Civil Rights

Report

Jackie Robinson was born on January 31, 1919. He moved to California when he was a child and he grew up. When he was a child he got into a fight with a white girl and her father and after that the whole neighborhood wanted them to leave. He had a lot of free time as a child so he worked a couple jobs but he also joined a gang called the Pepper Street gang, which had no white members. His family didn’t do well so he had to resort to stealing. In his high school years he went to John Muir Technical High and he lettered in four sports, football, basketball, baseball, and track. He then went on to UCLA for college and was the first person to letter in four sports at his college. After college he signed with the Honolulu Bears, a semiprofessional football team. After the season he went home and then signed up for the army. Then he was called up for the army and was then put into the army after basic training. He went on to be a second lieutenant in the army. He was honorable discharged from the army for not moving to the back of the bus. After the army he played baseball in the Negro league he was chosen by Branch Rickly, from the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was chosen to help integrate baseball. He played for an all white Montreal Royals, a farm team for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He played his first game on March 17, 1946. Playing in an all white league was hard for Robinson, even some of his teammates did not except him. Despite continuous racial abuse at away games he still managed to do well enough to get moved up to the major league Brooklyn Dodgers. Even when he moved up the racial abuse was just as bad, for example teams would threaten not to play them and teammates would threaten to sit out. One game the Philadelphia Phillies and their manager yelled racial slurs from their dugout to Robinson. During that season he led the national league in stolen bases and won the rookie of the year award. He retired from baseball in 1957. After he retired he became a businessman and worked for a coffee comp

any and he help establish the Freedom national bank. He worked

on the board of NAACP. He was inducted into the Baseball hall of fame in 1962 and had his number retired by the Dodgers in 1972. He died from heart problems and diabetes complications on October 24, 1972.