One of the most influential people in society is Jackie Robinson. Not only has he made a great impact on society by inspiring African Americans to go to colleges or universities and changing the way people look at the All-American sport baseball, but by making history by being the first Afro-American to play major league baseball. His strong determination, effort, and talent have caused him to make an impact on the world which opened the door to black baseball players everyone.
             Jackie Roosevelt Robinson grew up from a family of sharecroppers from a farm in Cairo, Georgia, known as the Jim Sasser Farm. Around the age of six months, Jackie's father abandoned his wife, Malli Robinson, and her other four children, Mack , Edgar, Frank, and Willa Mae, to bitter poverty. Soon after months of the Robinson family working, Malli decided to buy a new home in California. As a young boy Jackie was a rascal of a kid. When Jackie and his friends got together, they were known as The Pepper Street Gang. (Robinson, 15-18) The gang was troublesome to the community, Jackie and his fellow gang members often had to see the youth officer of the community for harassment acts and sometimes petty thefts. (Schlessinger, videocassette) Inspired his older brothers Mack and Frank, Jackie began playing baseball and football in high school in order to keep himself out of trouble. (Robinson,20) Coincidentally he happened to be talented in baseball.
             As Jackie got older he attended U C L A, this is where he really began to discover his talent. In college he not only excelled in baseball but in other sports as well. He was the first athlete at UCLA to be a four-letterman in such sports as baseball, football, basketball, and track and field. (Robinson, 20) Along the way of his college years, Jackie met the love of his life in 1940, Rachel. Soon after sophomore/junior year they were wed. (Robinson ,40) It was about junior year, when Jackie came t...