National History Day: Jackie Robinson

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Jackie Robinson August 14, 1940 ‘Separate, but equal’ they say. Yeah right! I don’t see how anything is equal between the whites and us or any of the other inferior races, everything is just separate. No one besides God has the divine right to decide that a single race is superior to all of the other races. Heck, I doubt he would even make that decision; he says that all men were created equal. Whites treat us so bad, or so it seems. Sometimes I wonder if they even have a heart. Maybe they’re like the tin man from “The Wizard of Oz” that would make more sense… I feel like we need a hero, a black hero; someone who could prove that a man of color is equally phenomenal as a white man. There has got to be someone out there like that! Nothing is truly equal if it has to be separated. Thanks to the Jim Crow laws that were initiated in the late 1800s everything, even sports and sporting teams, were segregated. Jackie Robinson was born into a family of strong athletes and ever since he was a young boy he loved to play sports, never letting the segregation and racism affect him (Allen 28). Playing sports kept him occupied and out of trouble; if he wasn’t at school or doing work, he was playing any and every sport he could, but he mostly enjoyed America’s favorite pastime sport, baseball (Allen 20). Jack Roosevelt Robinson was one of five kids and was raised by his single mother, Mallie Robinson, in Pasadena, California. After college and joining the Army, Jackie made a huge historical impact on baseball. (Jackie Robinson Biography) Jackie revolutionized baseball by breaking baseball’s color barrier which affected him and caused a reaction in society. In turn, this revolutionary moment impacted and reformed sports and also had a big influence on the Civil Rights Movement. Jackie played sports whenever he could. Once Jackie was out of the Army he then began playing

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