Robinson was an undeniably great player who had some of his best years stolen from him. He was a speedster who led his team to six World Series, won Rookie of the Year honors, an MVP award and was a six-time All-Star. But it’s not because of his marvelous career that Jackie’s number 42 is retired in every major league ballpark. It’s because on a chilly afternoon in 1947 at Ebbets Field, Robinson took the diamond for the Dodgers to become the first black man to play in a major league baseball game in the modern era. His stellar play and moreover, his poise under fire paved the way for baseball integration, as barriers broke down in baseball, they also started to crumble in society at large. While Jackie is best remembered for integrating major league baseball, an incident that occurred before his fame as a Dodger heralded his future as a warrior in the battle for civil rights.
America entered World War II, as in most of America at the time; blacks suffered the indignation of segregation. Jim Crow laws – the name given to the laws that created whites only restaurants, hotels, restrooms and other segregation – held sway in the Army, too. Jim Crow rules called for white officers to lead black men in their segregated outfits. But the necessities of war were beginning to change things. Jackie was accepted to an integrated Officer Candidate School and assigned to Camp Hood, in Texas. It was there that he became entangled in an incident that nearly ended his military career and the future that he didn’t know awaited him. One evening, while boarding a camp bus into town, he dutifully began moving to the back, as blacks were required to do.
The Term Paper on Blacks In Major League Baseball
... future. As far as major league baseball is concerned, Jackie Robinson paved the way for many blacks in baseball, and there have been ... I will cover is the future of blacks in major league baseball. The future of major league baseball, in itself, lies within the development of ... anniversary of the first African-American to play in Major League Baseball. Blacks have now been an integral part of the game ...
On his way down the aisle, he saw the wife of a friend sitting mid-way back, and sat down with her. After about five blocks, the driver, a white man, turned in his seat and ordered Jackie to move to the back of the bus. Robinson refused. The driver threatened to make trouble for him when the bus reached the station, but Jackie wouldn’t budge. In 1942, Robinson was drafted into the U.S. Army and sent to a segregated unit in Fort Riley, Kansas, where under existing policy he could not enter Officer’s Candidate School.
After protests by heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis, then stationed at Fort Riley, and other influential persons including Truman Gibson, an African American advisor, the secretary of war, black men were accepted for officer training. Upon completion of the course of study, Robinson was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1943. A racially charged incident at Fort Hood, Texas, threatened to discredit Robinson’s service record, when in defiance of a bus driver’s command to go to the rear of the bus, he refused to leave his seat. Robinson, a lifelong teetotaler and nonsmoker, was charged, originally, with public drunkenness, conduct unbecoming an officer, and willful disobedience. With a public outcry by fellow service men, the NAACP, and the black press, led by the Pittsburgh Courier and the Chicago Defender, the court martial ended in exoneration. Although, Honored internationally as the central figure in baseball, Jack Roosevelt Robinson, known in the world of baseball as Jackie Robinson, took the first steps toward integrating the sport’s major league teams when he signed a contract to play with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. This gigantic stride, which prepared the way for the legendary feats of Willie Mays, Henry Aaron and Reggie Jackson was an early harbinger of the significant changes in contract discussions, reward, and general status of professional athletes addressed half a century later in the 1994-95 baseball strike. His individual challenge to the accepted policies of organized sports demonstrated that change was possible through the concentrated effort of a player’s union.
The Review on Of Mice and Men 64
Mice and Men Book Report By: Claudia Yaeger 6th Hour C.P. English 11 Due: April 15, 2002 1.) Title: Of Mice and Men Published: Random house, INC Author: John Steinbeck Where book was acquired: Wittenberg-Birnamwood High School Library 2.) What type of book: Fiction 3.) Characters: 1.) George- A small man who travels with, and takes care of, Lennie. He frequently talks about how much better his ...
I believe that sports in general would have be the same as today if that merciless man had never stepped to the integration challenge..