Jackie Robinson Biography

Jackie Robinson whose full name is Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born on January 31, 1919. Jackie Robinson was an American professional baseball player who turned out to be the first African American to participate and play in Major league baseball(MLB) in the modern era. At the beginning of the 20th-century baseball was dominated by the whites but Jackie Robinson was the one who broke the baseball color line when he initiated his first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. There was a lot of racial divide in America during the 20th century but when the Dodgers signed Jackie Robinson, it ended the racial filtration in professional baseball as before that the black players had to only play for the Negro leagues since the 1880s.In the year 1962, Jackie Robinson was nominated for the Baseball Hall of Fame. 

Jackie Robinson played baseball for a decade and during the 10 year MLB career, he had won the inaugural Rookie of the year award in 1947 and for the next six seasons, he was the All-star performer, which is from 1947 to 1954. Jackie Robinson also won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949 and it is a very important award as he was the first black player to receive it. Jackie Robinson had played in six world series and had played a significant role in the Dodgers 1955 World Series Championship. 

Jackie Robinson was the first professional athlete in any sport to have his uniform number 42 retired across all major league teams in 1997. On April 15, 2004, MLB established a new annual tradition, "Jackie Robinson Day," in which every player on every team wears No. 42.

Jackie Robinson is known for his character as he was nonviolent in nature in a game that is filled with adrenaline. His brilliance shattered the conventional underpinning of segregation that had pervaded many parts of American life at the time. He impacted the civil rights movement's culture and made a vital contribution to it. Robinson was also the first black TV commentator in Major League Baseball and the first black vice president of a major American business, Chock full o'Nuts. He was a founding member of the Freedom National Bank, an African-American-owned banking institution in Harlem, New York, in the 1960s. Robinson was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his efforts on and off the field after his death in 1972.

This article could be considered as a Jackie Robinson short biography or a Jackie Robinson biography for kids and here we are going to discuss his early life, education, His career, and his life at the US Army and also a few of the most interesting and frequently asked questions related to Jackie Robinson will be answered. 

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Image: From the Poster of The Jackie Robinson Story

Jackie Robinson Early Life

• Jackie Robinson was the first Black athlete to play major league baseball in the 20th century when he played for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. He had a career that lasted for a decade and throughout his career, he established himself as one of the most talented players which the baseball game had ever seen. He had amazing stats such as the 311 career batting average. Jackie Robinson was not respected for his baseball career as he also inspired people to be more than one thing as he was also a vocal civil rights activist who spoke out against racism. 

• In Cairo, Georgia, Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born on January 31, 1919 to a sharecropper family. After siblings Edgar, Frank, Matthew (nicknamed "Mack"), and Willa Mae, he was the youngest of five children born to Mallie (McGriff) and Jerry Robinson. Robinson got his middle name from former President Theodore Roosevelt, who died 25 days before he was born. Robinson's father abandoned the family around 1920, and they relocated to Pasadena, California. Robinson was raised by his mother only in a relatively poor neighborhood.

• Jackie Robinson’s educational background has been very simple as he attended the John Muir High School in Pasadena, California, and then, later on, attended the  Pasadena Junior College where he has been described by many as a brilliant athlete and played four sports: baseball, football, basketball, and track. In 1938, he was named as the region’s most valuable player in the game of baseball. Matthew was Robinson’s older brother who played an important role and also insisted Robinson pursue belief in his talent and play baseball. Matthew was also an exceptional athlete as he had won a silver medal in the 200-meter dash at the 1936 Olympics games in Berlin. 

• Jackie Robinson continued his schooling at UCLA, where he became the school's first student to earn varsity letters in four different sports. Despite his athletic prowess, Robinson was forced to leave UCLA just before graduation in 1941 owing to financial difficulties. He relocated to Honolulu, Hawaii, where he played semi-professional football with the Honolulu Bears. When the United States entered World War II, his season with the Bears was cut short.

Jackie Robinson Life Story: In the Army

• From the year 1942 to 1944, Jackie Robinson served as a second lieutenant in the United States of America army. During world war two Jackie Robinson was drafted and assigned directly to a segregated Army cavalry unit in Fort Riley, Kansas.

• Robinson was later deployed to the 761st "Black Panthers" tank unit at Fort Hood, Texas. Robinson boarded an Army bus on July 6, 1944. Robinson refused to relocate to the rear of the bus after the driver told him to do so. The driver summoned military police, who apprehended Robinson. He was later court-martialed, but he was acquitted. Following his acquittal, he was sent to Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky, where he worked as an Army athletics coach until his honorable discharge in November 1944. His bravery and moral opposition to racial segregation foreshadowed Robinson's effect on Major League Baseball.

Jackie Robinson Life Story: Wife and Children 

• After the honorable discharge in November 1944, Jackie Robinson briefly returned to his old football club, the Los Angeles Bulldogs.

• Robinson subsequently accepted an offer from an old friend and minister, Rev. Karl Downs, to become the sports director at Samuel Huston College in Austin, which was then a member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference. For the 1944–45 season, he was in charge of the school's basketball team. Few kids tried out for the basketball team because it was a young program, and Robinson even resorted to putting himself into the roster for exhibition games. 

• Despite his teams being outmatched by opponents, Robinson was renowned as a disciplinarian coach and earned the attention of Langston University basketball star Marques Haynes who turned out to be a future Harlem Globetrotters member.

• At the beginning of the 1940s, Jackie Robinson met nurses in training Rachel Isum when they both were attending UCLA. The couple after six years got married on February 10, 1946.

• As Robinson's career progressed in the major leagues, the couple experienced more prejudice, ranging from insults to death threats. These incidents and threats helped both Jackie and Rachel to later become prominent participants in the civil rights struggle. Jackie and Rachel were the parents of three children: Jack, Sharon, and David. Rachel stated that she and Jackie went to great pains to provide a caring environment for their children, shielding them from prejudice.

• In a vehicle accident in 1971, the couple's oldest child, Jack Robinson Jr., died at the age of 24. Sharon Robinson, their middle child, is an author and consultant for Major League Baseball, while David Robinson, their youngest kid, is a coffee grower in Tanzania.

Jackie Robinson Entering the World of Baseball

• After Jackie Robinson got discharged from the army in the year 1944, he began to play baseball professionally. At the beginning of the 20th century, the game of baseball was racially divided as the African Americans had to play in the Negro team and the white players used to play in a sponsored team. Jackie Robinson began playing in the Negro league but because of his talent and he was selected by Branch Rickey who was the then President of the Brooklyn Dodgers to help integrate Major league baseball. Jackie Robinson joined the all-white Montreal Royals which was a farm team for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1946. Robinson realized that he had to work hard and be better than everyone if he wanted to be selected for the Dodgers so he later moved to Florida to begin spring training with the royals. 

• Jackie Robinson began playing baseball with the Kansas City Monarchs, one of the Negro league clubs, in 1945. Branch Rickey, the Brooklyn Dodgers' club president, and general manager began scouting the Negro leagues for talent about this time. Rickey chose Robinson from a list of talented Black players and interviewed him for a probable assignment with the Montreal Royals, Brooklyn's International League feeder team.

• During the conversation, Rickey warned Jackie Robinson that he would have to be willing to endure the inevitable racist hatred that would be hurled at him due to the death of Black players in Major League Baseball. Rickey signed another Black baseball player, Johnny Wright, who happened to be a Navy veteran of World War II, soon after Robinson joined the Dodgers.

Jackie Robinson as the Brooklyn Dodgers 

• As soon as Jackie Robinson began his career with the Dodgers, he was tested. He was being judged by his other teammates and also by the media as questions arose for why a black man was allowed to be part of all-white team players. He was often jeered at by the crowd because of his color as everyone was racist and for people, the color of the skin was more important than a man’s talent. Robinson and his family have often received threats from strangers that if he does not leave the team his family will face the consequences. 

• As the saying goes, You cannot stop an extraordinary man from shining and the same thing happened with Robinson. Despite the fact that he was racially abused which was particularly when he was away from the game, he shined throughout the league. Jackie Robinson had an outstanding start with the Royal as he led the International League with a 0.349 batting average and a 0.985 fielding average. Witnessing his success led the directors of the Dodgers to promote him and led him to join the Dodgers. 

• Robinson made history on April 15, 1947, when he played his debut game for the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field, becoming the twentieth century's first Black athlete to play Major League Baseball.

• However, the harassment persisted, most notably by the Philadelphia Phillies and their manager, Ben Chapman. During one particularly memorable game, Chapman and his teammates yelled disparaging words at Robinson from the dugout. Many opposition players threatened not to play against the Dodgers. Even his teammates vowed to boycott him.

• However, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Leo Durocher informed them that he would rather trade them than Robinson. His devotion to the player established the tone for the remainder of Robinson's time with the squad.,

• Despite being opposed by many players and the opposite teams, there were people who defended Jackie Robinson’s right to play in the major leagues which included the league president Ford Frick, Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler, Jewish baseball star Hank Greenberg, and Dodgers shortstop and team captain Pee Wee Reese. In one incident when people in the grandstand taunted Robinson, Reese stepped up and wrapped his arm around his buddy, a move that has become iconic in baseball history and has also been shown in the classic 2013 movie called 42.

The Greatness of Jackie Robinson 

• Jackie Robinson was racially abused and almost everyone was against the decision of allowing him to play in the major league but as they say that when you have a road constructed that is smooth with no potholes or speed breaker it will make your life easy but when there are potholes, speed breakers or any difficulty, it will allow the person to shine and also give him or her the strength required to carry out their journey. The same thing happened with Jackie Robinson, he succeeded in leaving behind the racial abuse and showed the world how talented he was. Within his first year at the Dodgers, he battled 0.297 with 12 home runs and helped the Dodgers with the National League pennant.

• Robinson led the National League in stolen bases that year and was named Rookie of the Year. He proceeded to astound fans and critics alike with remarkable achievements such as a.342 batting average in 1949. He topped the National League in stolen bases that year and was named the league's Most Valuable Player. Robinson soon became a hero in America, he inspired the young ones to stand against the odds, and soon his success in the major league did open doors to other African American players such as Satchel Paige, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron.

• Several times throughout his decade-long stint with the Dodgers, Robinson and his club won the National League pennant. Finally, in 1955, he assisted them in achieving the ultimate achievement: World Series victory. The Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees after failing in four previous series meetings. The next season, he helped the club capture another National League pennant.

Retirement and Death

• After 10 long years in December 1956, Jackie Robinso was traded to the New York Giants but he did not play even a single game and within a month he retired on January 5, 1957.

• Following his retirement from baseball, Robinson pursued a career in business and maintained his work as a social activist. He was an executive for the Chock Full O' Nuts coffee firm and restaurant chain, and he was instrumental in the establishment of the African American-owned Freedom Bank.

• Jackie Robinson was also a vocal Champion for the African American athletes, the civil rights of the people, and also for other social and political causes. He also served on the board of the NAACP till 1967.

• In 1952, he openly chastised the New York Yankees as a racist club for failing to break down the color barrier five years after he joined the Dodgers. Robinson continued to advocate for greater racial inclusion in sports in his latter years.

• Robinson died on October 24, 1972, in Stamford, Connecticut, of heart issues and diabetic complications. He was 53 years old at the time.

• Soon after his death in the same year, Jackie Robinson’s wife Racheal founded the Jackie Robinson Foundation which was dedicated to honoring his life and his work, and the foundation till today helps the young people in need by providing them mentorship programs and also a few scholarships.