Jackie Robinson Essay -- essays research papers fc

Jackie RobinsonJackie Robinson and integration are two phrases that cannot be segregated. Whether he want it or not, he played the star role in the integration of society during the time that he played Major partnership Baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers. His gilded journey that landed him in the Majors shows, &8220how integration has come to baseball and how it can be achieved in every corner of the land (Robinson 16). But this amazing hold over the Jim Crow laws could only have been possible in New York as Robinson says, &8220Cooperstown, New York, and Birmingham, Alabama, are both in the Unites States. In Cooperstown I had been the knob of honor in the company of three other new Hall of Famers Bill McKechnie, Edd Roush and Bob Feller. In Birmingham I was &8216that negrah who pokes his nose into other peoples&8217 puddin&8217 (14). 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 wa s a baseball, basketball, football game 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 succor 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 first Rickey, who wanted to try out his &8220noble 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&8217s historic signing, the owners of the teams voted 15 to 1 (with Rickey dissenting) against integrating the league (Rampersad 160). Jackie Robinson, however, did sign a cringe 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 . Although Jackie was finally signed with a Major League team, the discrimination didn&8217t stop cold turkey and couldn&8217t in some ways. It just wasn&8217t realistically possible. For instance, Branch Rickey moved spring raising for the Jim Crow Sout... ... him because he was a just superb baseball player. 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 conception? It just might be. Integration of Major League Baseball, and by extension the whole American social culture, started here. &8220Integration in baseball has already prove that all Americans can live together in peaceful competition (Robinson 11). The &8220noble experiment of Branch Rickey obviously worked, probably even beyond his wildest dreams. Thank you Mr. Rickey and Mr. Robinson, from us all. plant Cited1. Rampersad, Arnold. Jackie Robinson. New York Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.2. Robinson, Jackie. I Never Had It Made. As told to Alfred Ducket t. 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&8217s keen Experiment, Jackie Robinson and His Legacy. New York Oxford, 1997.