Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson was the first black man to play Major League Baseball as well as a civil rights activist. He grew up in Cairo, Georgia, with his 4 siblings. He attended John Muir High school, Pasadena Junior College, and UCLA. Between 1942 and 1944, he was a second lieutenant in the Army. In 1994, he was honorably discharged from the Army because he refused to change seats in a segregated bus. This brought attention to the injustice of racial discrimination. After the Army, he started playing baseball professionally. He began with the Negro Leagues because baseball was still a segregated sport. After a while, Branch Rickey, the president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, helped him begin his career in MLB. At first, he played for the Montreal Royals. Even so, his teammates protested and the crowd often booed at him. In 1947, he played his first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Even at this point in his career, many people in the crowd shouted crude words at him. He later won Rookie of the Year and held the record of the most number of bases stolen. In 1955, he helped the Dodgers win the World Series, and entered the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1964 as the first African-American player. Later, he retired his jersey- number 42.