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When youre in the military, youre presented a salute upon which respect and dignity imply. Unfortunately, this wasnt always the case. All of that was hastily forgotten. He barely missed a court-martial and was honorably discharged shortly thereafter (Davis 1). Would you believe that it was because he refused to move from a front seat to the rear seat of an army bus? He was a legitimate soldier in the U.
S. Army. He enlisted after the Pearl Harbor bombing and was promoted to Lieutenant three years later. However, unlike protester Rosa Parks, being instructed by a higher-ranking (and white) officer meant a direct order, so he moved to the back. Some thanks to a man anxious to help fight for the preservation of his country. That man was Jackie Robinson.
The youngest of five children, Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born in Georgia on January 31, 1919. At the age of 18 months, his sharecropper father left the family, distraught from the reality of his sixth child which he claimed he couldnt afford. His mother, Mallie, on the verge of insanity, moved the family to Pasadena, California to live with her brother and found work as a domestic housekeeper. While growing up with a psychologically abusive uncle, Jackie rarely saw his mother in order to develop a parental bond with her. He grew up by himself, and therefore experienced a miserable childhood. Jackie attended a local vocational school for an academic education, as well as to learn a trade that could be financially useful to his mother and the family.
It was her wish that Jackie attend Pasadena's Muir Technical High and Jackie quickly found something out about himself. He enjoyed gym class so much he was determined to try out for the sports teams, all of them. Throughout his high school career at Muir, Jackie excelled in four sports: football, basketball, baseball, and track. He even set two school records in track, which earned him a free ride to Pasadena Junior Mallie was thrilled at Jackie's accomplishments and attended every meet he was in, including the meet where Jackie set a National Junior College record in the long jump of 25 6 1 / 2 and received an athletic scholarship to UCLA. There, he became the first athlete to earn varsity letters in four sports. Unfortunately, Jackie left UCLA in the spring of 1941, at his mothers request, to help support the family.
Six months later, Pearl Harbor was bombed and Jackie enlisted in the U. S. Army. It wasnt until the spring of 1945 when Jackie sought out his real dream of playing professional baseball. He joined the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League, a league formed in response to segregation. He spent his entire rookie season touring with the Monarchs on a salary of $ 400 a month.
In mid-August, Jackie's life was about to be changed forever. Branch Rickey, owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, had been scouring the country for months looking for a black ballplayer he felt could best withstand the pressure of being the first black man in the Major Leagues. He wanted an interview with Jackie. Jackie crossed the mighty threshold into white professional baseball at that meeting, signing a minor league contract with the Dodgers farm club, the Montreal Royals. The following season, Jackie Robinson was promoted to the Brooklyn Dodgers.
He entered the history books on April 15 as the Dodgers opened the 1947 season with the Boston Braves at Ebbets Field. However, Robinsons track to success was filled with obstacles. His first manager in the minor leagues, a Southerner named Clay Hopper, often wondered aloud whether niggers were really humans and not monkeys (Scott 162). Hall of Famer, and former Yankee, Enos Slaughter allegedly hated blacks so much that while running the bases, he lunged at Jackie, spikes first, causing a seven-inch gash in his leg. Jackie received letters from people who threatened to kill him if he dared to step foot on the field with white players in the National Leagues southernmost cities, St.
Louis and Cincinnati. There was even a sit-in at a South Carolina airport in retaliation to the forbidding of Jackie to sit with his teammates in an all-white section. Thinking about the things that happened, I dont know any other ballplayer who could have done what he did. To be able to hit with everybody yelling at him. He had to block all that out, block out everything but this ball that is coming in at a hundred miles an hour... To do what he did has got to be the most tremendous thing Id ever seen in sports (Adler 37), said teammate Pee Wee Reese after Jackie was awarded the Rookie of the Year with a. 296 batting average.
Jackie was an immediate success in baseball and showed the world that it wasnt just about baseball, it was a test of ones humanity. Im not concerned with your liking or disliking me. All I ask is that you respect me as a human being (Adler 12). In 1952, Jackie had the season of his life.
He won the batting title with an outstanding. 346 average, he was selected to start the All Star Game, he was voted the Leagues Most Valuable Player, and led the Dodgers to the World Series. After the game, Robinson came into our clubhouse and shook my hand, said Mickey Mantle, after the World Series. He said, Youre a helluva ballplayer and youve got a great future. I thought that was a classy gesture, one I wasnt then capable of making. I was a bad loser. What meant even more was what Jackie told the press: Mantle beat us.
He was the difference between the two teams. They didnt miss Dimaggio, it was all Mantle. I have to admit, I became a Jackie Robinson fan on the spot. And when I think of that World Series, his gesture is what comes to mind. Here was a player who had without a doubt suffered more abuse and more taunts and more hatred than any player in the history of the game.
And he had made a special effort to compliment and encourage a young white kid from Oklahoma (Denenberg 108). Yet Jackie Robinsons significance transcends even the athletic world, leaving behind memories of something greater. He was undoubtedly an unforgettable baseball player, even today. He etched a place for himself in the American consciousness as an athlete and a winner.
Yet he should be remembered perhaps more for his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. Jackie Robinson was a man who gallantly marched through the very epitome of racism. He held his head high and continued on. In the hearts of millions of blacks, and even whites, he was a saint.
His prominence inspired him to dedicate his life to improving African Americans status in society, and his athletic prosperity paved the way for the civil rights activity by establishing considerable credibility. A case in point would be Jackie's blatant refusal to accept segregation that led to the integration of the many white-only hotels and restaurants that the Dodger team Jackie soon became a serious political player. His first serious encounter with politics came in July of 1949. Paul Robeson, a prominent black mentor, made a controversy...
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Research essay sample on U S Army Jackie Robinson
