A Brief Introduction to Jackie Robinson

      

  Jackie Robinson is widely known as the first African American baseball player in major league baseball, but did you know that he was also a civil rights advocate. While Jackie Robinson's life had many high points there was unfortunately many low points in his life as well as he states in his autobiography, I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography of Jackie Robinso(n that his father left his family when he was very young, his brother's death in a motor accident , his almost near court-martial in the US army, enduring racial slurs during his career as a minor/major league baseball player and the death of his oldest son (Wikipedia). Some of his many highs include meeting his future wife Rachel Isum, the birth of his three children (Jackie Jr., Sharon and David), and his stellar career as a player for the Dodgers. 

    He was born on January 31, 1919, to his parents Mallie and Jerry Robinson (Wikipedia). Not many years after he was born his father left his family with another woman and soon after his family moved to California for new start (Robinson pg.4). At one point he was involved with a youth gang doing minor crimes till a pastor by the name of Karl Downs convinced him that school and religion was a better path (Robinson pgs.6 & 7). He attended John Muir High School, Pasadena Junior College and UCLA till his brother's death (Wikipedia). After this he entered into the military during WW2 in a tank battalion as a second lieutenant (Wikipedia). After the military he played for the minor league baseball team the Montreal Royals and then he played for the Brooklyn Dodgers till he quit baseball in 1956 to become a vice president of the Chock full o'Nuts coffee company as the first black executive of a major corporation (Wikipedia). He continued to advocate for equal rights and sports till his death in 1972 (Wikipedia).

This page's sources are:

Image:

The National Portrait Gallery 

Npg.si.edu. 2022. Jackie Robinson | National Portrait Gallery. [online] Available at: <https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.97.135> [Accessed 8 May 2022].

Jackie Robinson Info:

Wikipedia

En.wikipedia.org. 2022. Jackie Robinson - Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Robinson#cite_note-34> [Accessed 8 May 2022].

Book

John Roosevelt Robinson. I Never Had It Made, by Jackie Robinson as Told to Alfred Duckett. New York, Putnam, 1972.

‌