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where Robinson became the first four-sport letterman (baseball, football, basketball & track) in UCLA history (Encarta).  After just two years Robinson decided to quit college because he felt that even with a degree he couldn’t succeed in a white man’s society.

            The next major move that Robinson made was to join a professional football team in Hawaii called the Honolulu Bears for one season.  Two days after the season ended, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and Robinson joined the United States Army in May of 1942.  It did not take Robinson long to learn about the “Jim Crow Army” in which white soldiers had advantages that the black soldiers didn’t.  One example of this discrimination is that qualified African Americans were not permitted to enter the Officer’s Candidate Program which in was located in Fort Riley in the 1940’s.  Another example of discrimination that the white military personal were given the better equipment; and what was left went to the African-American personal.  After joining the Army football team, Robinson experienced discrimination aimed directly at him, because of his color he was sent home on leave because the Army team was going to play the University of Missouri and they threatened to cancel the game because they didn’t want to play a team with a black person on it. He quit the team and transferred to Fort Hood, Texas.

It was in Fort Hood, Texas that Robinson became known for a famous racial incident.  A bus driver ordered Robinson to move to the back of the military bus.  Robinson refused because Army regulations barred racial discrimination on any vehicle operating on base.  Robinson was arrested for insubordination, but later at a court-martial hearing was acquitted and given an honorable discharge from the Army.

            Although Robinson may have had more potential in another sport, he knew the best chance for black athletes to earn a living was baseball.  So, in 1945 Robinson began his professional career in the Negro Leagues with the Kansas City Monarchs.  In 1946, Robinson signed to the minor league Montreal Royals.  Robinson was accepted in Montreal, in fact he was a star, and after just one season was called up to the major leagues.

            When the ballplayers from the Negro League heard Robinson was going to be signed by a Major League Baseball team some of them expressed concern because he was chosen even though he had less than a year of professional baseball experience with the Negro League.  Others thought Robinson was chosen as a test case because he would fail, this would prove black players did not really belong in Major League Baseball.  Still other Negro League players were happy and supported Robinson. Roy Campanella who had played baseball for 10 years was one such player, he said; “I think it was jealousy (Houston Chronicle).” Campanella felt Robinson had talent and deserved to play for the Dodgers.

Branch Rickey, the general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers decided to challenge the league’s whites-only color barrier, he chose Jackie Robinson for this serious challenge, which Rickey knew would be met with fierce resistance from a great deal of players and fans alike. It was going to be an experiment, an experiment that Rickey and Robinson were going to take on together.  On April 15th, 1947 at the age 27, Robinson became the first black player to compete in Major League Baseball during the 20th century.

            One of the first acts of discrimination against Robinson after signing with the Dodgers was when he was on his way from New York to spring training in Daytona Beach, Florida.  He had a layover in New Orleans before continuing to Daytona.  During the layover Robinson was told that he had been bumped from the plane by white passengers.  Robinson became upset but stayed in control as to not call attention to himself.  The next scheduled plane did not leave until the next day, so he spent the night at a “colored” motel close by the airport.  The next day Robinson was bumped again twice in Pensacola, Florida.  Robinson ended up finishing the trip to Daytona by bus. Breaking the barrier was very difficult; Robinson was subjected to verbal abuse and racial slurs from both players and fans. Fans wore mops on their heads mocking Robinson, they also hollered for him to carry their bags and shine their shoes (Houston Chronicle).

 A particularly abusive situation took place on April 22, 1947, Ben Chapman, the manager of the Philadelphia Phillies encouraged his team to call Robinson a “nigger” from their bench, telling him continually to “go back to the jungle”(Wikipedia).  When the verbal abuse didn’t intimidate Robinson opposing teams threw pitches at his head, spit on him as he slid into the bases, and tried to injure him with the spikes on the baseball shoes.  Eventually, Robinson received anonymous death threats that warned him not to continue to play or else.

            Rickey, tried to downplay the breaking of the color barrier in an effort to not draw as much attention to Robinson, saying,

“I did not employ a Negro because he was a Negro, nor did I have in mind at all doing something for the Negro race, or even bringing up the issue. I simply wanted to win a pennant for the Brooklyn Dodgers and I wanted the best human beings I could find to help me win it.” (Houston Chronicle)

Rickey’s strategy failed to help Robinson at that time. White Major League players continued to speak out against Robinson.   Cleveland Indians ace pitcher, Bob Feller, was quoted as saying, “Robinson never would be able to hit big-league pitching because his shoulders were not constructed like white players.” Boston infielder, Alvin Dark said, “Negroes don’t think as quick as whites.”  (Houston Chronicle)

            The discrimination continued in May of 1947, when the Cardinals planned a strike in protest of Robinson’s presence in St. Louis.  Ford Frick, President of the National League said he would suspend any player who took place in the strike.  “They will be suspended and I don’t care if it wrecks the National League for five years,” Frick said, “This is the United States of America and one citizen has as much right to play as another.”(West)

Initially, Robinson’s teammates taunted him as well; they threatened to boycott playing if he was on the roster.  The boycott was led by Dixie Walker, but was supported by other teammates such as Tommy Brown, Eddie Miksis, Carl Furillo, Peter Reiser, Tommy Tatum,  Eddie Stackey, Dan Bankhead, and  Bobby Bragdon. The Dodgers manager, Branch Rickey told these ringleader players they could go play for a different team if they weren’t happy, but Robinson was going to play. Robinson did have support from one teammate, that was Pee Wee Reese who was a Kentucky-born shortstop, and later the two became close friends.

Being silent and concentrating on baseball was very difficult for Robinson at times, it took a great deal of inner strength to continue playing baseball as the only black man in the Major League. Robinson was told by the commissioner of baseball Albert Chandler that he could not acknowledge insults or retaliate in anyway because the first black Major League ballplayer would have enough against him without adding fuel to the fire. To spite his fiery temper Robinson never made any move to retaliate.

            To Robinson’s amazement, the barrier began to slowly breakdown, when the other teams couldn’t rattle him, they turned on his teammates with insults about having a black teammate.  During a game against the Phillies, Dodger Eddie Stankey had watched Robinson be insulted one to many times and screamed, “Listen, you yellow-bellied cowards, why don’t you yell at someone who can answer back!” (West)  The strength to turn the other cheek and remain silent; as well as his abilities on the baseball field had earned Robinson the respect of his teammates on the Brooklyn Dodgers.

            By the end of his rookie year, Robinson said this about the season, I had started the season as a lonely man, often feeling like a black Don Quixote tilting at a lot of white windmills, I ended it feeling like a member of a solid team.  The Dodgers were a championship team because all of us had learned something. I had to learn how to exercise self-control, to answer insults, violence, and injustice with silence, and I had learned how to earn the respect of my teammates.  They had learned that it’s not skin color but talent and ability that counts. Maybe even bigots had learned that, too. (West)

Having the respect of his teammates and admiration of his abilities as a Major League ballplayer, Robinson came out on top, playing for the Dodgers until 1956.  Through the adversity he led the National League in stolen bases, helped the Dodgers win the pennant in 1947.  During this same year Robinson was named rookie of the year in the major leagues.  This award would later be renamed in his honor.   In 1962 Robinson was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame; he was the first black player to receive this honor.

Robinson’s overall talent placed him in the position of being among the best players of his era, regardless of race.  His career batting average was.317, with the majority of is non-hitting at bats being walks rather than strikeouts. He had 137 career homeruns with 734 runs batted in, not leaving his teammates on base very often.  Robinson played several defensive positions including 1st base, 3rd base and outfield extremely well.  He was very aggressive as a base runner, especially stealing home quite often. When on base, Robinson’s physical presence would intimidate the opposing pitchers, catchers, and middle infielders causing them to lose their concentration.  Robinson is also remembered as a fierce competitor because he never gave up on a game even if his team was losing.

            Because of Robinson’s courage, his jersey, number 42 was retired by the Dodgers on June 4th, 1972.  He was further honored when all Major League Baseball teams retired jersey number 42 in 1997 which was the 50th anniversary of Robinson’s major league debut.  April 15th of every year is now declared “Jackie Robinson Day” in all major league baseball parks.

            In 1947, life in America was segregation; there were separate schools for blacks and whites, separate restaurants, separate hotels, separate drinking fountains and separate baseball leagues.  Before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to Montgomery, Alabama, before Brown vs. Board of Education, and before Martin Luther King, Jr. was very well known.  Jackie Robinson, one man, had the guts to slowly chip away at the color barrier that separated black from white so that other African Americans could join Major League Baseball without the discrimination he faced.

“He changed the sport and he changed the attitude of a lot of people in this country. When I think of Jackie Robinson, I think of all the people who fought and how fortunate a lot of us are especially the minority guys, to be able to play in the major leagues and the impact people of color have today.  I mean, you knew it was going to happen, sooner or later, but being the first of anything is always the toughest.”

 Said Giants Manager Dusty Baker (Allen). Dusty Baker was also an African American who played for the Dodgers from 1976-83.

Robinson opened the door for African Americans to play Major League Sports.   The initial impact was slow; in 1948 Larry Doby joined the Cleveland Indians, becoming the first African American to play for the American League.  The door stayed open, slowly eroding the color barrier for other African Americans. In 1948 Roy Campanelia also began his baseball career with the Cleveland Indians. In 1949 Monte Irvin signed with the New York Giants, and by 1950 other great African American baseball players like Willie Mays, Ernie Banks, and Hank Aaron all played for various Major League Ball teams. (IMA Hero)

By 1959 all Major League teams had at least one African American ballplayer on their roster but there has been a significant increase since that time.  As of 1970 African American and other minorities made up over half of the league rosters, with the African Americans making up 28% of the roster.  Although the amount of African Americans playing Major League Baseball has not increased, but is remaining about the same today. It is also important to remember that other professional sports such as football, basketball, & golf have seen an increase in African American players since the 1970’s which explains the leveling off of  numbers of African Americans playing Major League Baseball (Encarta).

“We want to make sure that no generation forgets the contribution Jackie Robinson made not just to baseball, but also to civil rights.” says Jacqueline Parkes, spokesperson for Major League Baseball.  “In many ways, baseball transcends sports. It has a social responsibility.”  Jackie Roosevelt Robinson died on October 24th, 1972, the epitaph that appears on his gravestone he wrote himself, it reads, “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” (Encarta)  Robinson is gone, but the impact he had is still larger than life, he removed the color barrier and paved the way for African Americans to participate in Major League Baseball today.

Works Cited

Allen, Maury. “Jackie Robinson: an American Hero.” Eves Magazine. 6 Feb. 2008 <http://www.evesmag.com/robinson.htm>.

“Jackie Robinson,” Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2007 http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2007 Microsoft Corporation.

Denenberg, Barry. Stealing Home: the Story of Jackie Robinson. Scholastic Paperbacks, 1990. 5-23.

“Jackie Robinson.” Chron.Com. May 1998. 6 Feb. 2008 <chron.com/content/chronicle/sports/special/barriers/history.htm>.

“Jackie Robinson.” Wikipedia. 12 Jan. 2008. 6 Feb. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Robinson>.

West, Jean. “Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson: Interview Essay.” Jim Crow History. New York Life. 6 Feb. 2008 <http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/resources/pdf/hs_in_robinson_rickey.pdf>.

“Jackie Robinson in-Depth.” IMA Hero Reading Program. 1999. StarRise Creations. 6 Feb. 2008 <http://www.imahero.com/readingprogram/jackierobinson.html>.

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Before Jackie Robinson became a baseball icon, he was an elite multisport athlete

Jackie robinson may not have been the best baseball player in america when he turned pro, but he was an elite athlete who changed the game..

• Andrea Williams is an opinion columnist for The Tennessean and curator of the Black Tennessee Voices initiative.

April 15 is Jackie Robinson Day. And every year, on Jackie Robinson Day , we celebrate Jackie’s contributions to baseball: his breaking of Major League Baseball’s modern color line, as well as his speed and tenacity that revolutionized the way the game is played in the Majors.

What we don’t talk about is who Jackie was before he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, namely that he was perhaps the best all-around athlete this country has ever known.

At UCLA, Jackie excelled in football, basketball, track and baseball. He was only the second athlete in school history to letter in four sports. This part we know; these are the stats rattled off in rushed asides, like footnotes. But these details are, in fact, critical. They explain why Jackie was the perfect choice to integrate MLB and, pioneering, barrier-breaking achievements aside, how he became one of the greatest baseball players to ever lace up a pair of cleats.

Another column by Andrea Williams: At South Carolina, Coach Dawn Staley is building a legacy bigger than one player

History records Jackie Robinson's multi-facted dominance

In the winter of 1940, after helping push the Bruins to an undefeated 1939 season, the first in UCLA history, Jackie turned to basketball. He integrated the team and quickly made the foundering program relevant.

On Jan. 12, against Stanford, Jackie scored 23 of UCLA’s 38 points. “Robinson,” wrote Lester Grant of the Oakland Post Enquirer, “living up to all advance notices, staged a first-class exhibition in his debut in conference basketball.” That spring, Jackie won the Pacific Coast Conference’s broad jump title. He also made waves on the baseball diamond.

In a March scrimmage against Cal, Jackie went 4-4 from the plate with three stolen bases, including home. He was also errorless at shortstop, contributing to three double plays, and was brought in as a relief pitcher. “We doubt if there is anything to which he set his hand and mind he couldn’t do,” declared the California Eagle. The accolades kept coming. Ahead of the 1940 football season, Babe Hollingbery, Washington State’s head coach, dubbed Jackie “the world’s greatest athlete.”

And on September 26, just ahead UCLA’s season opener, sportswriter Maxwell Stiles dropped the most complete case for Jackie’s multi-faceted dominance in the Oakland Tribune:

There is little doubt that this man Robinson is today the greatest all-around athlete in the world. Last year he led the Nation in average yards from scrimmage (12 per play) and also topped the country in punt returns (average 20 per run back). He broad jumps 25 feet 6 inches, runs 100 yards in 9.7 seconds, bats over .400 in baseball and topped the Pacific Coast Conference basketball scorers. He plays golf in the low 70s and reached the semi-final of the National tennis championships for the Negro race.

It’s not at all unreasonable to say that, had the NFL not had its own color line when Jackie left UCLA, No. 42 would’ve been a Hall of Fame football player who never again stepped foot on a baseball diamond. What’s more, had the sports climate of the 40s been anything like today’s, Jackie’s baseball exploits would’ve been dismissed well before he had a chance to rewrite history books.

Ace white pitcher Bob Feller, who barnstormed with Satchel Paige and played the regular season in Cleveland, remarked that Jackie had “football shoulders and couldn’t hit an inside pitch to save his neck.” Meanwhile, Black pitcher Hilton Smith, who played with Jackie on the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League, called him “an average fielder.”

Today,  a player like the one described by Feller and Smith doesn’t become a first-ballot Cooperstown inductee. Today, that player is forced to make football (or track or basketball) work until it no longer does, with baseball never becoming a viable option.

Where Major League Baseball's diversity aims fall short

On opening day rosters this year, only 6% of Major League players were Black American, a number that harkens back to the mid-1950s , before every MLB team had even one Black player. It’s an issue that is often discussed in conjunction with Jackie Robinson Day, and it’s something that Major League Baseball is clearly working to remedy. Through a number of diversity efforts , numbers of Black American players selected in the first round of the MLB draft has risen, even if that change has yet to be reflected in the Bigs.

Yet for all the progress being made, the fact remains that most of the Black athletes who are able to take advantage of MLB’s diversity initiatives are either lifelong baseball players (picking up a glove as early as 5 or 6), or they’re kids who have already specialized in the sport — that is, they’re on the diamond year-round, eschewing basketball, football and other sports. In some cases, they’re both.

To be clear: This isn’t a bad thing. It says a lot for baseball’s staying power, it’s appeal. And it certainly says a lot to naysayers who justify predominately white rosters across all levels of the sport by suggesting that Black kids just aren’t interested in playing.

But it does nothing for kids who may have come to baseball later, who were forced out of the game by a coach who relegated them to the outfield and the bottom of the lineup, or who, like UCLA-era Jackie, have abilities in other sports that overshadow their still-developing baseball skills.

Professionalization of youth sports hurts kids and the game

Specialization and year-round competition aren’t unique to baseball. AAU basketball means you can hoop through spring and summer long after the winter season is over; even tackle football has taken to the road, with the travel season serving as a sort of bridge between fall and the 7v7 contests of warmer months. But I believe baseball, and its potential participant pool, are most harmed by this professionalization of youth sports.

It doesn’t matter if a kid has never picked up a basketball in his life, if he’s 6’4” in the eighth grade, he’s gonna make somebody’s team. In football, if he’s quick and shifty, somebody’s gonna give him the rock and tell him to run. But baseball, they will tell you, is a game of endless reps, of elusive mastery, of practice that never quite makes perfection. There’s no showing up and making a team based on athleticism and potential. He’s too behind, they’ll say. He’s too raw.

It’s why coaches want kids there for the spring and summer travel season, for fall ball, for all the trainings in between. And if they’re not — whether because their family can’t afford it or because, increasingly, the kid doesn’t want to walk away from football or basketball or track—they lose.

They lose the opportunity to join the most competitive teams with the best coaches. They lose the opportunity to learn how to fail, again and again, because baseball is full of failure. And as they fall further and further behind their specialized contemporaries, these kids lose the opportunity to play at higher and higher levels, to impact the game for generations to come.

They lose, and we lose, too.

Jackie Robinson and Patrick Mahomes had this in common

There were, of course, many reasons why Jackie was chosen to break Major League Baseball’s color barrier, his experience on predominantly white teams and his ability to draw a crowd included. Chief among them, however, was his athleticism.

Jackie may not have been the best baseball player in America when he joined the Monarchs or the Brooklyn Dodgers organization, but he was a competitor. He was elite — the kind of well-rounded, multi-faceted athlete we celebrate when we cheer for Super Bowl quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who loved baseball first.

Those kinds of elite talents are still out there, leaping four feet off the ground for a one-armed touchdown catch and swiveling past defenders on a drive through the paint. They’re there, and baseball needs them. But even as coaches and executives tell us that, we haven’t quite figured out how to pull them into the sport, just as they are.

We should, though. We owe it to the game and to ourselves. And we owe it to one of the greatest all-around athletes to ever live, whose legacy we celebrate every April 15.

Jackie became a baseball player by accident, by nature of racism and segregation and all the ills he would spend his whole life fighting against, even after he hung up his cleats.

But none of those whys matter anymore. All that matters is that he did, and that the baseball — and our world — are better for it.

Andrea Williams is an opinion columnist for The Tennessean and curator of the Black Tennessee Voices initiative. She has an extensive background covering country music, sports, race and society. Email her at  [email protected]  or follow her on X (formerly known as Twitter) at  @AndreaWillWrite .

Essay on Jackie Robinson

Students are often asked to write an essay on Jackie Robinson in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Jackie Robinson

Introduction.

Jackie Robinson was an American baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the 20th century.

Born on January 31, 1919, in Georgia, Robinson grew up in a large, poor family. Despite hardships, he excelled in sports during his school years.

Baseball Career

Robinson broke the baseball color line when he started playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. He faced many challenges but never gave up.

Robinson’s courage and perseverance changed the game of baseball forever. He is remembered as a hero and a trailblazer.

250 Words Essay on Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB), was not just a sports icon, but a transformative figure in American history. His breakthrough into the MLB in 1947 was a significant milestone in the civil rights movement.

Early Life and Career

Born in 1919, Robinson grew up in a time of explicit racial segregation. His athletic prowess was evident early on, excelling in various sports. Despite societal constraints, Robinson’s determination led him to the Negro Leagues, where his talent shone brightly.

Breaking Racial Barriers

Robinson’s entry into the MLB was a pivotal moment. As the first African American player in the 20th century, he faced rampant racism, yet his resilience was unwavering. Robinson’s courage and determination were instrumental in challenging the racial segregation prevalent in sports.

Legacy and Impact

Robinson’s impact transcends baseball. His courage ignited a broader conversation about racial equality, influencing societal attitudes and paving the way for future civil rights advancements. Today, his legacy continues to inspire, reminding us of the power of resilience in the face of adversity.

500 Words Essay on Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson, born on January 31, 1919, in Cairo, Georgia, was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson’s integration of baseball was a significant event in the history of American civil rights.

Early Life and Challenges

Robinson was the youngest of five children and was raised in relative poverty by a single mother. He attended John Muir High School and Pasadena Junior College, where he excelled in multiple sports. However, his journey was fraught with racial prejudice and discrimination, which he faced with immense courage and resilience.

Breaking the Color Barrier

Robinson’s career took a significant turn when Branch Rickey, the president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, selected him to break the color barrier in the MLB. Rickey was looking for someone with the fortitude not to react to the inevitable racial abuse Robinson would receive. On April 15, 1947, Robinson made his debut at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York, effectively breaking the color line in professional baseball. This was a monumental step in the American civil rights movement.

Major League Career and Impact

Robinson’s major league career was both impressive and impactful. He was named Rookie of the Year in 1947, National League MVP in 1949, and was a six-time All-Star. His career statistics and contributions to the game led to his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. But beyond his athletic prowess, Robinson’s legacy lies in his courageous stance against racial discrimination. He used his platform to challenge the status quo and push for equality, both within and outside the sporting world.

Civil Rights Advocacy

After retiring from baseball, Robinson continued to break barriers. He became the first African American television analyst in MLB, and the first African American vice president of a major American corporation, Chock full o’Nuts. He used his influence to advocate for civil rights, working alongside leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.

Jackie Robinson passed away on October 24, 1972, but his legacy continues to inspire millions. His life and career serve as a testament to the power of resilience and determination in the face of adversity. Robinson’s courage in breaking the color barrier in baseball paved the way for other athletes and individuals, affirming that racial discrimination has no place in sports or society.

Jackie Robinson was not just a phenomenal baseball player; he was a civil rights pioneer who used his platform to fight racial inequality. His life serves as a powerful reminder of the strength of the human spirit and the potential for change when individuals stand up for what is right. Today, Robinson’s number, 42, is retired across all MLB teams, a fitting tribute to a man who forever changed the face of America’s pastime.

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EL Education Curriculum

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• ELA G5:M3:U3:L4

Independent Writing: Planning an Essay

In this lesson, daily learning targets, ongoing assessment.

• Technology and Multimedia

Supporting English Language Learners

Universal design for learning, closing & assessments, you are here:.

• ELA Grade 5
• ELA G5:M3:U3

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These are the CCS Standards addressed in this lesson:

• RI.5.1: Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
• RI.5.9: Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.
• W.5.2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
• W.5.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
• W.5.5: With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.
• W.5.8: Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print and digital sources; summarize or paraphrase information in notes and finished work, and provide a list of sources.
• L.5.1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
• L.5.1e: Use correlative conjunctions (e.g., either/or, neither/nor ).
• I can plan an essay comparing and contrasting the factors that contributed to Jackie Robinson's success as a leader of social change and those that contributed to my athlete's success. ( RI.5.9, W.5.2, W.5.4, W.5.6, W.5.8 )
• I can use correlative conjunctions correctly. ( L.5.1e )
• Essay comparing and contrasting Jackie Robinson and expert group athlete ( RI.5.1, RI.5.9, W.5.2, W.5.4, W.5.6, W.5.8, L.5.1e )
• Review the Questions We Can Ask during a Language Dive anchor chart as needed (begun in Unit 1, Lesson 2).
• Preview the Language Dive Guide and consider how to invite conversation among students to address the language goals suggested under each sentence strip chunk (see supporting Materials). Select from the questions and goals provided to best meet your students' needs.
• Post: Learning targets and applicable anchor charts (see Materials list).

Tech and Multimedia

• Continue to use the technology tools recommended throughout Modules 1-2 to create anchor charts to share with families; to record students as they participate in discussions and protocols to review with students later and to share with families; and for students to listen to and annotate text, record ideas on note-catchers, and word-process writing.

Supports guided in part by CA ELD Standards 5.I.B.6, 5.I.C.12, 5.II.A.1, 5.II.A.2, 5.II.A.3, 5.II.A.4, 5.II.A.5, 5.II.C.6 , and 5.II.C.7

Important points in the lesson itself

• The basic design of this lesson supports ELLs by following the same routine for planning an essay as in Unit 2, Lesson 10; building on students' research from Lessons 2 and 3 in identifying similarities and differences between their athlete and Jackie Robinson; continuing to focus on factors for success, started in Unit 1; and allowing students to work in pairs or triads to plan their essays.
• ELLs may find it challenging to go from analyzing the model essay to planning their own informative essays in Work Time A, without having seen this process modeled. Additionally, they may find it confusing that the introduction paragraph again includes points 1 and 2, after having been omitted in Unit 2 for opinion writing. Be transparent that informative writing includes points 1 and 2 in the introduction paragraph, as learned in Modules 1-2 (see "Levels of support" and Meeting Students' Needs).

Levels of support

For lighter support:

• Encourage students to use the focus structure from the Mini Language Dive in Lesson 2 and 3, but there were some key differences , to support students in including points 1 and 2 in their focus statements. Invite students to refer to the Linking Words and Phrases chart (from Lesson 1, For heavier support ) to think of additional linking language they could use to write their focus statement.

For heavier support:

• Consider color-coding the text in the displayed Essay Planning graphic organizer to match the corresponding information in the Painted Essay template, signaling the information that goes in each section.
• Multiple Means of Representation (MMR): Similar to Unit 2, this lesson offers a variety of visual anchors to cue students' thinking. Continue to support students by creating additional or individual anchor charts for reference and charting student responses during whole class discussions to aid in comprehension.
• Multiple Means of Action and Expression (MMAE): Continue to support a range of fine motor abilities and writing need by offering students options for writing utensils. Also consider supporting students' expressive skills by offering partial dictation of student responses.
• Multiple Means of Engagement (MME): Invite students to reflect on their learning from previous lessons in which they compared similarities and differences to help them understand the value and relevance of the activities in this lesson. Continue to provide prompts and sentences frames for those students who require them.

Key:  Lesson-Specific Vocabulary  (L);  Text-Specific Vocabulary  (T);  Vocabulary Used in Writing  (W)

• social change, correlative conjunctions (L)
• Model Essay: Comparing and Contrasting Jackie Robinson and Jim Abbott (from Lessons 2 and 3; one per student)
• Modified Model Essay: Comparing and Contrasting Jackie Robinson and Jim Abbott (from Lesson 2 and 3; optional; for students needing additional support; see Teaching Notes)
• Working to Contribute to a Better World anchor chart (begun in Module 1)
• Informative Writing Checklist (one per student and one to display)
• Informative Writing Checklist (example, for teacher reference)
• Essay Planning graphic organizer (one per student and one to display)
• Essay Planning graphic organizer (example, for teacher reference)
• Working to Become Effective Learners anchor chart (begun in Module 1)
• Research note-catcher (completed in Lessons 2 and 3; one per student)
• Comparison to Jackie Robinson note-catcher (from Lessons 2 and 3; one per student)
• Language Dive Guide: Model Essay: Correlative Conjunctions (for teacher reference)
• Questions We Can Ask during a Language Dive anchor chart (begun in Unit 1, Lesson 2)
• Language Dive Chunk Chart: Model Essay: Correlative Conjunctions (for teacher reference)
• Correlative Conjunctions handout (one per student and one to display)
• Language Dive Sentence Strip Chunks: Model Essay: Correlative Conjunctions (one to display)
• Language Dive Note-catcher: Model Essay: Correlative Conjunctions (one per student and one to display)

Each unit in the 3-5 Language Arts Curriculum has two standards-based assessments built in, one mid-unit assessment and one end of unit assessment. The module concludes with a performance task at the end of Unit 3 to synthesize their understanding of what they accomplished through supported, standards-based writing.

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Ex-Tigers employee inspires Detroit kids through his fascination with Jackie Robinson

Growing up in detroit, sam abrams played on a youth team nicknamed the pirates. but today as an adult, he inspires kids by teaching them about a legendary member of the dodgers--jackie robinson..

The date was April 15, 1947. And the line from a baseball box score showed that one player, who started the game at Ebbets Field playing first base for the host Brooklyn Dodgers, was hitless in three official at-bats.

Nonetheless, that same player found a way to score the deciding run in a 5-3 Dodgers victory over the Boston Braves, after reaching first base in the seventh inning following an error.

That player, who began the game wearing a pristine home white Dodgers uniform with the No. 42 on the back, was Jack Roosevelt Robinson.  

Jackie Robinson’s debut for the Dodgers marked the breaking of the “color line” in modern major league baseball, the same color line within professional baseball that had been broken in 1884 when another proud Black man, Moses Fleetwood Walker — a standout catcher on an undefeated University of Michigan baseball team in 1882 — integrated the American Association by joining the Toledo Blue Stockings.

The contributions to baseball history made by Walker — affectionately known as “Fleet” by students at the University of Michigan where he was enrolled in law school — are unknown to most people. But a lifelong Detroiter is on a mission to make sure Jackie Robinson’s legacy is never forgotten, particularly among young people in Detroit. 

“Jackie Robinson is definitely  the  trailblazer when it comes to African American athletes,” says Sam Abrams, who spoke during the late afternoon of April 10 prior to presenting a symposium focused on Robinson’s life to a group of Detroit students that participate in after-school activities at Tindal Recreation Center, 10301 West Seven Mile Road, near the McDowell neighborhood in northwest Detroit. “Think about what he was able to accomplish in the (19)40s, and even before the Brooklyn Dodgers in college (at UCLA) where he earned so many letters while excelling in different sports. And he did all of these things while overcoming barriers that we can’t even imagine today.” 

To better understand what brought the 56-year-old Abrams to Tindal on April 10 requires backtracking to a time when he served as the manager of Youth and Sports Programs and Player Relations for the Detroit Tigers. For over a decade, Abrams' duties included being a go-to person for youth coaches and other organizations that wished to connect with the Tigers in ways that enrich the Detroit community. As Abrams focused on doing good things for people in his hometown through his work, the Tigers also were pretty darn good on the playing field during most of those years that included multiple postseason appearances. But, despite the brilliance of Miguel Cabrera, Justin Verlander, Jim Leyland and others, Abrams said he found himself thinking more about a Hall of Famer who played his last game for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956. 

“I grew up playing baseball. And when I started working for the Tigers (in 2006), one of the projects that we had was an essay competition,” explained Abrams, who played second base for Chadsey High School (Class of 1985) and capped his high school career by playing in a Detroit Public School League championship game at Tiger Stadium. “But as I was looking at the essays, I realized that the kids had even more talent — they could think, they could draw and they could write poetry. So, I turned the competition into the Jackie Robinson Art, Essay and Poetry Competition. 

“And during the time that we were conducting the competitions, I just became more and more fascinated by Jackie Robinson and everything he overcame.”

Abrams' “fascination” with Robinson led Abrams to develop “The Nine Values of an American Legend,” a symposium focusing on values that Robinson’s life embodied, which Abrams first began presenting to young audiences in 2017.  

“Trying to teach young people about someone who broke the color barrier in 1947 before even many of their parents were born is somewhat of a stretch,” said Abrams, who substitutes baseball equipment like bats, balls and gloves, for visual presentations — such as movies about Robinson’s life and photos of Robinson and other inspirational people — and roundtable discussions during presentations that he tailors specifically for each young audience. “But the purpose of this program is to teach young people about those nine values — courage, commitment, citizenship, determination, excellence, teamwork, justice, persistence and integrity — and try to identify ways that they can incorporate them into their own lives.”

On April 10, with an audience of 14 students from Detroit schools, Abrams focused solely on two values, courage and commitment. However, for the enthusiastic symposium facilitator who was on his feet and often on the move during his hourlong presentation, his time spent at the center was about friendship, too, due to the presence of his friend of 50 years, Maria Adams-Lawton, who also is the executive director of the Tindal Recreation Center. 

“It’s just like watching our friendship come full circle,” said Adams-Lawton, who operates her nonprofit after-school program for youths, Healthy Kidz Inc., out of Tindal. “When Sam and I were younger, we never thought we would be doing the things that we’re doing now. We just played out in the middle of the street; and we would grab a stick to play baseball, or we would play football, and I would be the only girl out there running around. It’s just great to see how all of this has come to fruition as we pass off the baton to these young people. The kids hearing Sam’s presentation may not know anything about baseball and Jackie Robinson now, but guess what? They’re about to learn.”

Abrams and Adams-Lawton joked before the symposium that as children growing up on the “longest block in the world,” on Leslie Street in the Russell Woods neighborhood, that Adams-Lawton was always a happy passenger on the handlebars of “Dobby’s” (Abrams’ nickname in the neighborhood) bike whenever he rode to a park behind Winterhalter School to play baseball for the Pirates in the Broadstreet Presbyterian Church League. Abrams confided that producing the same level of joy among the students hearing his presentation on April 10 would be a far greater “challenge.” But judging from the way the boys and girls increased their level of participation in the discussions the longer the program went on and their studious expressions throughout, it was clear that by the time Abrams dismissed the group he had made an impression on the students.  

“Before this, I really didn’t know just how much Jackie Robinson was bullied for being Black on a baseball team,” said Deaven Johnson, a sixth grader at Bates Academy, who was able to build on information she learned in school about Robinson as a fifth grader. “I didn’t know how he felt about being bullied, and from what we saw today, I realized that he felt angry.” 

Johnson added that the program was “important” and “really cool,” which is why she said she will share what she learned with family and friends.

It was that type of response and willingness of the group as a whole to receive the information from Abrams that brought a smile to the face of Kimberly Hubbard, a child care specialist who works with youths that participate in morning and afternoon “latchkey programs” operated out of Tindal. 

“I love the knowledge they were given,” said Hubbard, whose smile and periodic nods of approval indicated what she felt about the material without Hubbard having to say a word. “They discussed courage and commitment, and I believe those values need to be pushed to this generation a little bit more. These kids need to learn how to find the courage to be themselves and what it means to be committed to a sport or any other activity that will help them to develop.” 

On Monday evening, April 15, Abrams, through The DAVAS Foundation, a nonprofit organization he established to “enrich the lives of youth aged 7-21 in the greater Detroit region,” expects to take 60 children and adults to Comerica Park when the Tigers host the Texas Rangers during major league baseball’s Jackie Robinson Day, which includes the wearing of Robinson’s retired jersey No. 42 by all players for one special day. 

Hubbard said she is happy for all of the people that will be attending the game and special ceremonies at Comerica Park. But she also is hopeful that Abrams will return to Tindal to teach the remainder of the nine values that Abrams teaches in the symposium. And in the process, she says, he will be strengthening what her center provides to the community. 

“Tindal is all about support,” says Hubbard, who, like a baseball utility player, handles many tasks on a daily basis, including helping with homework, engaging children in indoor and outdoor activities, providing emotional support, performing clerical duties and more. “The biggest thing is to make a difference in our community and that’s what I’m here for. Anything I’m asked to do, I do.” 

Scott Talley is a native Detroiter, a proud product of Detroit Public Schools and a lifelong lover of Detroit culture in its diverse forms. In his second tour with the Free Press, which he grew up reading as a child, he is excited and humbled to cover the city’s neighborhoods and the many interesting people who define its various communities. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @STalleyfreep. Read more of Scott's stories at  www.freep.com/mosaic/detroit-is/ . Please help us grow great community-focused journalism by  becoming a subscriber . 

Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Civil Rights — Jackie Robinson Rough Draft Essay

Jackie Robinson Rough Draft Essay

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Published: Mar 5, 2024

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• Grade 5 ELA Module 3A, Unit 2, Lesson 15

Bilingual Language Progressions

These resources, developed by the New York State Education Department, provide standard-level scaffolding suggestions for English Language Learners (ELLs) to help them meet grade-level demands. Each resource contains scaffolds at multiple levels of language acquisition and describes the linguistic demands of the standards to help ELA teachers as well as ESL/bilingual teachers scaffold content for their English learning students.

• CCSS Standard:
• Sharon Robinson
• Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America

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Carl Erskine, a Star Pitcher of the Dodgers’ Glory Years, Is Dead at 97

The record-setting pitcher known as Oisk in Brooklyn was the last surviving member of “The Boys of Summer.”

By Richard Goldstein

Carl Erskine, who set a World Series strikeout record, threw two no-hitters and became one of the Brooklyn Dodgers’ top pitchers in their glory years of the 1950s, died on Tuesday in Anderson, Ind., his hometown. He was 97.

His death, in a hospital, was reported on the Dodgers’ website and confirmed by his family, according to IndyStar, the website of The Indianapolis Star.

On a July day in 1948, Erskine arrived at Ebbets Field for the first time.

“The Brooklyn fans, from reading the papers, were aware that this kid pitcher was coming up from Fort Worth,” he once recalled. “I got off the subway and I had my duffel bag with me, ‘Fort Worth Cats’ on the side. Well, as I got near the rotunda of Ebbets Field, people spotted me. My first introduction to Ebbets Field was: ‘Hey, there’s Oiskine. From Fort Woith.’ It was just a natural turn of the tongue in Brooklyn.”

Oisk, as he came to be known by his Brooklyn fans, was among the most popular Dodgers, and over the years he was often sought out by sportswriters for his insightful observations.

He teamed with pitchers like Don Newcombe , Preacher Roe , Clem Labine , Johnny Podres , Billy Loes and Joe Black , and a lineup featuring Jackie Robinson , Roy Campanella , Pee Wee Reese , Duke Snider , Gil Hodges , Carl Furillo and Jim Gilliam during the Brooklyn team’s heyday in the early and mid-1950s.

Erskine was the last survivor of the 13 Dodger players of his time who were profiled by Roger Kahn in his 1972 book, “The Boys of Summer,” telling of their exploits on the field and the lives they led when their baseball years had ended.

Although struggling with a sore pitching shoulder throughout his career, Erskine, an unimposing presence on the mound at 5 feet 10 inches and 165 pounds, employed a superb overhand curveball to help the Dodgers capture five pennants (the first in 1949 and the rest in the 1950s) and the 1955 World Series championship, the only one in their history before they moved to Los Angeles in 1958.

His 14 strikeouts in Game 3 of the 1953 World Series against the Yankees, a complete-game 3-2 victory, has been eclipsed only by the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax, who had 15 strikeouts against the Yankees in 1963, and the St. Louis Cardinals’ Bob Gibson , who struck out 17 Detroit Tigers in 1968.

In the 1952 World Series, also against the Yankees, Erskine pitched an 11-inning complete game, retiring the last 19 batters in the Dodgers’ 6-5 victory.

He pitched no-hitters against the Chicago Cubs in 1952 and the New York Giants in 1956, both at Ebbets Field. His best season was 1953, when he was 20-6 and led the National League in winning percentage at .769.

Soon after Erskine retired from the game, his family faced a challenge far afield from the baseball world.

Jimmy Erskine, the youngest of four children raised by Carl and his wife, Betty, was born in 1960 with Down syndrome, at a time when community resources for such children were limited.

The Erskines resisted a customary route of placing Down syndrome children in a group home. Jimmy remained with the family in Anderson, worked at an Applebee’s and swam, bowled and golfed in the Special Olympics, which were founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver for intellectually challenged young people and adults.

Carl and Betty raised funds for the games and often told of Jimmy’s accomplishments.

Erskine felt that there were parallels between the public’s attitude toward people like Jimmy and the pioneering achievements of Jackie Robinson in breaking the modern major league color barrier with the 1947 Dodgers.

“Jackie made people look beyond race, inside their own souls, inside the depths that made them human, and see the light,” Erskine wrote in “What I Learned From Jackie Robinson” (2005, with Burton Rocks). “In doing so, Jackie likewise changed the way people viewed each other.”

Carl Daniel Erskine was born in Anderson, some 40 miles northeast of Indianapolis, on Dec. 13, 1926. His father, Matt, who worked for Delco Remy, a General Motors supplier, pitched semipro baseball and taught Carl to throw a curveball.

Erskine pitched for his high school team and, after serving in the Navy, progressed through the Dodgers’ minor league system.

After pitching briefly in relief as a Dodger rookie, he injured a muscle in his right shoulder in his first major league start. But he was gritty enough to pitch through the pain in his 10 seasons for the Dodgers in Brooklyn, and a year and a half in Los Angeles. He was the starting and winning pitcher in the Dodgers’ first game at the Los Angeles Coliseum, a 6-5 victory over the San Francisco Giants on April 18, 1958.

Erskine pitched his last game in June 1959, then retired at age 32 from the effects of his shoulder injury. He had a career record of 122 victories and 78 losses.

He later coached the Anderson College (now Anderson University) baseball team in Indiana, became a partner in an insurance firm and was a senior executive of a local bank.

He was also a director of BAT, the Baseball Assistance Team, which was founded in 1986 to provide medical, financial or psychological assistance to former baseball figures in need.

In addition to Jimmy, he and his wife, Betty (Palmer) Erskine, had two other sons, Gary and Danny, and a daughter, Susan. Jimmy died in November at 63. Complete information about Erskine’s survivors was not immediately available.

For all his accomplishments, Erskine liked to tell of a particular errant pitch he once uncorked. It came on the afternoon of Oct. 3, 1951, when he was warming up alongside Ralph Branca in the Polo Grounds bullpen in the ninth inning of the decisive Game 3 of the National League pennant playoff series against the New York Giants.

When the Dodger manager, Charlie Dressen , decided to remove Newcombe, his starting pitcher, with the Giants rallying but trailing by two runs, he chose Branca over Erskine, who had thrown a warm-up pitch in the dirt.

Branca infamously yielded Bobby Thomson ’s pennant-winning three-run homer that became the climax of the Giants’ memorable pennant run, and would be known as baseball’s “shot heard ’round the world.”

Reflecting on having escaped the possibility of becoming Thomson’s victim, Erskine would say: “Whenever I’m asked what my best pitch was, I say, ‘The curveball I bounced in the Polo Grounds bullpen.’”

Erskine and Branca were among the former Dodgers at the ceremony in February 1960 when a wrecking ball, painted to resemble a baseball, delivered the first blows in the demolishing of Ebbets Field.

“I ran my eight-millimeter movie camera, looking through the eyepiece as the ball struck the visitors’ dugout — the roof of the dugout falling sickly into the dugout pit — and I walked out of the park for the last time,” Erskine remembered in “What I Learned From Jackie Robinson.”

“When I boarded my plane back to Indiana, I felt incredibly sick. It was as if I had lost a member of the family.”