...Batter Swing! Into the History of the legend Jackie Robinson. A hero to me is someone who goes above and beyond to help someone, or make a change. An example is Martin Luther King Jr. because he helped a lot with by giving a speech to help inspire people that just because someone has different colored skin doesn’t mean you should think different of that person. Jackie Robinson was a great example of a hero because of the symbolism he showed towards the Civil Rights Movement and his accomplishments as the first African American Major League Baseball Player. The early life of Jackie Robinson really opened a door for the man that he became. “Jackie Robinson was born on January 31, 1919 in Cairo, Georgia” ("Jackie Robinson" Encyclopedia...
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...“A life is not important except in the impact it has on another's life.” Jackie Robinson said this in reference to helping people overcome challenges and struggles that they would not be able to overcome by themselves. Robinson was a strong, determined, and rebellious athlete as well as a great representative of the sports world. Jackie was a leader and key person in the integration of baseball. Jackie Robinson was one of the most influential people in sports history. For example, the key idea that led to Jackie Robinson becoming a rebel was him being the first African American to challenge the color barrier in athletics. Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947 in major league baseball when the Brooklyn Dodgers brought him up from the colored...
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...During 1947 Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to play baseball. 1919 Jackie Robinson was born, and he was the youngest child in his family. He started playing baseball in 1947. He played for the Brooklyn Dodgers in New York City. The owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers wanted to break the color barrier of baseball. He was watching one of the Negro Leagues, and he saw Jackie Robinson performing very well. Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, because he was the first African-American to play in Major League Baseball, he had to deal with the racism, and also he had to fight against segregation. Jackie Robinson had many racists said to him when he played baseball. “In light of his outstanding performance, it was clear that Robinson...
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...America since its birth. From the day African Americans were introduced to this country they have endured hardship after hardship. The African American equals rights movement is a big part of American history along the way we have seen prominent leaders arise in the fight for racial equality including Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Throughout this fight we see many people arise in trying to make this country a greater place. People like Jackie Robinson also helped make an impacted in achieving equality. Robinson didn’t use speeches and politic realms to do this but he used baseball, an American pastime, to bring together our country. The film 42 is a depiction of how one baseball player took strides to not only unite a team but an entire country. In the film Remember the Titans a group of high school boys both white and black are forced to come together to be the best team they can be. This film shows how overcoming adversity can be accomplished by anyone who believes in the cause enough. Over the past century African Americans have made great strides in overcoming racial adversity, and gaining most of the same freedoms of white Americans. These films both address and attract viewer support for the equality of African Americans. However, the film 42 does a better job at attracting viewer support because of the historical accuracy, the larger audience it appeals to and its’ stronger historical significance. The film 42 is about Jackie Robison’s journey in the major league...
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...someone who made an impact on not only the sports world, but the entire world. Jackie Robinson is considered a hero to me and that is why I chose him. Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Season by Jonathan Eig tells us all about Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball. This book was published on April 17, 2007 by Tantor Media. On April 15, 1947 Jackie Robinson took the field wearing Brooklyn Dodger’s Jersey. He was the first African American to join a MLB team and he did it with pride. Jackie Robinson created so many oppurtunites for so many different people. It took alot of strength and courage to become the first African American athlete to compete in Major League Baseball. He knew it wasn’t going to be easy but he was willing to go through whatever he needed to in order to set a standard for future generations to come. I did learn some different characteristics about Jackie from this book that I never new about before. It tells all about how Jackie Robinson had an anger problem and played baseball very aggressively. He was going to have to change his ways if he wanted to protect his safe in this new league. The current players would not take it very nicely if he continued to play that way. I also learned that he didn’t always have that sweet swing that we know him for today. You would think that his uneasy swing would make things difficult for him, but Jackie showed what he was capable in his first game. Jackie went on to become the...
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...Jackie Robinson is everything a leader should be viewed as. For those of you who do not know of Jackie or his story, it’s quite an amazing one and he displays the utmost highest respect to all of his followers. Jackie Robinson was the first African-American to ever play in the Major Leagues of Baseball. He started his rookie season on April 15, 1947, and went on to thrive breaking the strong color barrier that had been around the Major Leagues since 1876. He not only was the first African America to play baseball but he displayed honor and respect to every person on the field and off the field he came in contact with. His career helped drive the civil rights movement that started in the 1950s and 1960s. Jackie had a way of presenting himself to people no matter what color they were. He was known to be an aggressive man yet only when standing up for his civil rights. He always hated injustice things and would do whatever was in his power to seek out solutions to anything he could. I particular event that occurred and that many people honored were when Jackie was in the army. He had the courage to stand up on the bus and tell the sergeant who wanted him to go to the back of the bus ‘No’. This caused an outrage and Jackie went on to be court-martialed for his guts to fight for civil rights. Jackie was a firm believer in facing his problems head on and he was never an ‘avoider’. Upon most of all Jackie’s success in the Major Leagues, it was mainly because he had the courage and...
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...Ray Ashby Dr. Roger Blomquist American Civilization 1700 Baseballs Great Experiment, Jules Tygiel 11/1/13 The book Baseballs Great Experiment shows how people under the right circumstances can change history in the making. Tygiel starts out the story by telling how baseball started out segregated which allowed the reader to see through the eyes of Jackie Robinson and experience his life and how he and Rickey Branch changed the game of baseball. Tygiel’s thesis in this book is that Jackie Robinson was the best example on how to produce a change in a society that has unfair prejudice by maintaining class and composure, never giving up in the face of racism and even harm to himself. Tygiel also refers to Robinson impact on the other African American baseball players who wanted to join the major league and African Americans as a whole to change the Jim Crow league. One of the strengths in Tygiel’s book is his attention to detail. The detail he put into this book had to have taken hours and hours of research to compile all the data he used. Tygiel tells the story the African American baseball leagues as well as Jackie Robinsons and even feeds information on how the leagues were formed and how the desegregation affected the players. One of the weaknesses of the book can be the long list of statistics. For a baseball fanatic who understands the game, the statistics may be a strength considering that the stats make sense for the book to go along. But for the average readers...
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...1960s. An abundance of unfair events created a desire to secure equality for all Americans. Numerous historical leaders poured their lives into fighting for the basic privileges and rights of U.S. citizenship. Many African-American men and women, along with whites, organized and led the movement to fight against injustice. The eight resources below provide information about several historical leaders that made an impact on the Civil Rights Movement. These resources may be used to create assignments to help students develop a deeper understanding of the Civil Rights Movement. Furthermore, students will benefit from meaningful classroom discussions about these heroic leaders. Important People There are numerous well-known historical figures that influenced the Civil Rights Movement leading up to the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is probably one of the most powerful leaders involved in the fight for civil rights. Coretta Scott King worked and marched alongside her husband, Dr. King and continued his fight for justice after his death. In addition, Thurgood Marshall became the first African-American judge on the Supreme Court appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to play Major League Baseball which contributed significantly to the Civil Rights Movement. African-American, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man in...
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...class conflicts. Social changes through integration of baseball helped the Civil Rights movements although its major impacts weren’t made until the late 1960s. Baseball players were praised within the sport of baseball; however, their social status still remained the same. What was the impact of the integration of baseball on the Civil Rights movement and the social status of African Americans? These players did great things to help change the game of baseball, but were not respected by majority of their peers. The challenges that did players had to face were ridiculous. Recognized as superstars on the field, baseball players like Jackie Robinson were looked down upon by society because of their skin color. Therefore, the effects of baseball integration on society was crucial for the Civils Rights movement, but its impact was limited at best for individual baseball players and for the collective African American society since their social status as a whole remained the same. This would lead to residual class conflicts. Even the process of baseball integration was not smooth as some teams embraced integration for various reasons such as competitive advantage or box office potential, but others such as the American League’s old guard faced public pressure to limit the integration of baseball because of the prejudices of the community (Goldman 2). In American sociology, scholars have started to investigate and ask questions on “how common people have experienced the transformations...
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...Jackie Robinson, Why Him? The story of Jackie Robinson has become one of America's most iconic and inspiring stories. Since 1947, American history has portrayed Jackie Robinson as a hero, and he has been idolized as a role model to the African American baseball community. It is an unarguable fact that he was the first to tear down the color barriers within professional baseball. The topic of Robinson’s role in integration has long been a point of discussion amongst baseball historians. Researchers have accumulated thousands of accredited documents and interviews with friends and team mates such as short stop, Pee Wee Reese, and team owner, Branch Rickey. However, few journalists have asked why Robinson was selected and what was Branch Rickey’s motivation? While Robinson was the first Negro player to break into the ranks of professional baseball, it can be argued that he was not the first to attempt the undertaking. In actuality, Jackie possibly was not even the first player the Brooklyn Dodgers’ organization considered for the job. The Warner Brothers film, 42, The Jackie Robinson Story (2013), highlights the accomplishments of Jackie and rightfully so, as he was an amazing man. The story actually starts prior to 1947 and ends years later in 1959, three years after his retirement in 1956. Early in his career at Ohio Wesleyan University, where Branch Rickey played and coached baseball, an incident occurred with one of his young black players, Charlie Thomas, which...
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...Jackie Robinson Jackie Robinson, the best baseball player in the twentieth century, was the first African American to play in the Major League Baseball and opened up the generation for colored people to play baseball. He courageously changed and challenged the deeply rooted custom of racial segregation in both the north and the south. He also gave the African Americans a different focus for life then just stepping back and letting them get walked all over by the words form the whites. Jackie proved a lot from when he made major achievements in high school from a one parent family, to trying out for the Major Leagues. Then put in his will to create a foundation after he was deceased to help out teens that struggled through life like him. Jackie Robinson came from a hardworking single-parent family with the strength to shake the world. He attended John Muir High School and also Pasadena Junior College (Jackie Robinson Foundation). At UCLA, Jackie became the first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football, and track (Official website). After he was turned away for wanting to play major league baseball, he put a lot of thought in to it and decided he needed to do something else first. He volunteered for the Army one year before war was declared and got sent on April 3rd (Mary 33). From 1942 to 1944, Robinson served as a second lieutenant in the United States Army in World War II, and was discharged from the Army in 1944 (The Biography)....
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...College THE PAUL ROBESON—JACKIE ROBINSON SAGA AND A POLITICAL COLLISION. By Ronald A. Smith Journal of Sport History, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Summer, 1979) P 5-27 Dr. Ronald A. Smith, a historian and Professor Emeritus at Penn State University analyzes Jackie Robinson's appearance, and impact before the House UN-American Activities Committee in light of anti-American messages made by the entertainer and former Rutgers University All-American football superstar Paul Robeson. Smith argues that for symbolical grounds, the federal government reached out to Jackie Robinson so he can assist in getting rid of Paul Robeson from his function as a black leader. Using a relative analysis of both Robinson and Robeson early lives, Author Ronald Smith affirms that they spearheaded change from different paths. Smith illustrates how Jackie Robinson was willing to cooperate with white society for the purpose of positive racial goals and Paul Robeson wanted improvement own his own terms, not necessarily those suggested by white society. Nonetheless, Smith insists both Robinson and Robeson fought for equal rights in their respected ways. In this informative and well written essay, The Paul Robeson-Jackie Robinson Saga and Political Collision, Ronald A. Smith (following his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin, he spent 28 years at Penn State teaching sport history and researching intercollegiate athletics) illustrates how a collision arose between Robinson and Robeson, Significantly because...
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...“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”- Jackie Robinson A true leader is someone who people willingly follow and listen to as well as someone who has the ability to influence and motivate others. An outstanding example of a great leader is Jackie Robinson. On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson shocked the world and changed not only the history of sports, but changed America. Facing the criticism, ignoring the racial slurs, and following his true passion, Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball. Jack Roosevelt Robinson, better known as Jackie Robinson, was born in Cairo, Georgia on January 31, 1919. Him and his four siblings were taken care of by their single mother who was a sharecropper. Jackie Robinson grew up in a time of serious racial segregation. His family grew up on a street where they were the only black family and they often faced criticism, which evidently only strengthened their bond as a family. Restrictions on municipal pool or YMCA use for African-Americans were only on designated days, the movies were completely segregated, and many restaurants were completely closed to African-Americans (“Jackie”). This was considered normal and accepted, and despite it all, Jackie Robinson learned to have self-respect, high self-esteem, and how to be independent – the attributes of some of the world’s greatest leaders. Robinson learned to take out any anger or frustration by playing sports. As a young...
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...racism are three things that describe Jackie Robinson. Many people know that Jackie Robinson is a great baseball player, but he was so much more. As a well known colored baseball player, Jackie Robinson showed Americans that anyone can play in the major leagues. He left the lasting legacy for breaking the color barrier and more colored players play today. The early life of Jackie Robinson was very rough because his dad worked on a plantation and didn’t make much money. Then his dad abandoned the family and ran away with a neighbor, which is really messed up. (Robinson 4) Then shortly, the mom moved the whole family to Pasadena, and this messed with Jackie because he didn’t have a father or father figure to help him...
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...A Man Who Changed Major League Baseball Forever: Robinson was a role model for all, for he had a rough life and never gave up.Robinson is the son of Mallie Robinson and had four siblings. He grew up being a member of the only African-American family on the block.In high school he excelled quickly in sports. He played the following sports: baseball, basketball, football, and track. Due to financial issues, he was forced to leave college early. Later he decided to enlist in the U.S. Army,but after two years he had to leave due to racial discrimination”Biography.” Later in Robinson's life,he played in the Negro Baseball League; he was a player for the Kansas City Monarchs.His career took a turn in 1947 when Branch Rickey, the president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, approached Robinson about joining the Brooklyn...
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