Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Final Project
Adam Zane
Jackie
Robinson
A life is not important except in
the impact it has on other lives.
I'm not concerned with your
liking or disliking me... All I ask is
that you respect me as a human
being.
Baseball is like a poker game.
Nobody wants to quit when he's
losing; nobody wants you to quit
when you're ahead.
Early Life
Jackie Robinson was born on January 31, 1919 in Cairo
Georgia. Jackie was the youngest of all 5 of his siblings.
And at just one years old his father had left him and his
family. After his father left them Jackies mother moves the
family to Pasadena, California. His mother had worked a
variety of different jobs to make sure that Jackie and the
rest of his siblings were taken care of. When Jackie was
very young, him and his new neighbors in Pasadena had
been excluded from all sorts of different activities. Jackie
felt that he had no other choice but to join a neighborhood
gang. After being in the gang for a little while his good
friend Carl Andersen persuaded him to get out of it and to
pursue better things in life.
Military Life
In 1942, Robinson was drafted and assigned to a segregated Army cavalry unit in Kansas. Robinson was
commissioned as a second lieutenant in January 1943.
After receiving his commission, Robinson was reassigned to Fort Hood, Texas. Where he joined the
761st "Black Panthers" Tank Battalion.
One time while Robinson was getting on the bus to go to Fort Hood, the bus driver demanded that
Jackie sit in the back of the bus. And of course Jackie refused to do so. Jackie was taken into custody for
doing so. After telling the officer that there was racial discrimination going on, he demanded that Jackie
be court martialed. Jackies commander refused to take legal action and Jackie was then moved to 758 th
Battalion, then his commander decided to charge Jackie with a variety of different offenses. One being
intoxicated in public, even though Jackie did not even drink alcohol. By the time the court martial date
appeared, the charges had been dropped to two accounts of insubordination during questioning. His
former unit, the 761st Tank Battalion, became the first black tank unit to get called for action in World
War II, Robinson's court-martial proceedings prohibited him from being overseas, which led to Jackie
never seeing any actual war combat.
Jackie then left the army and returned to his former football team The Bulldogs in Cali. He took a job as
a athletic director.
Negro Leagues
Jackie joined the Negro Leagues in 1945. He accepted a contract to play ball
for $400 dollars a month. That is incredible. Robinson wasnt very fond of how
the negro leagues worked because he was so used to the college game, it
was a lot different. Also with the crazy schedule that he had, he wasnt able
to be in touch with his then wife. He could only contact her via a letter. Which
he wasnt happy about. It was taking a toll on their relationship. Robinson was
very successful in the Negro Leagues however, and did gain some interest
from major league teams. One being the Boston Red Sox. They held a tryout
at Fenway park which Jackie attended, but left humiliated after their were a
bunch of racial epithets. But there were other teams who did have interest in
signing an African American ball player. Branch Rickey, who was general
manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers selected Jackie and a few others from the
negro league to have an interview for a spot on the roster. After a long
discussion Ricky kept asking Jackie if he would be brave enough to take the
racial abuse that was going to be directed towards him if he did end up
signing him, and Jackie being hesitant at first, decided to take the deal for
$700 a month and was officially on the roster.
Minor League
Major League
Legacy
Death
The End
RIP JACKIE ROBINSON
January 31, 1919 - October 24th 1972
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Robinson
http://www.biography.com/people/jackie-robins
on9460813
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/jack
ierobinson
http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/08/entertainment/j
ackie-robinson-ken-burns-feat
/
https://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00
016431.
html
http://losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com/la/history/ja
ckie_robinson_timeline/timeline_1.
jsp
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/
Jackie_Robinson.aspx