When Jack Roosevelt (Jackie) Robinson took the field on April 15, 1947 wearing a Brooklyn Dodgers uniform, he became the first African American in over fifty years to play on a major league baseball team. In the process, he broke through the color line in Major League Baseball (MLB) that had relegated African American players to the segregated Negro Leagues.
Jack Roosevelt Robinson, the youngest of five children, was born in Cairo, Georgia, to sharecroppers Jerry and Mallie Robinson on January 31, 1919. When Jack was a year old, his father deserted the family, and Mallie Robinson relocated her family to Pasadena, California. Robinson’s athletic ability was apparent from an early age. In high school, he participated in five sports: basketball, football, baseball, tennis and track. He continued to play multiple sports at Pasadena Junior College, where he graduated in 1939, and then at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
While at UCLA, Robinson became the first athlete to earn varsity letters in four sports. Despite his athletic accomplishments, Robinson believed that his chances of playing on any major league team after graduation were slim, given the racism of the era. In 1941, he left college just shy of graduation to take a job as an assistant athletic director with the National Youth Administration in Atascadero, California. The position, however, was short-lived as government funding for the job ended the following year.
In 1942, Robinson was drafted into the army, where he served in a segregated unit for two years. He was admitted into Officer Candidate School and received a commission as a second lieutenant in 1943. His service was marred when he was court-martialed for refusing a civilian bus driver’s order to move to the “back of the bus.” After a brief trial, he was acquitted in August 1944 and later honorably discharged from the army in November. The incident was played out in a 1990 movie, The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson.
American All-Stars, 1945 on Tour in Caracas, Venezuela. Jackie Robinson, Far Left Front Row, Roy Campanella, Second From Left, Back Row
Robinson joined the Kansas City Monarchs, a Negro League baseball team, in 1945. In August, Branch Rickey, general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, approached Robinson about playing for the organization. Robinson spent the 1946 season with the Dodgers’ farm team, the Montreal Royals. That year he married his college sweetheart, Rachel Isum. The couple had three children, Jackie Jr. (1946), Sharon (1950), and David (1952).
In 1947, Robinson took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first African American in the 20th century to play for a team in the MLB. At the end of his first season with the Dodgers, Robinson was named National League Rookie of the year. He had 12 home runs, a league-leading 29 steals, and a .297 batting average. In 1949, Robinson was selected as the National League’s Most Valuable Player (MVP). He also won the batting title with a .342 average.
In ten seasons with the Dodgers, Robinson played in six World Series, including the Dodgers’ 1955 world championship. He played in six consecutive All-Star Games, from 1949 to 1954, and retired at the end of the 1956 season. In 1962, his first year of eligibility, Robinson was inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
In retirement, Robinson was an active participant in the struggle for civil rights, working with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He also wrote for The New York Post and The Amsterdam News.
Jackie Robinson died of a heart attack on October 24, 1972, at his home in Stamford, Connecticut. He was 53. He has posthumously been awarded the country’s highest civilian honors. On March 26, 1984, President Ronald Reagan awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and President George W. Bush presented the Congressional Gold Medal to Rachel Robinson in a March 2005 ceremony. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Robinson’s entry into Major League Baseball, Congress authorized a commemorative gold coin in 1996. On April 15, 1997, baseball commissioner Bud Selig permanently retired Robinson’s jersey number, 42, throughout the MLB. Since 2004, the MLB has celebrated Jackie Robinson Day each year, with players, coaches, and managers all wearing Robinson’s number beginning in 2009.
