Jackie Robinson Essay -- essays research papers fc

Jackie Robinson   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jackie Robinson and integration are two phrases that cannot be segregated. Whether he liked it or not, he played the star role in the integration of society during the time that he played Major League Baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers. His heroic journey that landed him in the Majors shows, “how integration has come to baseball and how it can be achieved in every corner of the land'; (Robinson 16). But this amazing triumph over the Jim Crow laws could only have been possible in New York as Robinson says, “Cooperstown, New York, and Birmingham, Alabama, are both in the Unites States. In Cooperstown I had been the guest of honor in the company of three other new Hall of Famers: Bill McKechnie, Edd Roush and Bob Feller. In Birmingham I was ‘that negrah who pokes his nose into other peoples’ puddin’'; (14).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jackie Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia on January 31, 1919 and was raised by his mother in Pasadena, California. He attended UCLA, where he was a baseball, basketball, football and track star. He played semi-professional football for a short time in an integrated league with the Honolulu Bears before being drafted into the army. He was honorably discharged in 1945 with the rank of second lieutenant. Robinson then started to play in the Negro National League and was eventually seen by a scout for the Brooklyn Dodgers. The scout brought Robinson to the attention of team president Branch Rickey, who wanted to try out his “noble experiment'; of integrating the Major League. The Major League was closed to black players at the time because no owners would sign a black man to their teams. Even a year after Robinson’s historic signing, the owners of the teams voted 15 to 1 (with Rickey dissenting) against integrating the league (Rampersad 160). Jackie Robi nson, however, did sign a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1945 and debuted in the Majors in April of 1947. He was only paid the league minimum of $5,000 a year.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Although Jackie was finally signed with a Major League team, the discrimination didn’t stop cold turkey and couldn’t in some ways. It just wasn’t realistically possible. For instance, Branch Rickey moved spring training for the Jim Crow Sout... ... him because he was a just superb baseball player.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  New York is where it all starts. It is a city of diversity, new ideas, and radical thought. Is New York the center of the universe? It just might be. Integration of Major League Baseball, and by extension the whole American social culture, started here. “Integration in baseball has already proved that all Americans can live together in peaceful competition'; (Robinson 11). The “noble experiment'; of Branch Rickey obviously worked, probably even beyond his wildest dreams. Thank you Mr. Rickey and Mr. Robinson, from us all. Works Cited 1. Rampersad, Arnold. Jackie Robinson. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997. 2. Robinson, Jackie. I Never Had It Made. As told to Alfred Duckett. New York: Putnam, 1972. 3. Robinson, Jackie. Baseball Has Done It. Ed. Charles Dexter. Philadelphia and New York: J. B. Lippincott, 1964. 4. Robinson, Rachel, and Lee Daniels. Jackie Robinson, An Intimate Portrait. Ed. Sharon AvRutick. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996. 5. Tygiel, Jules. Baseball’s Great Experiment, Jackie Robinson and His Legacy. New   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  York: Oxford, 1997.