Jackie Robinson made history when he became the first African-American to become a Major League Baseball player since the 1880s. He helped close the racial gap in professional baseball while maintaining an amazing baseball career at the same time and went on to become the first African-American television analyst for Major League Baseball.
Born Jack Roosevelt Robinson in 1919, Jackie Robinson was the youngest of five kids. He joined a gang when he was younger after he and other kids of minority races were teased and made fun of, but luckily a good friend convinced him to abandon the gang. In middle school, his older brother encouraged him to pursue his interest in sports. He played a combination of sports all through middle and high school and became the first student to earn varsity letters in four different sports at university.
After a stint in the military, Robinson began playing baseball in the Negro Leagues. He auditioned for spots on the professional leagues, but many of these teams were not seriously interested in hiring an African-American player and were only holding auditions so they seemed to be against segregation.
In 1947, the Brooklyn Dodgers called Robinson up to play in the major leagues making him the first African-American to do so in almost a hundred years. Though Dodgers management was quick to accept Robinson, the team had to be coerced and threatened with the possibility of being traded if they didn’t act civil towards the new member. Opposing teams were harder to convince and Robinson was targeted on the field and often walked away with new wounds.
Nevertheless, Robinson played on and played a great game every time. His impressive first year in the major leagues earned him the very first Major league Baseball Rookie of the Year Award. He is credited for ending more than 60 years of segregation in Major League Baseball, but when he was qualified to be entered into the Baseball Hall of Fame, he requested that only his baseball career be considered and not the social impact of his playing. He then became the first African-American to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame museum in Cooperstown, New York.
Weakened by diabetes and heart troubles, Jackie Robinson died of a heart attack in his home on October 24, 1972.