Jackie Robinson: First African American Baseball Player

Jackie Robinson took the civil right movement agreeably. This essay is about Jackie

Robinson and the civil rights movement. He was a huge influence on black baseball players.

Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play Major League Baseball. He was drafted in 1947 by Branch Rickey, the GM of the former Brooklyn Dodgers. This essay is about Jackie Robinson and how the civil rights movement affected him during the 1940s.

When the time approached for Branch Rickey, the general manager of the Dodgers, to sign Robinson, he had several difficult decisions to make. First, should he sign a black player? And if he did, what were the consequences? Second, did Robinson have the talent to play in the big leagues? But it was the last decision that was the most important, as it concerned Robinson's personal qualities. Was he tough enough in the best sense to confront the certain racial turmoil he would face? So, Rickey took his chance and signed him. In becoming the first black man to play in the major leagues, Robinson encountered racism in its vilest manifestations--racial taunts and slurs, insults on the playing field and off, character assassination, death threats, and anything else the wicked among us in mid-twentieth century America could throw at him. But despite the evil of such provocations he somehow found a way to rise above his tormentors, to literally turn the other cheek and demonstrate that however great his athletic skills, his qualities as a human being were infinitely greater. (Mitrovich) It was a tough time for Jackie. His dream was that no matter what the skin color was, all people good enough could play Major League Baseball.

In college, Robinson was a four - sports star at UCLA, and some believe baseball was not his best sport--but in recognition of one's achievements as a human being. In becoming the first black man to play in the major leagues, Robinson encountered racism in its vilest manifestations--racial taunts and slurs, insults on the playing field and off, character assassination, death threats, and anything else the wicked among us in mid-twentieth century America could throw at him.(Mitrovich). By 1959, Jackie finished baseball. He was a great