Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson forever changed the face of American history on Opening Day 1947, as he became one of the most influential athletes to break the color barrier in professional sports, and in several ways, the color barrier in America. Born into a poor black family in the South, Robinson had to deal with a racist nation growing up. Robinson also dealt with this racism throughout his Hall of Fame career. Changed perhaps by all the hardships that he had faced during his childhood and baseball career, Jackie became an advocate for racial indifference. After his career had ended, Robinson used his popularity and fame to become involved in government, business deals, and with civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X. He strived to help under privilege black children, and help them stay off the streets and plan for success in their future. " I never had it made, but I had to try," quoted Robinson, (Robinson, 16).Jack "Jackie" Roosevelt Robinson was born January 31, 1919 to Jerry and Mallie Robinson. Jerry was a very poor sharecropper, and brought in enough money to feed his five children. Mallie worked as a house keeper to a very wealthy plantation owner. Jerry, tired of being poor, started to have an aff
Robinson accepted this offer, because it put him in charge of the welfare of about a thousand blacks. He also established a fund in New York City that would annually collect money and toys, so that poor black families could have toys to give to their kids during the Christmas holiday. Then in 1949, he won the Most Valuable Player Award. Jackie Robinson used his success and fame to be one of the most vocal members in the fight for African American rights. The nation lost one of, if not the most influential black man in the history of our nation. Instead, he went out day after day trying to quiet his critics with his blazing speed, and hard nose play. Although he would later say that, "The Nixon I met in 1960 resembled nothing like the Nixon that would become President," quoted Robinson, ( Robinson, 135). ------------------------------------------------------------------------**Bibliography**. "It's like having to starting all over, like the past never existed," replied Robinson as he left the locker room, (Allen , 124). Until his death in 1972, Jack never missed a beat and continued his work to help improve America. Jackie Robinson was going to play second base for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson also started to travel with Martin Luther King Jr. Robinson also became a special assistant to New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, and together they worked to try to clean up some poor black neighborhoods and to set up organizations and funds for the advancement of black youth. This is where Jackie would group up, and turn to athletics to solve his academic and home problems.
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Acceptance Essays
