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On this Day: Jackie Robinson Joined Brooklyn Dodgers
April 10, 2008 12:15 AM
by
findingDulcinea Staff
On April 10, 1947, Dodgers manager Branch Rickey announced he had recruited Jackie Robinson from the Montreal Royals, breaking baseball’s color barrier.
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Ending over 50 years of segregation in baseball, Robinson became the first black player in the modern Major Leagues.
Rickey asked Robinson to join what the Dodgers manager called his “Great Experiment” to integrate baseball, due to the player’s combination of athletic talent and personal courage.
It would not be the first time Robinson challenged racism.
As a U.S. Army lieutenant, he risked court martial by refusing to sit in the segregated back seats on a military bus.
Robinson struggled through harassment from fans and players alike, but he managed to retain his equanimity and focus on his playing. At the end of his first season, he received baseball’s Rookie of the Year award, and two year later, was named National League MVP.
In a 2000 profile of Robinson, legendary player Hank Aaron recalled his parents discouraging him as a child from any dreams of becoming a ballplayer, telling him there were “no black players.”
“All that changed when Jackie put on Number 42 and started stealing bases in a Brooklyn uniform,” Aaron wrote. “With Jackie in the infield, the Dodgers won six National League pennants.”
Robinson cleared the way for other black players in the majors, including Larry Doby, Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella, although baseball today has seen declining numbers of African American players.
A forceful and charismatic advocate for equality, Robinson helped galvanize the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
In 2000, Time named Robinson one of the its “100 Most Important People” of the 20th century.
Rickey asked Robinson to join what the Dodgers manager called his “Great Experiment” to integrate baseball, due to the player’s combination of athletic talent and personal courage.
It would not be the first time Robinson challenged racism.
As a U.S. Army lieutenant, he risked court martial by refusing to sit in the segregated back seats on a military bus.
Robinson struggled through harassment from fans and players alike, but he managed to retain his equanimity and focus on his playing. At the end of his first season, he received baseball’s Rookie of the Year award, and two year later, was named National League MVP.
In a 2000 profile of Robinson, legendary player Hank Aaron recalled his parents discouraging him as a child from any dreams of becoming a ballplayer, telling him there were “no black players.”
“All that changed when Jackie put on Number 42 and started stealing bases in a Brooklyn uniform,” Aaron wrote. “With Jackie in the infield, the Dodgers won six National League pennants.”
Robinson cleared the way for other black players in the majors, including Larry Doby, Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella, although baseball today has seen declining numbers of African American players.
A forceful and charismatic advocate for equality, Robinson helped galvanize the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
In 2000, Time named Robinson one of the its “100 Most Important People” of the 20th century.
Headline Link: ‘Of Skill and Courage’
Reporting on the Branch Rickey’s purchase of Robinson’s players’ contract with Montreal, The New York Times reported, “Jackie Robinson, 28-year-old infielder, today became the first Negro to achieve Major-League baseball status in modern times.”
Source: The New York Times
Opinion & Analysis: Robinson’s legacy in sports and civil rights
In a 1983 piece for Sports Illustrated, Jules Tygiel detailed how Rickey and Robinson set out to break the color barrier and American society as a whole.
Source: Sports Illustrated
Time named Robinson one of its 100 Most Important People of the 20th century. Hank Aaron, a black player who broke Babe Ruth’s all-time home runs record, wrote about Robinson’s influence on him.
Source: Time
Background: The history of the color barrier in baseball
Jackie Robinson was not the first black player to play alongside white professionals. In the 1880s, several black players competed in prominent leagues throughout the country. But by 1890, an informal “gentleman’s agreement” among team owners and managers had forced black players out of white professional leagues, and into “outlaw” and segregated Negro leagues.
Source: Negro League Baseball
In 1916, Jimmy Claxton would briefly break the color barrier. Claiming to be a Native American, Claxton signed with the Pacific Coast League’s Oakland Oaks. He pitched in just two games before team officials discovered his black ancestry and promptly released him.
Source: Black Athlete Sports Network
Related Topic: Declining numbers of black players and racial issues in baseball today
The number of African-American players in Major League Baseball is at a 25-year low. Sports analysts cite both cultural and economic factors for the decline in numbers, including economics, the games’ perceived lack of cultural appeal and the scarcity of playing fields in inner cities. Some black players also feel that there is lingering racial prejudice in the minor and major leagues.
Source: Black Athlete Sports Network
CNN Money’s Chris Isidore examines the economic factors closely and determines that MLB’s draft and minor league systems favor white and Caribbean players.
Source: CNN Money
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