Breaking Barriers
The first African-American to play in Major League Baseball, Jackie Robinson, had a dream to break the color barrier. He was a pioneer of a task that seemed quite impossible, because racial discrimination was far from subtle during the late 1940s. Discrimination was so high during this time for the African-American race that they could not live a normal life without possible consequences. Easy tasks like eating in restaurants or drinking from the same drinking fountains as Caucasians could get them thrown out or sometimes beaten. The way Robinson responded to all these types of criticism played a huge role for a progress in the Civil Rights movement.
After his father had left his family, his mother, Mallie Robinson, moved the family to California in search of work. However, moving to California would not get the Robinson family away from discrimination because the entire United States was subjected to African-American segregation at that time. After graduating high school in California, Robinson also attended the University of California Los Angeles. This is where he really excelled in sports, which including football, baseball, basketball, and track. He never graduated from UCLA, and instead joined the U.S. Army. Later he served during World War II, but Robinson faced racial discrimination. Although Robinson tried to stand up for himself, and the rest of mistreated African-Americans. The article “Jackie Robinson” by World Changers states that while riding a military bus, Robinson was told to move to the back of the bus, but he refused and was taken into custody for his actions. Later after being moved to a different unit, false accusations were made at Robinson and it was then when he was discharged from the military (“Robinson”)
After Robinson was discharged from the military, he joined the Kansas City Monarchs a team in the Negro League. Greg Gruss discusses in his article that Robinson’s playing and skill were...