a biography of jackie robinson

Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson became the first Black athlete to play Major League Baseball, breaking the color barrier in 1947.

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Baseball player Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier as its first Black athlete. The infielder made his debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947, and went on to have a decade-long Hall of Fame career despite repeated threats and abuse from fans and opponents. Also a vocal civil rights activist , Robinson served on the board of the NAACP and advocated for greater racial integration in sports. He died in 1972 at age 53. MLB retired Robinson’s jersey, No. 42, in 1997, and the league celebrates his legacy and accomplishments annually on Jackie Robinson Day.

FULL NAME: Jack Roosevelt Robinson BORN: January 31, 1919 DIED: October 24, 1972 BIRTHPLACE: Cairo, Georgia SPOUSE: Rachel Robinson (1946-1972) CHILDREN: Jack Jr., Sharon, and David ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aquarius

Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born on January 31, 1919, in Cairo, Georgia. The youngest of five children, he was raised in relative poverty by a single mother. His older brother, Matthew, inspired Robinson to pursue his talent and love of athletics. Matthew won a silver medal in the 200-meter dash—just behind Jesse Owens —at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.

Robinson attended John Muir High School in Pasadena, California, and Pasadena Junior College, where he was an excellent athlete and played four sports: football, basketball, track, and baseball. He was named the region’s MVP in baseball in 1938.

He continued his education at UCLA, where he became the university’s first student to win varsity letters in four sports. In 1941, despite his athletic success, Robinson was forced to leave UCLA just shy of graduation due to financial hardship.

After moving to Honolulu, Robinson he played football for the semi-professional Honolulu Bears. His season with the Bears was cut short when the United States entered into World War II.

From 1942 to 1944, Robinson served as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. However, he never saw combat.

During boot camp at Fort Hood, Texas, Robinson was arrested and court-martialed in 1944 for refusing to give up his seat and move to the back of a segregated bus. Robinson’s excellent reputation—combined with the efforts of friends, the NAACP, and various Black newspapers—shed public light on the injustice.

Ultimately, he was acquitted of the charges and received an honorable discharge. His courage and moral objection to racial segregation were precursors to the impact Robinson would have in Major League Baseball.

After his discharge from the Army in 1944, Robinson began to play baseball professionally. At the time, the sport was segregated, with Black and white people playing in separate leagues.

Robinson began his pro career in the Negro Leagues with the Kansas City Monarchs, but he was soon chosen by Brooklyn Dodgers President Branch Rickey to integrate Major League Baseball. He joined the all-white Montreal Royals, a farm team for the Brooklyn Dodgers, in 1946. Robinson later moved to Florida to begin spring training with the Royals.

Rickey knew there would be difficult times ahead for the young athlete, so he made Robinson promise to not fight back when confronted with racism. Rickey also personally tested Robinson’s reactions to the racial slurs and insults he knew the player would endure.

Robinson played his first game at Ebbets Field for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947, making history as the first Black athlete to play MLB.

From the beginning of his career with the Dodgers, Robinson’s will was tested. Some of his new teammates objected to having an African American on their team. People in the crowds sometimes jeered at Robinson, and he and his family received threats.

Despite the racial abuse, particularly at away games, Robinson had an outstanding start with the Royals, leading the International League with a .349 batting average and .985 fielding percentage.

His successful year in the minors led to his promotion to the Dodgers. The harassment continued in the majors, however, most notably from the Philadelphia Phillies and their manager Ben Chapman. During one infamous game, Chapman and his team shouted derogatory terms at Robinson from their dugout.

Many players on opposing teams threatened not to play against the Dodgers. Even some of Robinson’s own teammates threatened to sit out. But Dodgers manager Leo Durocher informed them that he would sooner trade them than Robinson. His loyalty to the player set the tone for the rest of Robinson’s career with the team.

Others defended Robinson’s right to play in the major leagues, including National League President Ford Frick, Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler, Jewish baseball star Hank Greenberg, as well as Dodgers shortstop and team captain Pee Wee Reese. In one incident, while fans harassed Robinson from the stands, Reese walked over and put his arm around his teammate, a gesture that has become legendary in baseball history.

Robinson succeeded in putting the prejudice and racial strife aside and showed everyone what a talented player he was. Although he predominantly played second base, Robinson was versatile enough to be positioned all over the infield. In his first year, he batted .297 with 12 home runs and helped the Dodgers win the National League pennant.

That year, Robinson led the National League in stolen bases and was selected as Rookie of the Year. He continued to wow fans and critics alike with impressive feats, such as an outstanding .342 batting average during the 1949 season. He led in stolen bases that year and earned the National League’s MVP Award.

Robinson soon became a hero of the sport, even among former critics, and was the subject of the popular song, “Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?” His success in the major leagues opened the door for other Black players, such as Satchel Paige , Willie Mays , and Hank Aaron .

An exceptional base runner, Robinson stole home 19 times in his career, setting a league record. Before he retired, he also became the highest-paid athlete in Dodgers history.

Over the course of his MLB career, from 1947 to 1956, Robinson had a .311 average over 4,877 at-bats and recorded the following stats:

• 137 home runs

• 1,518 hits

• 734 runs batted in

• 197 stolen bases

• .409 on-base percentage

• .883 on-base plus slugging

Robinson’s wins above replacement value, or WAR, was later calculated to be 63.8, according to Baseball Reference. This means, just with Robinson in their lineup, the Dodgers won almost 64 more games than they would have with a replacement-level player instead.

Other notable honors include being named Rookie of the Year in 1947 and National League MVP in 1949, as well as becoming a World Series champion in 1955.

In his decade-long career with the Dodgers, Robinson and his team won the National League pennant several times. Finally, in 1955, he helped them achieve the ultimate victory: winning the World Series. After failing before in four other series matchups, the Dodgers beat the New York Yankees in seven games. Robinson helped the team win one more National League pennant the following season.

In December 1956, Robinson was traded to the New York Giants, but he never played a game for the team. He retired on January 5, 1957. Five years later, in 1962, Robinson became the first African American to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

After baseball, Robinson became active in business and continued his work as an activist. He worked as an executive for the Chock Full O’ Nuts coffee company and restaurant chain and helped establish Black-owned Freedom Bank.

In the early 1940s, Robinson met nurse-in-training Rachel Isum when they were both attending UCLA. The couple married on February 10, 1946.

As Robinson forged his career in the major leagues, the couple faced mounting racism, from insults to death threats. Later in life, both Jackie and Rachel became actively involved in the Civil Rights Movement.

Jackie and Rachel had three children together: Jack Robinson Jr., Sharon, and David. Rachel said that she and Jackie went to great lengths to create a nurturing home that sheltered their kids from racism.

In 1971, the couple mourned the death of their oldest child, Jack, who was in a car accident. According to The New York Times , the 24-year-old was reportedly driving at high speed toward his parents’ home when he crashed into a fence and then an abutment on the parkway.

Jack had been the assistant regional director of Daytop Inc., a rehabilitation center he previously attended for two years after becoming addicted to drugs following his Vietnam War service. He suffered shrapnel injuries in combat while trying to rescue a friend that later died.

Robinson was a vocal champion for Black athletes, civil rights, and other social and political causes, serving on the board of the NAACP until 1967. In July 1949, he testified about discrimination before the House Un-American Activities Committee.

In 1952, he publicly called out the New York Yankees as a racist organization for not having broken the color barrier five years after he began playing with the Dodgers. In his later years, Robinson continued to lobby for greater racial integration in sports.

Robinson was close friends with Martin Luther King Jr. and attended the March on Washington, where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech on August 28, 1963. Robinson and his wife, Rachel, also organized a jazz concert at their home to raise bail money for King and other activists arrested during protests.

Robinson collapsed in his Stamford, Connecticut, home from a heart attack in the early morning of October 24, 1972, and died shortly after. He was 53 years old.

Although the heart attack was ruled the immediate cause of death, Robinson had also suffered from type 2 diabetes complications for years. This heart attack was his third in a span of four years, and he had needed cardiology care for congestive heart failure.

Robinson also lost sight in one eye and was growing blind in the other. His blood pressure was abnormally high for years, and he suffered pain and burning sensations in his legs from diabetic nerve and artery damage.

Robinson’s funeral was held at the Riverside Church in New York City on October 27, 1972. Author Kostya Kennedy wrote about the service in his 2022 book True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson . Although the church’s official capacity was only 2,500 people, thousands more either squeezed into its doors or gathered along nearby streets to honor the baseball hero.

Among the pallbearers carrying Robinson’s casket were NBA legend Bill Russell , as well as teammates and peers like Pee Wee Reese, Larry Doby, and Ralph Branca. Other sports greats such as boxer Joe Louis and MLB stars Hank Greenberg, Hank Aaron , Ernie Banks, and Willie Stargell attended.

Reverend Jesse Jackson gave Robinson’s formal eulogy. “[Robinson] didn’t integrate baseball for himself,” Jackson said. “He infiltrated baseball for all of us, seeking and looking for more oxygen for Black survival, and looking for new possibility.”

Robinson was buried next to his son Jackie Jr. at Cypress Hills Cemetery, six miles from the site of his former home ballpark Ebbets Field.

Since his death, Robinson’s life has been memorialized in many ways. A New York City park in Harlem bears his name , Nike released released a shoe celebrating him called the Nike Dunk Low, and his jersey has been retired throughout the MLB. He also has a dedicated museum and an annual MLB honorary event, Jackie Robinson Day.

Jersey Retirement

The Dodgers were the first to retire Robinson’s jersey number of 42. They did so in 1972, the same year he died.

Decades later on the 50 th anniversary of Robinson’s historic debut—April 15, 1997—MLB executive Bud Selig retired No. 42 from the major leagues entirely. Hall of Fame New York Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera was the last player to wear the number full-time, as players who had it at the time of Selig’s decree were allowed to keep it until retirement.

Jackie Robinson Museum and Foundation

After Robinson’s death in 1972, his wife, Rachel, established the Jackie Robinson Foundation dedicated to honoring his life and work. The foundation helps young people in need by providing scholarships and mentoring programs.

In September 2022, the foundation debuted the Jackie Robinson Museum located in New York City. The museum possesses 4,500 artifacts from Robinson’s life and career, including many directly from the Robinson family. A few items displayed are his original plaque from the National Baseball Hall of Fame, trophies from throughout his career, vintage scorecards, ticket stubs, trading cards, and jerseys.

Jackie Robinson Day

In 2004, MLB began celebrating Jackie Robinson Day on April 15 to honor the legendary player’s accomplishments on the anniversary of when he broke baseball’s color barrier. Pre-game festivities were held to commemorate Robinson, with scholars from the Jackie Robinson Foundation throwing out the first pitch at every game.

Since 2009, all uniformed MLB personnel have worn 42 on Jackie Robinson Day as a tribute. On the 75 th anniversary of Robinson’s first game in 2022, all players, coaches, and umpires wore the number in famed Dodger blue.

In 1950, Robinson starred in The Jackie Robinson Story , a biographical movie directed by Alfred E. Green and co-starring Ruby Dee as Robinson’s wife.

Robinson’s book I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography of Jackie Robinson initially published in October 1972 and delves into his life, baseball career, activism, and troubled relationship with his son Jack Jr. Numerous other books about Robinson’s career and effect on baseball have been written.

Robinson’s life was the subject of the acclaimed 2013 Brian Helgeland movie 42 , which starred Chadwick Boseman as Robinson and Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey . The film helped turn Boseman into a bona fide Hollywood star.

In 2016, filmmaker Ken Burns premiered a documentary about the baseball legend on PBS simply titled Jackie Robinson .

• There’s not an American in this country free until every one of us is free.
• The way I figured it, I was even with baseball and baseball with me. The game had done much for me, and I had done much for it.
• A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.
• Baseball is like a poker game. Nobody wants to quit when he’s losing; nobody wants you to quit when you’re ahead.
• Not being able to fight back is a form of severe punishment.
• A Black man, even after he has proven himself on and off the playing field, will still be denied his rights.
• I’m grateful for all the breaks and honors and opportunities I’ve had, but I always believe I won’t have it made until the humblest Black kid in the most remote backwoods of America has it made.
• I had learned that I was in two wars: one against the foreign enemy, the other against prejudice at home.
• I want to thank all of the people throughout this country who were just so wonderful during those trying days.
• I like friends just as much as other people. But if it comes down to the question of having a choice between the friendship of some of these writers and their respect, I’ll take their respect.
• I’m going to be tremendously pleased and more proud when I look at the third base coaching line one day and see a Black face managing in baseball.
• Black America has asked so little, but if you can’t see the anger that comes from rejection, you are treading a dangerous course.
• If I had to choose tomorrow between the Baseball Hall of Fame and full citizenship for my people, I would choose full citizenship time and again.
• The right of every American to first-class citizenship is the most important issue of our time.
• Above anything else, I hate to lose.
• I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me… All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.

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Jackie Robinson

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Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson

Jackie Robinson's pioneering legacy still resonates throughout the game of baseball today.

About Jackie Robinson

“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives,” Jackie Robinson once said.

The impact Robinson made on Major League Baseball is one that will be forever remembered. On April 15 each season, every team in the majors celebrates Jackie Robinson Day in honor of when he broke the color barrier in baseball, becoming the first African-American player in the 20th century to take the field in the American or National league. He opened the door for many others and will forever be honored for his contribution to the game.

Robinson stood up for equal rights even before he did so in baseball. He was arrested and court martialed during while he was serving in the Army for refusing to move to the back of a segregated bus. He was eventually acquitted of the charges and received an honorable discharge. He then started his professional baseball career.

Originally a shortstop, Robinson played for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues until Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey tabbed him as the player who would integrate the white major leagues. Rickey wanted Robinson not only for his talent and style of play, but also because of his demeanor. He knew Robinson would have to endure mental and physical abuse, and Rickey wanted him to handle it without fighting back. Robinson endured teammates and crowds who opposed his presence, and threats to himself and his family, with honor and grace.

Robinson joined the Montreal Royals, the Dodgers top farm team, in 1946 and led the International League with a .349 average and 40 stolen bases. He earned a promotion to the Dodgers and made his National League debut on April 15, 1947, as Brooklyn's first baseman.

“It was the most eagerly anticipated debut in the annals of the National Pastime,” authors Robert Lipsyte and Pete Levine wrote. “It represented both the dream and the fear of equal opportunity, and it would change forever the complexion of the game and the attitudes of Americans.”

At the end of his first season, Robinson was named the winner of the inaugural Baseball Writers' Association of America's Rookie of the Year Award. He was named the NL MVP just two years later in 1949, when he led the league in hitting with a .342 average and steals with 37, while also notching a career-high 124 RBI. The Dodgers won six pennants in Robinson’s 10 seasons and captured the 1955 World Series title.

Robinson retired with a .313 batting average, 972 runs scored, 1,563 hits and 200 stolen bases. He remained active in the game as an announcer, and also lent his support to many societal causes.

“Jackie Robinson made my success possible,” said Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “Without him, I would never have been able to do what I did.”

Robinson was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1962. He passed away on Oct. 24, 1972.

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Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson is perhaps the most historically significant baseball player ever, ranking with Babe Ruth in terms of his impact on the national pastime. Ruth changed the way baseball was played; Jackie Robinson changed the way Americans thought. When Robinson took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947 , more than 60 years of racial segregation in major-league baseball came to an end. He was the first acknowledged black player to perform in the major leagues in the twentieth century and went on to be the first to win a batting title, the first to win the Most Valuable Player award, and the first to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He won major-league baseball’s first official Rookie of the Year award and was the first baseball player, black or white, to be featured on a United States postage stamp.

The raw statistics only scratch the surface in evaluating Jackie Robinson as a ballplayer. Because of institutionalized racism and World War II, he did not play his first big-league game until he was 28 years old, and therefore his major-league career spanned only 10 seasons. His lifetime batting average was a solid .311, but because of the brevity of his career, his cumulative statistics are relatively unimpressive by Hall of Fame standards.

But in what would be considered his prime years, ages 28 to 34, Robinson hit .319 and averaged more than 110 runs scored per season. He drove in an average of 85 runs, and his average of nearly 15 home runs per season was outstanding for a middle infielder of that era. And he averaged 24 stolen bases a season for a power-laden team that didn’t need him to run very often.

Colorfully described as a tiger in the field and a lion at bat, the right-handed-hitting Robinson crowded the plate and dared opposing hurlers to dust him off — a challenge they frequently accepted. He was an excellent bunter, good at the sacrifice and always a threat to lay one down for a hit. Not known as a home-run hitter, he displayed line-drive power to all fields, had a good eye for the strike zone, and rarely struck out. For his entire big-league career, he drew 740 walks and struck out only 291 times — an extremely impressive ratio.

Second base was Robinson’s best position. In a 1987 “Player’s Choice” survey, he was voted the greatest second baseman of his era despite having played there regularly for only five seasons. Though not a smooth glove man in the classic sense, he was sure-handed and possessed good range and instincts. He made up for an average arm by standing his ground on double plays and getting rid of the ball quickly. Robinson also displayed his versatility by playing regularly at first base, at third base, and in left field when the needs of the team dictated it.

It was running the bases, however, where Robinson’s star shined brightest. He was a dynamo on the basepaths — fast, clever, daring, and rough. He was the most dangerous base runner since Ty Cobb , embarrassing and intimidating the opposition into beating themselves with mental and physical errors. Former teammate and big-league manager Bobby Bragan , who initially objected to Jackie’s presence on the Dodgers, called him the best he ever saw at getting called safe after being caught in rundown situations. He created havoc by taking impossibly long leads, jockeying back and forth, and threatening to steal on every pitch. His mere presence on base was enough to upset the most steely-nerved veteran hurlers. 

Robinson revived the art of stealing home, successfully making it 19 times in his career — tied with Frankie Frisch for the most since World War I. At the age of 35 in 1954, he became the first National Leaguer to steal his way around the bases in 26 years, and a year later he became one of only 12 men to steal home in the World Series.

Throughout his career, Jackie Robinson was a fearless competitor. As Leo Durocher , first his manager and later an archrival, so elegantly phrased it, “You want a guy that comes to play. But (Robinson) didn’t just come to play. He came to beat you. He came to stuff the damn bat right up your ass.” 1

Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born on January 31, 1919, in Cairo, Georgia, a sleepy Southern town near the Florida border. Jackie was the youngest of five children, four boys and a girl, born to impoverished sharecroppers Jerry and Mallie Robinson. Jerry Robinson deserted the family six months after Jackie was born. Mallie Robinson, a strong, devoutly religious woman, moved the struggling family across the country by rail to Pasadena, California, in 1920 when Jackie was 14 months old. She worked as a domestic to support her family; leftovers from the kitchens of families she worked for often constituted their daily diet.

With the help of a welfare agency, the Robinson family purchased a home in a predominantly white Pasadena neighborhood, where neighbors immediately petitioned to get rid of the newcomers and even offered to buy them out. When those ploys failed the family was harassed for several years. The Robinson boys often had to fight to defend themselves, and young Jackie was involved in his share of scrapes with white youths and had some run-ins with authorities.

Jackie’s athletic talent became evident at an early age. But he wasn’t the only gifted athlete in the family. His older brother Mack became a world-class track star, finishing second in the 200-yard dash to Jesse Owens in the 1936 Olympics. But after Olympic stardom and college, the only job Mack Robinson could find was janitorial work for the City of Pasadena. It was a position he soon lost. As in most of the country at that time, Jim Crow rules prevailed in Pasadena. Black citizens were permitted to use the city’s public swimming pool only one day a week. When a judge ordered full access to the pool for black citizens, the city fathers responded by firing black employees, including Mack Robinson.

After starring in baseball, football, basketball, and track at Muir Technical High School and Pasadena Junior College, Jackie declined many other offers to enroll at the University of California at Los Angeles, near his Pasadena home. Robinson gained national fame at UCLA in 1940 and 1941. He became the school’s first four-letter man and was called the “Jim Thorpe of his race” for his multisport skills. 2 Sharing rushing duties with Kenny Washington, who later became one of the first black men to play in the National Football League, Jackie averaged 11-plus yards per carry as a junior. Sports Weekly called him “the greatest ball carrier on the gridiron today.” 3 On the basketball court Jackie led the Pacific Coast Conference in scoring as a junior and as a senior.

Although he wasn’t named to the first, second, or third all-conference teams, one coach called him “the best basketball player in the United States.” 4 Already the holder of the national junior college long-jump record, he captured the NCAA long-jump title and probably would have gone to the 1940 Olympics had they not been canceled by the war in Europe. In addition, he won swimming championships, reached the semifinals of the national Negro tennis tournament, and was the UCLA Bruins’ regular shortstop. Baseball was probably Robinson’s weakest sport at the university, although he’d been voted the most valuable player in Southern California junior college baseball.

Financial problems at home forced Robinson to drop out of college in his senior year a few credits short of graduation. He took a job as an athletic coach for the National Youth Administration and played semipro football for the Los Angeles Bulldogs. In the fall of 1941, he signed on to play professional football with the Honolulu Bears. Already a gate attraction and a hero in the black community, he got top billing as “the sensational all-American halfback.”

Upon returning home from Hawaii shortly after Pearl Harbor, Robinson was drafted into the Army in 1942. Stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, he was originally denied entry into Officer Candidate School despite his college background. Intervention by a fellow soldier, boxing great Joe Louis, who was also stationed at the base, managed to get the decision reversed. Yet, Jackie was not allowed to play on the segregated camp baseball team, which infuriated him so much that he refused to play on the football team even when superior officers pressured him to do so. After OCS, Robinson was appointed morale officer for the black troops at Fort Riley and won concessions for them that predictably angered a few higher-ups in command.

Reassigned to Ford Hood, Texas, Jackie continued to be controversial. On July 6, 1944 he defied a white bus driver’s orders to move to the back of the bus “where the coloreds belonged.” When the base provost marshal and military police supported the driver, Robinson objected vehemently and was subject to court-martial. Facing a dishonorable discharge, Jackie prevailed at the hearing. But the Army had had enough of the controversial young black lieutenant and quickly mustered him out with an honorable discharge.

It’s ironic that Jackie Robinson’s difficulties with white authority in the military led directly to his rise to the top of Branch Rickey ‘s list of candidates to break baseball’s color barrier. Rickey, the orchestrator of Organized Baseball’s desegregation, was the president, general manager, and a part-owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Rickey’s scouts had been surreptitiously scouring the Negro Leagues for major-league talent for some time before tapping Robinson to break the unwritten, and diligently enforced, gentlemen’s agreement that banned blacks from participating in Organized Baseball. 

Rickey was looking for a black pioneer who — in addition to possessing the requisite talent — was educated, sober, and accustomed to competing with and against white athletes. Robinson met those conditions. He grew up in a racially mixed environment, attended school with white classmates, and matriculated at UCLA. He’d been an officer in the military. He was well-spoken, personable, and comfortable in front of crowds. He had experienced the glare of the spotlight and reveled in it. Also extremely important to the pious Rickey was the fact that Robinson was a nonsmoker and nondrinker. Nor was he a womanizer; he was planning to marry his college sweetheart, Rachel Annetta Isum . In addition, Jackie was a Methodist, as was Rickey, and he coincidentally shared a birthday with Branch Rickey Jr. Jackie and Rachel were married in Los Angeles on February 10, 1946.

Certainly there were other black ballplayers who possessed the qualifications Rickey sought. Monte Irvin and Larry Doby were two obvious candidates. But when Rickey sent his scouts to scour the nation for the best black player, Irvin and Doby were overseas, still in the armed forces. Robinson, though he was far from being considered the best player in Negro baseball, was available due to the early termination of his own military obligation.

After his discharge, Robinson had joined the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League for the 1945 season. The Monarchs, one of the most successful franchises in the Negro Leagues, had been ravaged by the manpower demands of the war, but their roster still included veteran stars Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe , Hilton Smith , and Satchel Paige . Flashy-fielding veteran Jesse Williams moved over to second base to make room for Jackie at shortstop. Though Robinson hit well over .300 and showed speed and power as a rookie, he disliked the nomadic and often boisterous barnstorming life and was incensed by the Jim Crow laws that the Monarchs often encountered on the road.

On October 23, 1945, it was announced to the world that Robinson had signed a contract to play baseball for the Montreal Royals of the International League, the top minor-league team in the Dodgers organization. Robinson had actually signed a few months earlier. In that now-legendary meeting, Rickey extracted a promise that Jackie would hold his sharp tongue and quick fists in exchange for the opportunity to break Organized Baseball’s color barrier.

The integration movement in general had picked up steam during World War II as black American soldiers fought and died beside whites. In fact, the decade leading up to Robinson’s signing had been marked by significant progress in efforts to gain equal rights for minorities in all facets of life. Yet the moguls running major-league baseball stubbornly resisted efforts to integrate the sport, refusing to consider black players even as the talent pool was depleted by the war and one-armed and one-legged players could be found among the old-timers, teenagers, and 4-Fs gracing big-league rosters. 

But in November 1944, longtime Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis , who was generally thought to be against integration, died of a heart attack. Landis’s passing was the break Branch Rickey needed to begin implementing his plan to integrate the Dodgers.

When Robinson’s signing was announced, the news was heralded in black newspapers and generally received positive reviews in national publications despite objections and attacks from predictable quarters. But Rickey and the Dodgers faced near-unanimous disapproval from the Organized Baseball establishment. After the initial furor died down, a campaign to downplay Robinson’s talent and the import of the event began. The New York Daily News rated Robinson’s chances of making the grade as 1,000 to 1. An editorial in The Sporting News deemed Robinson a player of Class C ability and predicted, “The waters of competition in the International League will flood far over his head.” 5 Star pitcher Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians said that Robinson had “football shoulders and couldn’t hit an inside pitch to save his neck.” 6

Muscularly built with a thick neck and wide shoulders, Robinson did look more like a halfback than an infielder. He suffered from rickets as a child and walked with a pigeon-toed gait, but on the diamond he moved with amazing quickness. He stood 5-feet-11 and weighed 190 to 195 pounds in his prime, although he thickened noticeably in the latter stages of his career. In the decades prior to Robinson’s entry into Organized Baseball, there were several major leaguers whose skin tone caused doubts about their racial background. There could be no doubt about ebony-skinned Jackie Robinson. Columnist John Crosby called him “the blackest black man, as well as one of the handsomest, I ever saw.” 7

Plagued by a sore arm during the Royals’ 1946 spring training camp, Jackie performed poorly, generating numerous “I told you so” claims. But when Montreal opened the season on April 18, 1946, against the Jersey City Giants at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, Robinson was playing second base and hitting second in the batting order.

The first twentieth-century appearance by an acknowledged black player in Organized Baseball was a preview of things to come. In front of a packed house, Jackie lashed out four hits and scored four times to lead Montreal to a 14–1 victory. After grounding out in his first at-bat, he blasted a three-run homer over the left-field wall in the third inning. In the fifth inning he bunted for a hit, stole second, and made a daring play to take third on a grounder to the third baseman. From third base he danced far off the bag, darting back and forth and bluffing a steal until the harried pitcher balked him home. Two innings later, he singled sharply to right field and stole second base again before scoring on a triple. In the eighth Jackie again bunted safely. He once again took an extra base, advancing from first to third on an infield single, and again scored by provoking a balk by the Jersey City hurler.

The next day, the headline in the Pittsburgh Courier read: “Jackie Stole the Show.” 8 According to Joe Bostic of New York City’s Amsterdam News , “He did everything but help the ushers seat the crowd.” 9

Baseball’s defense for keeping the game segregated hinged primarily on two points. The first was the contention that there just weren’t any black players good enough to merit a shot at the majors at the time. The second centered on financial concerns — the fear that white fans wouldn’t pay to watch Negro players and didn’t want to sit in the stands beside black fans. There was also much feigned concern about the financial impact on the established Negro Leagues. 

But Jackie Robinson’s first year in Organized Baseball emphatically dispelled those tired excuses. He was a sensation on the field, the Royals dominated the International League, and the turnstiles hummed. Thanks to Jackie, the Royals established a new attendance record in Montreal, and his impact on the road was even greater, as attendance at Royals games in other International League cities almost tripled over the previous year. More than a million people came to watch Robinson and the Royals perform that year, an amazing figure for the minor leagues at the time.

For the season Robinson led the International League with a .349 batting average and scored 113 runs in 124 games to pace the circuit in that department as well. His 40 stolen bases were the second highest total in the league and he led the league’s second basemen in fielding. Jackie led the Royals to the International League pennant, by a 19 1/2-game margin, and to victory in the Little World Series. After the Series, ecstatic fans wanted to hoist Jackie on their shoulders in celebration, but Jackie had a plane to catch. They chased him for three blocks, prompting a journalist to observe, “It was probably the only day in history that a black man ran from a white mob with love instead of hate on its mind.” 10

In preparation for the 1947 campaign the Brooklyn Dodgers and their top farm clubs set up spring training camp in Havana, Cuba . Based on his performance at Montreal it seemed a foregone conclusion that Robinson would get a chance with the parent team, but he was still listed on the Royals’ roster when the workouts started. Rickey chose Havana to avoid the racial attitudes of the spring training sites in the South. His plan was to allow the Dodgers’ veterans to gradually get used to having Jackie around and to see for themselves what an asset he would be to their pennant prospects. Three other black players, Roy Campanella , Don Newcombe , and Roy Partlow , were also on hand. Rickey scheduled a seven-game exhibition series between the Dodgers and the Royals to showcase Robinson’s skills, and Jackie dominated the contests with a .625 batting average.

One problem that Rickey and Robinson had to overcome was that the Dodgers had Eddie Stanky playing second base. Therefore it was determined that Robinson would make his major-league debut at first base, a strange position for a man who had always been involved in the action in the middle of the diamond. 

During training camp, a crisis arose when a core of Southerners on the team began to circulate a petition against Robinson. The dissenters were reportedly led by outfielder Dixie Walker , who initially dismissed the news of Robinson’s signing with the comment, “As long as he isn’t with the Dodgers, I’m not worried.” 11 Rickey and manager Leo Durocher promptly quashed the mini-rebellion. Shortly thereafter, Durocher, an avid Robinson supporter, received a one-year suspension from the commissioner’s office for associating with gamblers and other “unsavory” characters. Rickey deftly took advantage of the cover provided by the resulting clamor to quietly transfer Robinson to the Brooklyn roster.

Contrary to dire predictions, Robinson’s first season in the major leagues went fairly smoothly as the rookie steadfastly stuck by his promise to Rickey to turn the other cheek. Tension surrounding his first game was defused by a series of preseason exhibition contests against the Yankees in New York, and Jackie’s Opening Day debut against the Braves was actually somewhat anticlimactic. 

He received death threats when the club visited Cincinnati, but, in an oft-told but undocumented story, Dodgers shortstop Pee Wee Reese, a native son of Kentucky, draped an arm over the shoulders of the nervous rookie infielder in a courageous public show of support. Later, a threatened strike by the St. Louis Cardinals was short-circuited by a show of force by league president Ford Frick .

Jackie’s worst experience came at the hands of the Philadelphia Phillies. Led by manager Ben Chapman , the Phils baited Robinson so cruelly that he later admitted, “It brought me nearer to cracking up than I had ever been.” 12 But the Chapman episode actually served to strengthen support for Robinson and even converted some of his detractors. Stanky, who originally had opposed playing with Robinson, challenged the Phillies to pick on someone who could fight back. Public reaction against Chapman was so severe that he had to ask Robinson to pose for a photo with him to save his job. Jackie graciously complied.

For his rookie campaign, Robinson hit .297, led the league with 29 stolen bases, and finished second in the National League with 125 runs scored. In 151 games he lashed out 175 hits, including 12 home runs. Usually hitting second in the batting order, he walked 74 times and led the league in sacrifice hits. On defense, his 16 errors at first base were the second-highest total in the league, but his fielding was generally considered adequate. 

With Robinson the biggest addition to the lineup, the Dodgers captured the National League pennant. In the World Series, Jackie and his teammates lost to the powerful Yankees in a thrilling seven-game classic. The 1947 season was the first in which the full membership of the Baseball Writers Association of America selected a Rookie of the Year, and Robinson beat out 21-game winner Larry Jansen of the New York Giants for the award. In the National League Most Valuable Player voting, he finished fifth. At season’s end, Dixie Walker admitted that “(Robinson) is everything Branch Rickey said he was when he came up from Montreal.” 13

The integration of major-league baseball proceeded without critical incident. Though Robinson was scorned by some of his teammates, was harassed by enemy bench jockeys, and received a steady diet of fastballs close to his head; he faithfully abided by his promise to Rickey to turn the other cheek. Even when veteran outfielder Enos “Country” Slaughter of the Cardinals appeared to deliberately try to maim him with his spikes in an August 20 game at Ebbets Field , Jackie didn’t retaliate. 

In fact, baseball’s “Great Experiment” was a huge success. Despite the concerns of the owners, integration proved to be a financial windfall for major-league baseball. Robinson and the Dodgers eclipsed the home attendance record they had set the previous year. They also broke single-game attendance records in every National League ballpark they played in during the 1947 season, with the exception of Cincinnati’s Crosley Field, where the attendance record for the first major-league night game held up. Near the end of the season, Jackie was feted by fans with a day in his honor. At year’s end, he finished runner-up to crooner Bing Crosby in a national popularity poll. 

Before the 1948 season, Eddie Stanky was swapped to the Boston Braves to open up the Dodgers’ second-base slot for Robinson. Jackie reported to camp out of shape and got off to a poor start. He was shifted back to first base for 30 games while utilityman Eddie Miksis manned second for the Dodgers. Eventually, Gil Hodges emerged as the club’s regular first baseman, and Robinson returned to second. He finished strong at the plate, ending the year with a .296 batting mark and leading the league’s regular second basemen in fielding percentage. Spending more time in the power spots in the batting order, he drove in 85 runs, tops on the disappointing third-place squad. 

In 1949, Robinson enjoyed the best season of his career, establishing career highs in games played, hits, batting average, slugging, runs batted in, and stolen bases as the Dodgers captured the National League pennant by a single game. He won the batting title with a .342 mark and his major-league-leading 37 steals were the highest total in the National League in 19 years. He finished second in the league in runs batted in (124), hits (203), and on-base percentage (.432), and third in slugging average (.528), runs scored (122), doubles (38), and triples (12). His efforts were rewarded with his selection as the National League Most Valuable Player. 

Robinson enjoyed two more superb seasons in 1950 and 1951, batting .328 and .338 and finishing second and third respectively in the batting race. Both years the Dodgers lost the pennant on the last day of the season, although Jackie’s heroics kept them in the hunt until the bitter end. In 1951, his spectacular play forced the playoff with the Giants that would be decided by Bobby Thomson ‘s momentous home run . In the final regular-season contest against the Phillies, Robinson prevented the winning run from scoring in the ninth inning with a sensational diving catch, and blasted a game-winning homer in the 14th inning. 

The Dodgers returned to the top of the National League standings in 1952 as Robinson hit .308, scored 104 runs, stole 24 bases, and belted 19 homers. During the 1953 season, Jackie Robinson may have had his finest moment. He had worked hard to develop into a fine defensive second baseman. In 1951 he led National League second sackers in fielding and double plays, and had repeated as the double-play leader in 1952. But the Dodgers had a young black second baseman in their system, Jim Gilliam , who was ready for the big time. 

Jackie graciously agreed to move to another position to make room for the rookie. The 34 -year-old veteran played 76 games in the outfield, and appeared 44 times at third base, nine times at second, and six times at first base during the 1953 campaign. He even filled in at shortstop in one game, the only time he played his original position as a major leaguer. He hit .329, drove in 95 runs, and scored 109 times. Gilliam expertly filled the Dodgers’ leadoff spot and was selected the National League Rookie of the Year.

The 1954 campaign was Robinson’s last good season. Again shuttling between left field and third base, he batted .311, but age and accumulated injuries were starting to catch up with him. He stole only seven bases and missed 30 games.

In 1955, the year the Brooklyn Dodgers captured their first world championship , Robinson had the worst season statistically of his outstanding career. Sharing third base with light-hitting Don Hoak , he appeared in the field in fewer than 100 games and batted only .256. In the Dodgers’ epic World Series victory, Robinson was at third base for six of the seven contests and though he hit poorly, he scored five times, including his shocking Game One steal of home.

Jackie rallied to hit .275 in 1956, his final season, while sharing third base with newly acquired Randy Jackson and occasionally filling in at second. Though a mere shadow of his former self, the 37-year-old veteran was still a force at the plate and on the basepaths. In the Dodgers’ seven-game World Series loss to the Yankees, Jackie drew five walks, scored five times, and blasted a home run. He struck out in his last professional at-bat, but fittingly he went down fighting. Yankees catcher Yogi Berra had to throw him out at first base after dropping the third strike. 

Jackie’s last years with the Dodgers had not been harmonious. He disliked both manager Walt Alston and owner Walter O’Malley , whose power play forced Branch Rickey out of the Brooklyn front office in 1950. Though the Dodgers had captured the 1956 pennant, the once dominating nucleus was growing old. Robinson himself was no longer a top performer on the field and had become increasingly outspoken on racial issues both inside and outside of baseball. The Dodgers brass was hoping he’d step down gracefully, but Jackie refused to announce his retirement. Finally the club forced his hand by swapping him to the New York Giants on December 13, 1956, for journeyman hurler Dick Littlefield and $30,000 in cash.

On January 22, 1957 Robinson’s retirement from baseball was announced in an exclusive article in Look magazine, in which he took a few parting shots at the remaining segregated teams in the majors. Jackie had actually decided to retire before he was dealt to the Giants, but couldn’t say anything earlier because of his deal with Look . The Giants reportedly offered him $60,000 to stay, and the prospect of playing alongside Willie Mays definitely had some appeal. But when Brooklyn general manager Buzzy Bavasi publicly implied that Robinson was just trying to use the magazine article to get a better contract, he decided to prove the Dodgers wrong and declined the Giants’ offer. 

Though Robinson’s career as a major-league baseball player was over, he wasn’t about to retire from the spotlight. He joined the Chock Full o’Nuts coffee company as a vice president and served as the chairman of the Board of Freedom National Bank, founded to provide loans and banking services for minority members who were largely being ignored by establishment banks. He authored several autobiographical works, wrote a weekly newspaper column, and hosted a radio show. Earlier he even tried his hand at acting, starring in the movie The Jackie Robinson Story .

Robinson remained an unofficial spokesman for African Americans and a relentless crusader for civil rights. He became embroiled in politics. Though a strong supporter of Martin Luther King and the NAACP, he endorsed Richard Nixon over John F. Kennedy for president in 1960 because he felt Kennedy had not made it “his business to know colored people.” Reportedly it was an action that he later came to regret.

In 1962 Robinson was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He was inducted along with former Cleveland pitching great Bob Feller, who had once predicted that Jackie’s “football shoulders” would keep him from hitting big-league pitching. A few years after his retirement from baseball, Robinson acknowledged that he suffered from diabetes. His health declined under the ravages of the disease and at the age of 53 he suffered a fatal heart attack at his home in Stamford, Connecticut. He died on October 24, 1972, only months after his number 42 was officially retired by the Dodgers. 

Although he always denied it, there’s evidence that Robinson may have been the first insulin-dependent diabetic to play major-league baseball, despite his claim that it hadn’t been diagnosed while he was an active player. But former tennis great Bill Talbert, a close friend of Robinson’s and the first famous athlete known to perform with diabetes, believed that Jackie became insulin-dependent in midcareer.  “I think Jackie felt it was a weakness. With all the publicity about blacks in baseball, he didn’t want another thing to talk about,” Talbert said after Robinson’s death. 14

More than two thousand people packed Riverside Church on Manhattan’s Upper West Side to hear the young Rev. Jesse Jackson deliver Jackie Robinson’s eulogy. Tens of thousands lined the streets of Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant to watch the passage of his mile-long funeral procession. Robinson is buried in Cyprus Hill Cemetery in Brooklyn, along with his mother-in-law Zellee Isum and his son Jack Roosevelt, Jr. He was survived by his wife Rachel, son David and daughter Sharon.

Shortly after his death Robinson’s ordeals and accomplishments were the subject of a Broadway musical, The First . In 1987, on the 40th anniversary of his breaking of color barrier, the Rookie of the Year Award was redesignated as the Jackie Robinson Award in honor of its first recipient. On the 50th anniversary of his debut, his number 42 was permanently retired by all major-league teams, although current major leaguers already wearing the number were allowed to keep it for the remainder of their careers.

Among the adjectives often used to describe Robinson’s personal makeup are fearless, courageous, dynamic, defiant, and proud. But the most frequently used descriptor is probably aggressive. It’s a word that defines his public life as a tireless campaigner against discrimination as well as his history making athletic career. Jackie, who was not known for self-deprecation, made the greatest understatement of his life in 1945 at the announcement of his signing. “Maybe I’m doing something for my race,” he ventured. 15

Former teammate Joe Black , speaking for generations of black ballplayers, later said, “When I look at my house. I say ‘Thank God for Jackie Robinson.’” 16

This biography is an adaptation from “The Black Stars Who Made Baseball Whole: The Jackie Robinson Generation in the Major Leagues” by Rick Swaine (McFarland, 2006). It also appears in SABR’s “The Team That Forever Changed Baseball and America: The 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers” (University of Nebraska Press, 2012), edited by Lyle Spatz.

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also consulted:

Frommer, Harvey. Rickey & Robinson: The Men Who Broke Baseball’s Color Barrier (New York: Macmillan, 1982).

Marshall, William. Baseball’s Pivotal Era 1945-51 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1999).

Moffi, Larry, and Jonathan Kronstadt. Crossing the Line: Black Major Leaguers 1947-1959 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 1994).

Polner, Murray. Branch Rickey: A Biography (New York: Atheneum, 1982).

Rosenthal, Harold. The 10 Best Years of Baseball: An Informal History of the Fifties (Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1979).

Shatzkin, Mike, and Jim Charlton. The Ballplayers: Baseball’s Ultimate Biographical Reference (New York: Arbor House, William Morrow, 1990).

Tygiel, Jules. Extra Bases: Reflections on Jackie Robinson, Race, & Baseball History (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2002).

_____. The Jackie Robinson Reader: Perspectives of an American Hero (New York: Penguin Books, 1997).

Wilber, Cynthia J. For the Love of the Game: Baseball Memories From the Men Who Were There (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1992).

Ardolino, Frank, “Jackie Robinson and the 1941 Honolulu Bears,” The National Pastime , SABR, 1995.

Jacobs, Bruce, Baseball Stars of 1953 (New York: Timely Comics, 1953).

Kirk, Al and Robert Bradley. “Jackie Robinson and the L.A. Red Devils.” http://www.apbr.org/reddevils.html

1 Roger Kahn, The Boys of Summer , p. 358.

2 Vincent X. Flaherty – Jackie Robinson Scrapbooks per Jules Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 60.

3 Jackie Robinson Scrapbooks, 60

4 Unattributed – Jackie Robinson Scrapbooks, 60.

5 The Sporting News , November 1, 1945.

6 Pittsburgh Courier , November 3, 1945.

7 John Crosby, Syracuse Herald , November 12, 1972.

8 Pittsburgh Courier , April 27, 1946.

9 Joe Bostic, Amsterdam News , April 27, 1946.

10 Sam Maltin, Pittsburgh Courier , October 12, 1946.

11 Brooklyn Eagle , October 24, 1945.

12 Jackie Robinson and Alfred Duckett. I Never Had It Made (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1972), 64.

13 Peter Golenbock, Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1984), 165.

14 Arnold Schechter, Sports Illustrated , April 22, 1985.

15 The Sporting News , November 1, 1945.

16 New York Daily News , July 20, 1972.

Jack Roosevelt Robinson

January 31, 1919 at Cairo, GA (USA)

October 24, 1972 at Stamford, CT (USA)

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Batting Champions · Hall of Fame · Most Valuable Player · Rookie of the Year · 1940s All-Stars · 1950s All-Stars · Famous Outside Baseball · Integration Pioneers · Negro Leaguers · 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers

Biographical information from the Seamheads Negro Leagues Database appears courtesy of Agate Type Research LLC.

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About Jackie Robinson

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play Major League Baseball in the modern era. He would later become the first African American named a vice president at a fortune 500 company; serve as an advisor to politicians; start a bank and a housing development company; and, was a key figure in advancing equal opportunity and first-class citizenship for all Americans during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s. Hailed a “..freedom rider before freedom rides,” Robinson’s name has become synonymous with breaking barriers.

EARLY LIFE AND GATEWAY INTO SPORTS

Jackie Robinson was born on January 31, 1919, in Cairo, Georgia, the son of a sharecropper and the grandson of former slaves. Young Jackie grew up in Pasadena, California, raised by a single working mother of five. After graduating from Pasadena Junior College, Jackie attended the University of California Los Angeles. A star athlete, Jackie became the university’s first four-sport letter winner, excelling in football, basketball, track and field, and baseball. After leaving UCLA, he served in the U.S. Army during World War II, but was court marshalled and honorably discharged for standing up for his rights and refusing to move to the back of a segregated military bus.

Upon returning home from the military, Jackie Robinson set his sights on joining baseball’s Negro Leagues and began playing shortstop for the Kansas City Monarchs in 1945. Later that year, opportunity beckoned when Branch Rickey, the general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, invited Robinson to become the first African American to play with the all-white Dodgers’ farm team, the Montreal Royals. Anticipating the great adversity that Robinson would face as he integrated modern baseball, Rickey professed he needed a player who could bear the torment, famously telling Robinson he was “looking for a ballplayer with guts enough not to fight back.”

AN UNPRECEDENTED CAREER IN THE MAJOR LEAGUES

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson stepped onto Ebbets Field for his first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was the beginning of an unparalleled career in baseball. At the end of his explosive ten years as a Dodger, his record included a .311 batting average, 137 home runs, 734 runs batted in, and 197 stolen bases. In 1955, he helped the Dodgers beat the New York Yankees to win their first World Series Championship. Robinson took home the Rookie of the Year Award in 1947, the Most Valuable Player Award in 1949, and in 1962 became the first African American inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

THE FIGHT FOR FIRST CLASS CITIZENSHIP FOR ALL

After integrating baseball, Robinson became a full-fledged leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He used his celebrity status to further human rights and endeavored to change the landscape of race relations in the United States. Upon retiring from the game in 1957, Robinson was hired to serve as the Vice President for Personnel at Chock full o’ Nuts, the first African American to be named a Vice President of a major American company. He used his position at Chock full o’ Nuts to improve working conditions for employees.

An active member of the NAACP, Robinson was often a featured speaker at civil rights rallies including the famed March on Washington in 1963, and frequently participated in picket lines. As a nationally syndicated columnist for the New York Post and New York Amsterdam News, Robinson wrote passionately on social issues, sports, and family life, always encouraging people in his community to become active in politics and business.

In 1964, Robinson co-founded Freedom National Bank of Harlem, a Black owned and operated bank created for the express purpose of financially aiding African American communities. In 1970, he founded the Jackie Robinson Construction Company, which sought to provide housing for low-income people.

In 1972, just twenty-five years after the start of the “Great Experiment,” Jackie Robinson died following his decade long battle with diabetes.

An Enduring Legacy

1947 – Rookie of the Year Award

Honored by the Baseball Writers Association and the Sporting News, Jackie Robinson won the inaugural Rookie of the Year award for his trailblazing 1947 season. Robinson batted .297, scored 125 runs, hit 12 home runs, 31 doubles and led the National League with 29 stolen bases, taking the Brooklyn Dodgers to a World Series against the New York Yankees. Originally named the J. Louis Comiskey Memorial Rookie of the Year Award, it was renamed the Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Award in 1987 to commemorate the 40 th anniversary of Robinson breaking the color barrier.

1949 – Most Valuable Player Award

Robinson garnered 264 of 336 points from the Baseball Writer’s Association and was named the 1949 National League’s Most Valuable Player. A dominant figure on the field that year, he played all 156 games, and was the National League’s batting and base stealing champion; was second in hits (203) runs batted in (124), doubles (38), triples (12); and third in runs scored (122). He would lead the Dodgers to the World Series where they lost to the Yankees in five games.

1950 – The Jackie Robinson Story

“The Jackie Robinson Story” starring Jackie as himself and Ruby Dee as Rachel Robinson premiered May 16, 1950, beginning decades of depictions of Robinson on screen, on the stage, and in the popular culture. With Robinson starring as himself, the film attempted to capture a transformative moment, not only in baseball but in American history as it was happening. Robinson himself uses the film to open doors for African American actors, demanding that performers such as Bernie Hamilton, George Dockstader and Roy Glenn be written into the script.

1955 – World Series Champion

Jackie Robinson led the Brooklyn Dodgers to six World Series, with the team eventually winning the championship in 1955 against their cross-town rivals, the New York Yankees. Appearing in six games, Robinson went 4-for-22 with one double, one triple, one RBI, two walks and famously stole home base during game one of the series.

1956 – NAACP Spingarn Medal

The Spingarn Medal awarded annually by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1915 for outstanding achievement by an African American.  Established June 29, 1914, it is named for Joel Elias Spingarn, a white writer, educator, and civil rights activist who served as the NAACP Chairman of the Board of Directors from 1913-1919 and as president from 1930-1939. Jackie was awarded the Spingarn Medal for “superb sportsmanship and for his singular role in athletics on December 8, 1956.

1962 – Hall of Fame Induction

Five years after retiring from baseball Robinson was elected to Baseball’s Hall of Fame. He and his co-inductee Bob Feller were the first, first-ballot electees by the Baseball Writer’s Association since the inaugural class in 1936. Among his many accomplishments were his .311 batting average, 197 stolen bases, scoring more than 100 runs a year, six times and his six All Star game appearances.

1963 – Afternoon of Jazz

In response to rising racial violence and the assassination of Medgar Evers, Rachel and Jackie begin strategizing their deepening involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, culminating in a fundraising concert, An Afternoon of Jazz, on their property in Stamford, Connecticut. The concert, the first in what would become an annual event, supports Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference and features Dizzy Gillespie and Dave Brubeck. A second concert was held the first year to raise bail money for students participating in lunch counter sit-ins.

1997 – Number “42” Retired

A year-long celebration marks the 50 th anniversary of Robinson’s April 1947 debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers. In the same year, the U.S. Postal Service releases a Jackie Robinson stamp, the U.S. Mint produces gold and silver Robinson coins, and Sharon and Rachel Robinson publish books in commemoration of Robinson’s legacy. Upon the initiative of Leonard S. Coleman Jr., former president of the National League and chairman of the Jackie Robinson Foundation, Major League Baseball retires the number 42 from baseball, the only number retired throughout the leagues.

1984 – Presidential Medal of Freedom

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian decoration awarded in the U.S. by a sitting president. Jackie Robinson was posthumously awarded the medal by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, who stated, “He bravely demonstrated to all that skill and sportsmanship, not race or ethnic background, are the qualities by which athletes should be judged. In doing so, he struck a mighty blow for equality, freedom, and the American way of life.”

2005 – Congressional Gold Medal

Jackie Robinson is posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor by President George W. Bush, the legislative branch’s highest honor. The medal was presented to Rachel Robinson on March 2, 2005, in a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda before congressional leaders and the commissioner of Major League Baseball. The award honors Robinson’s contributions on the field as a talented baseball player who faced unprecedented challenges in integrating Major League Baseball. Rachel recognized the award as a tribute to her husband’s unwavering courage and conviction as a “heroic role model for Americans who believe in justice and equality.”

2013 – “42” Film Premiere

The biographical film 42 by director Brian Helgeland is released in American movie theaters starring Chadwick Boseman as Jackie Robinson and Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey on April 12, 2013. The movie tells the story Jackie Robinson’s racial integration of professional baseball and gives audiences a sense of how the legacy of Jackie Robinson has been remembered decades later.

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About jackie robinson.

Early Life and Gateway into Sports

An Unprecedented Career in the Major League

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson stepped onto Ebbets Field for his first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was the beginning of an unparalleled career in baseball. At the end of his explosive nine years as a Dodger, his record included a .311 batting average, 137 home runs, 734 runs batted in, and 197 stolen bases. In 1955, he helped the Dodgers beat the New York Yankees to win their first World Series Championship. Robinson took home the Rookie of the Year Award in 1947, the Most Valuable Player Award in 1949, and in 1962 became the first African American inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The Fight for First Class Citizenship for All

“...Impact on Other Lives”

Following Robinson’s death, Rachel Robinson became President of the Jackie Robinson Construction Corporation and renamed the company the Jackie Robinson Development Corporation. The company, responsible for building 1,600 units, specialized in building low-to-moderate income housing.

In 1973, with the assistance of Martin L. Edelman, Charles Williams and Franklin H. Williams, Mrs. Robinson honored her husband's memory by establishing The Jackie Robinson Foundation (JRF). As Robinson’s living legacy, JRF provides four-year scholarships and a host of support services, including career guidance, internship placement, and leadership development opportunities to talented college students with limited financial resources. To date, 1,700 college scholars from 45 states who have attended 260 colleges and universities have benefitted from JRF’s Scholars Program. Jackie Robinson’s achievements have been honored by three Presidents: On March 26, 1984, President Ronald Reagan posthumously awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom; during the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's historic entry into baseball, President William J. Clinton led a ceremony with Major League Baseball to honor his number "42" in perpetuity; and on October 10, 2003, the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation's highest civilian award bestowed by Congress, was awarded posthumously to Jackie Robinson. President George W. Bush and the leadership of the United States Congress presented the award to Rachel Robinson during a ceremony held in the Capitol Rotunda on March 2, 2005.

Baseball Career Stats

1947 - rookie of the year award.

Jackie Robinson won the inaugural Rookie of the Year Award during the trailblazing 1947 season in which he batted .297, scored 125 runs, hit 12 home runs and 31 doubles and led the league with 29 stolen bases while helping the Brooklyn Dodgers to the World Series. The Rookie of the Year Award was originally known as the J. Louis Comiskey Award and was a single award for the Major Leagues. In 1949, the award was expanded to include both the American League Rookie of the Year and the National League Rookie of the Year. In 1987, the award was renamed the Jackie Robinson Award.

1949 – Most Valuable Player Award

Robinson garnered 264 of 336 points from the Baseball Writer’s Association and was named the 1949 National League’s Most Valuable Player. A dominant figure on the field that year, he played all 156 games, and was the National League’s batting and base stealing champion; was second in hits (203) runs batted in (124), doubles (38), triples (12); and third in runs scored (122). He would lead the Dodgers to the World Series where they lost to the Yankees in five games.

1955 - World Series Champion

Jackie Robinson led the Brooklyn Dodgers to six World Series, with the team eventually winning the championship in 1955 against their cross-town rivals, the New York Yankees. Appearing in six games, Robinson went 4-for-22 with one double, one triple, one RBI, two walks and famously stole home base during game one of the series.

1962 - Hall of Fame Induction

Five years after retiring from baseball Robinson was elected to Baseball’s Hall of Fame. He and his co-inductee Bob Feller were the first, first-ballot electees by the Baseball Writer’s Association since the inaugural class in 1936. Among his many accomplishments were his .311 batting average, 197 stolen bases, scoring more than 100 runs a year, six times and his six All Star game appearances.

1997 – Number “42” Retired

On April 15, 1997, to mark the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s barrier breaking feat, MLB Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig, Jr. joined by Rachel Robinson and President Bill Clinton, announced the retirement of Robinson’s number “42” throughout baseball in a nationally televised ceremony. Beginning in 2007, all MLB personnel wear the number “42” on April 15th to commemorate Robinson’s contributions to sport and society.

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Jackie Robinson: His Life and Career in Pictures

By: Missy Sullivan

Updated: January 9, 2024 | Original: April 30, 2022

When Jackie Robinson  started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947, he not only integrated  Major League Baseball. He was signaling to the nation—on one of its biggest stages—that Black Americans would no longer accept second-class status. 

“Jackie Robinson gave all of us—not only black athletes, but every black person in this country—a sense of our own strength,” wrote slugger Hank Aaron in his introduction to Robinson’s autobiography I Never Had It Made.

Robinson's strength was not only as a gifted athlete and fierce competitor who earned Rookie of the Year, MVP and six-time All-Star status. His strength manifested itself as dogged perseverance in the face of a tidal wave of racism—from daily taunts and threats to broad institutional inequities. The pressure took an enormous toll.

Robinson's athletic brilliance and contributions to history earned all manner of accolades, from Baseball Hall of Fame induction to the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Major League Baseball  retiring his number “42” in 1997—a first for any athlete, in any sport. Shortly before the Hall of Fame ceremony, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr . paid tribute to Robinson's pioneering achievements this way: “Back in the days when integration wasn’t fashionable, he underwent the trauma and the humiliation and the loneliness that comes with being a pilgrim walking the lonesome byways toward the high road of Freedom. He was a sit-inner before sit-ins , a freedom rider before freedom rides .” 

Robinson's effort—and sacrifice—spurred a cascade of civil rights advances. A year after he integrated pro baseball, Harry Truman ordered the U.S. military desegregated . Six years later, the Supreme Court decided, in Brown v. Board of Education , to desegregate public schools. Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott soon followed. “His courage and bravery played a major role in the history of integration, both on the field and throughout American society,” wrote Harvard historian Henry Louis Gates, “and no history of the civil rights movement would be complete without noting Robinson’s major role.” 

Below, a look at Robinson's extraordinary life and career in photos.

Jackie Robinson Was Born in Georgia

Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born near Cairo, Georgia in 1919, the son of sharecroppers and the grandson of enslaved workers. After Jack’s philandering father abandoned the family, his mother Mallie took her five children and moved with other family members to start a new life in Pasadena, California. Jack, her youngest, wasn’t yet two years old.

In Pasadena, his mother worked as a maid for a white family, one of the few jobs available in the strictly segregated city. Together with her siblings, she bought a five-bedroom house at 121 Pepper Street, where Jack lived until he left home in 1941. For much of his childhood, Jack was cared for by his sister Willa Mae, just two years older, while his mother worked to support the family. 

The house had a shady yard with fruit trees, and Mallie grew vegetables and raised chickens, rabbits and more. But with few jobs open to Pasadena's Black citizens, the family struggled to keep food on the table, especially during the Depression . Despite persistent racism, Mallie gradually won over hostile neighbors trying to run the Robinsons off their block. According to biographer Arnold Rampersad, who was given full access to the Robinson family archive, she instilled in her children “the importance of family, education, optimism, self-discipline and, above all, God.”

A gifted athlete from childhood, Robinson became a dominant figure in Southern California sports. He stood out at Pasadena Junior College, and later at UCLA, as the only student to letter in four sports: football, basketball, baseball and track. He broke the NCAA long jump record in 1940, besting the high mark set by his brother Mack, an outstanding athlete who had earned a silver medal in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. In 1940, Jack also led UCLA's football team in passing, rushing and scoring. 

During his college years, Jack met his future wife, a nursing student named Rachel Annetta Isum. In March 1941, a few months shy of graduation, he left school to help with family finances.

Robinson Had a Rocky Stint in the US Army

After receiving his military draft notice in March 1943, Robinson reported to Fort Riley, Kansas for basic training. After racism initially barred him and other Black recruits from Officer Candidate School—despite their clear eligibility—they were eventually accepted. But his time in the mostly segregated U.S. Army would prove deeply frustrating. It ended not long after an incident near Fort Hood, Texas where, 11 years before Rosa Parks' historic defiance, Robinson raised a ruckus by refusing to move to the back of a bus. Handcuffed, shackled and put under house arrest, he was ultimately court-martialed for disrespecting and disobeying a superior officer. Acquitted of all charges, he received an honorable discharge in 1944, having reached the rank of second lieutenant.

After a standout season with the Negro League’s Kansas City Monarchs, batting .345, Robinson was approached by a scout for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He said the team’s president, Branch Rickey, wanted to talk to Jack about coming to play for the “Brooklyn Brown Dodgers,” an all-Black team he was starting. But that turned out to be a ruse.

Rickey, who was morally opposed to Jim Crow segregation (and had a portrait of Abraham Lincoln hanging in his office), was determined to integrate pro baseball, which had not fielded a Black player since the late 19th century. To that end, he had been scouting Negro League teams for someone with not only the athletic prowess, but with the fortitude and self-discipline to “turn the other cheek” when faced with the inevitable onslaught of racist taunts and threats.

In their first meeting, Rickey role-played the kind of insults, humiliations and vitriol Robinson would experience. He mimicked hotel clerks and waitresses who would refuse to serve him and channeled opponents who would bean him or spike him. Robinson, who had faced a lifetime of racism with a combination of defiance, pride and seething stoicism, promised Rickey he would keep his composure. On October 23, 1945, he signed an agreement that would change the course of baseball—and the course of the American civil rights movement. He would start by playing on the Montreal Royals, the Dodgers’ International League farm team.

LISTEN: Jackie Robinson Tries Out for the Majors on HISTORY This Week

When Rickey had first interviewed Robinson about joining the Dodgers, one of the first questions he asked was, “Do you have a woman?… You’ll need her.” Before reporting to spring training in the spring of 1946, Jack and Rachel returned to Los Angeles for a big church wedding on February 10. After meeting six years earlier at UCLA and enduring long separations during both wartime and his Negro League season, the two finally wed.

When training camp started in Florida a few weeks later, Rachel was the only player’s wife allowed to attend. With Jack barred from the team’s hotels and restaurants, and constantly in the spotlight, the couple deepened their bond as they together experienced the harsh Jim Crow realities and processed the immense stress. “Rachel’s understanding love,” Jack later recounted, “was a powerful antidote for being taunted by fans, sneered at by fellow players, and constantly mistreated because of my blackness.” They protected each other as they built their family: Jackie Jr. was born in November of that year, with siblings Sharon (b. 1950) and David (b. 1952) to follow. 

After one season with the Royals, where he hit .349, scored 113 runs and stole 40 bases in 124 games, Jackie was called up to the Dodgers in the spring of 1947. Under crushing pressure to represent his race as both an athlete and a paragon of virtue and endurance, Robinson went on to have a banner first season in Brooklyn, being named Rookie of the Year and helping the Dodgers win the National League pennant. Two years later, in 1949, he was named the league’s MVP, having hit .342, stolen 37 bases and batted in a career-high 124 runs. 

Known for his explosive speed and prowess at the plate (with a career batting average of .313), Robinson also was a canny bunter and tormented pitchers and infielders by constantly dancing off the base. Over his decade-long career in the majors, he scored 972 runs, made 1,563 hits and stole 200 bases—19 of which were home plate. Robinson earned All-Star status for six consecutive seasons from 1949 through 1954.

Robinson achieved all that while serving as a one-man lightning rod for America’s deep racial strife.

It started in the Dodgers’ clubhouse. In the spring of 1947, a core group of Southern veterans—including Dixie Walker, a hard-hitting fan favorite, and pitcher Kirby Higbe, who claimed to have built up his arm throwing rocks at neighborhood Black kids in his youth—reportedly circulated a petition to keep Robinson off the Brooklyn squad. Team manager Leo Durocher castigated Walker in front of the team, making clear the organization's stance: “I don’t care if he’s black or yellow or has stripes like a [expletive] zebra, I’m the manager of this team and I say he plays.” The Dodgers traded Higbe that May, and Walker after the 1947 season. In time, Robinson won over white teammates with his grace, humility, sportsmanship, grit and talent.

Around the league, other teams lost no time in expressing their displeasure about a Black player in their midst. Within six weeks of his historic debut, Robinson was hit by pitches six times—according to Rampersad, more than any player in the league had been hit in the entire previous season. Before batting helmets were instituted, Robinson's rookie-year cap had three protective metal plates sewn inside the lining to protect him from deliberate pitches to the head. 

In Philadelphia, team manager Ben Chapman famously unleashed a torrent of brutal racist taunts at the new player, while Philly players pointed bats at him as if they were machine guns. Robinson later called that the moment when he came closest to violating his agreement with Rickey not to lose his composure and retaliate. The behavior was so abhorrent that the city of Philadelphia formally apologized to the Robinson family seven decades later.

The American public, widely divided about integrating the nation's favorite pastime, deluged Robinson with fan mail, hate mail, autograph and appearance requests and death threats. Everyone wanted a piece of Jackie: Politicians wanted to stand in his reflective glow with Black voters. African Americans wanted to bask in his success—and the massive symbol of opportunity it represented. His time off the field was rarely his own. And his safety was never assured.

As a high-profile public figure, Robinson had a hard time not being drawn into the political sphere. Many people were eager to capitalize on his iconic status in the Black community to further their own agendas. 

In 1949, the House Un-American Activities Committee  called on Robinson to testify before Congress about Black loyalty to the nation. Concerned about communist organizing among minority groups, they wanted him to refute a controversial statement made earlier that year by Black performer and activist Paul Robeson, who had called it "unthinkable" that racially oppressed Blacks would go to war against the Soviet Union . 

Despite objections from civil rights leaders and others, Robinson went to  Capitol Hill . There, he expressed that Robeson, who he deeply respected, didn’t speak for all African Americans and that he was certain that people of his race would ​​"do their best to help their country win the war, against Russia or any other enemy that threatened us." He then used the spotlight to underscore the importance of fighting racial discrimination, saying, “We can win our fight without the communists and we don't want their help." After Joseph McCarthy turned HUAC into an overreaching vehicle for Cold War witch hunts, Robinson later expressed regret at accepting the committee's invitation.

When vice-presidential candidate Richard M. Nixon met Robinson in 1952, the two native Southern Californians bonded after Nixon excitedly recounted, in remarkable detail, specific football plays he had seen Robinson make at UCLA. Robinson, a Republican, supported Nixon’s 1960 presidential candidacy against John F. Kennedy. But after his disappointments mounted regarding Nixon’s sincerity over civil rights issues, Robinson went on to support Nelson Rockefeller’s candidacy in 1964 and Hubert Humphrey ’s in 1968.

After Baseball, Robinson Split His Time Between Business, Activism and Service

Even before his career with the Dodgers finished, Robinson had many irons in the fire. By the early 1950s, he had begun engaging in business deals and using his fame and influence to advocate for Black Americans politically, socially and economically.

When Robinson left UCLA in 1941, he took a series of jobs focusing on coaching and youth development. It was a lifelong passion he would return to later in his career. In February 1952, while still employed with the Dodgers, Robinson signed a contract with NBC's flagship New York City TV stations to serve as a vice president and director of community activities. In addition to some on-air duties, his mission was to help develop youth programs in collaboration with groups such as the YMCA, the Police Athletic League, the Boy Scouts and the Catholic Youth Organization.

The private-sector job that seduced Robinson away from baseball for good came from the New York City coffee shop chain Chock Full O' Nuts. Known for treating employees well, and hiring from all races, the company offered Robinson the position of vice president in charge of personnel, which give him responsibility for more than 1,000 employees, many Black. His compensation included a $30,000 annual salary, a company car and stock options. He worked there until 1964.

In breaking baseball's color barrier, Robinson instantly became a national symbol of the pressing need for racial equality. So it was no stretch for him to engage in civil rights activism. In addition to fundraising for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Martin Luther King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference, he avidly worked his political connections, calling and writing Dwight Eisenhower , Richard Nixon, Nelson Rockefeller and others to press for concrete action. He became a financial activist as well, starting the Freedom National Bank, the largest black-owned bank in New York State, as well as a company that built low-income housing. The Jackie Robinson Foundation, launched by his widow after her husband's 1972 death, carried on his commitment to Black youth, offering scholarships, mentoring and leadership training.

Jackie Robinson

• Occupation: Baseball Player
• Born: January 31, 1919 in Cairo, Georgia
• Died: October 24, 1972 in Stamford, Connecticut
• Best known for: The first African-American to play Major League Baseball

• His middle name was Roosevelt in honor of President Theodore Roosevelt .
• Robinson's grandparents grew up enslaved in Georgia.
• There have been several movies made about Robinson's life including the 1950 film The Jackie Robinson Story and the 2013 movie 42 .
• In 1997, Major League Baseball retired Robinson's jersey number, 42, for the entire league.
• April 15th is celebrated by baseball as Jackie Robinson Day. On this day all players and managers wear the number 42 in honor of Jackie.
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The 10 Best Books on Jackie Robinson

Essential books on jackie robinson.

There are countless books on Jackie Robinson, and it comes with good reason, he was an athlete who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947.

“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives,” he remarked.

In order to get to the bottom of what inspired one of history’s most consequential figures to the heights of societal contribution, we’ve compiled a list of the 10 best books on Jackie Robinson.

Jackie Robinson: A Biography by Arnold Rampersad

The extraordinary life of Jackie Robinson is illuminated as never before in this full-scale biography by Arnold Rampersad, who was chosen by Jack’s widow, Rachel, to tell her husband’s story, and was given unprecedented access to his private papers. We are brought closer than we have ever been to the great ballplayer, a man of courage and quality who became a pivotal figure in the areas of race and civil rights.

Born in the rural South, the son of a sharecropper, Robinson was reared in southern California. We see him blossom there as a student-athlete as he struggled against poverty and racism to uphold the beliefs instilled in him by his mother – faith in family, education, America, and God.

We follow Robinson through World War II, when, in the first wave of racial integration in the armed forces, he was commissioned as an officer, then court-martialed after refusing to move to the back of a bus. After he plays in the Negro National League, we watch the opening of an all-American drama as, late in 1945, Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers recognized Jack as the right player to break baseball’s color barrier – and the game was forever changed.

Jack’s never-before-published letters open up his relationship with his family, especially his wife, Rachel, whom he married just as his perilous venture of integrating baseball began. Her memories are a major resource of the narrative as we learn about the severe harassment Robinson endured from teammates and opponents alike; about death threats and exclusion; about joy and remarkable success. We watch his courageous response to abuse, first as a stoic endurer, then as a fighter who epitomized courage and defiance.

True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson by Kostya Kennedy

For players, fans, managers, and executives, Jackie Robinson remains baseball’s singular figure, the person who most profoundly extended, and continues to extend, the reach of the game. Beyond Ruth. Beyond Clemente. Beyond Aaron. Beyond the heroes of today. Now, a half-century since Robinson’s death, letters come to his widow, Rachel, by the score. But Robinson’s impact extended far beyond baseball: he opened the door for Black Americans to participate in other sports, and was a national figure who spoke and wrote eloquently about inequality.

True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson by Kostya Kennedy is an unconventional biography, focusing on four transformative years in Robinson’s athletic and public life: 1946, his first year playing in the essentially all-white minor leagues for the Montreal Royals; 1949, when he won the Most Valuable Player Award in his third season as a Brooklyn Dodger; 1956, his final season in major league baseball, when he played valiantly despite his increasing health struggles; and 1972, the year of his untimely death. Through it all, Robinson remained true to the effort and the mission, true to his convictions and contradictions.

I Never Had it Made by Jackie Robinson

Before Reggie Jackson, before Hank Aaron, baseball’s stars had one undeniable trait in common: they were all white. In 1947, Jackie Robinson broke that barrier, striking a crucial blow for racial equality and changing the world of sports forever.  I Never Had It Made is Robinson’s own candid, hard-hitting account of what it took to become the first black man in history to play in the major leagues.

Robinson recalls his early years and influences: his time at UCLA, where he became the school’s first four-letter athlete; his army stint during World War II, when he challenged Jim Crow laws and narrowly escaped court martial; his years of frustration, on and off the field, with the Negro Leagues; and finally that fateful day when Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers proposed what became known as the “Noble Experiment” – Robinson would step up to bat to integrate and revolutionize baseball.

42 Faith by Ed Henry

Journalist and baseball lover Ed Henry reveals for the first time the backstory of faith that guided Jackie Robinson into not only the baseball record books but the annals of civil rights advancement as well. Through recently discovered sermons, interviews with Robinson’s family and friends, and even an unpublished book by the player himself, Henry details a side of Jackie’s humanity that few have taken the time to see.

Branch Rickey, the famed owner who risked it all by signing Jackie to his first contract, is also shown as a complex individual who wanted nothing more than to make his God-fearing mother proud of him. Few know the level at which Rickey struggled with his decision, only moving forward after a private meeting with a minister he’d just met. It turns out Rickey was not as certain about signing Robinson as historians have always assumed.

With many baseball stories to enthrall even the most ardent enthusiast,  42 Faith   also digs deep into why Jackie was the man he was and what both drove him and challenged him after his retirement. From his early years before baseball, to his time with Rickey and the Dodgers, to his failing health in his final years, we see a man of faith that few have recognized.

Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball by Scott Simon

The integration of baseball in 1947 had undeniable significance for the civil rights movement and American history. Thanks to Jackie Robinson, a barrier that had once been believed to be permanent was shattered – paving the way for scores of African Americans who wanted nothing more than to be granted the same rights as any other human being.

In this critically-acclaimed installment to the ever-growing index of books on Jackie Robinson, renowned broadcaster Scott Simon reveals how Robinson’s heroism brought the country face-to-face with the question of racial equality. From his days in the army to his ascent to the major leagues, Robinson battled bigotry at every turn. Simon deftly traces the journey of the rookie who became Rookie of the Year, recalling the taunts and threats, the stolen bases and the slides to home plate, the trials and triumphs. Robinson’s number, 42, has been retired by every club in major league baseball – in homage to the man who had to hang his first Brooklyn Dodgers uniform on a hook rather than in a locker.

Jackie Robinson: A Spiritual Biography by Michael G. Long

Jackie Robinson believed in a God who sides with the oppressed and who calls us to see one another as sisters and brothers. This faith was a powerful but quiet engine that drove and sustained him as he shattered racial barriers on and beyond the baseball diamond.   Jackie Robinson: A Spiritual Biography explores the faith that, Robinson said, carried him through the torment and abuse he suffered for integrating the major leagues and drove him to get involved in the civil rights movement. Marked by sacrifice and service, inclusiveness and hope, Robinson’s faith shaped not only his character but also baseball and America itself.

Promises to Keep by Sharon Robinson

A warm, intimate portrait of Jackie Robinson, America’s sports icon, told from the unique perspective of a unique insider: his only daughter.

Sharon Robinson shares memories of her famous father in this warm loving biography of the man who broke the color barrier in baseball. Jackie Robinson was an outstanding athlete, a devoted family man and a dedicated civil rights activist. The author explores the fascinating circumstances surrounding Jackie Robinson’s breakthrough. She also tells the off-the-field story of Robinson’s hard-won victories and the inspiring effect he had on his family, his community…his country!

Opening Day by Jonathan Eig

April 15, 1947, marked the most important opening day in baseball history. When Jackie Robinson stepped onto the diamond that afternoon at Ebbets Field, he became the first black man to break into major-league baseball in the twentieth century. World War II had just ended. Democracy had triumphed. Now Americans were beginning to press for justice on the home front – and Robinson had a chance to lead the way.

In  this hallmark among books on Jackie Robinson , Jonathan Eig tells the true story behind the national pastime’s most sacred myth. He offers new insights into events of sixty years ago and punctures some familiar legends. Opening Day is also the story of a team of underdogs that came together against tremendous odds to capture the pennant. Facing the powerful New York Yankees, Robinson and the Dodgers battled to the seventh game in one of the most thrilling World Series competitions of all time.

The Black Bruins by James W. Johnson

The Black Bruins chronicles the inspirational lives of five Black athletes who faced racial discrimination as teammates at UCLA in the late 1930s. Best known among them was Jackie Robinson, a four‑star athlete for the Bruins who went on to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball and become a leader in the civil rights movement after his retirement. Joining him were Kenny Washington, Woody Strode, Ray Bartlett, and Tom Bradley – the four played starring roles in an era when fewer than a dozen major colleges had black players on their rosters. This rejection of the “gentleman’s agreement,” which kept teams from fielding black players against all-white teams, inspired black Angelinos and the African American press to adopt the teammates as their own.

Kenny Washington became the first African American player to sign with an NFL team in the post-World War II era and later became a Los Angeles police officer and actor. Woody Strode, a Bruins football and track star, broke into the NFL with Washington in 1946 as a Los Angeles Ram and went on to act in at least fifty‑seven full-length feature films. Ray Bartlett, a football, basketball, baseball, and track athlete, became the second African American to join the Pasadena Police Department, later donating his time to civic affairs and charity. Tom Bradley, a runner for the Bruins’ track team, spent twenty years fighting racial discrimination in the Los Angeles Police Department before being elected the first black mayor of Los Angeles.

Strength for the Fight by Gary Scott Smith

The integration of Major League Baseball in 1947 was a triumph. But it was also a fight. As the first Black major leaguer since the 1880s, Jackie Robinson knew he was not going to be welcomed into America’s pastime with open arms. Anticipating hostility, he promised Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey that he would “turn the other cheek” during his first years in the league, despite his fiercely competitive disposition. Robinson later said that his faith in God had sustained him – giving him the strength he needed to play the game he loved at the highest level without retaliating against the abuse inflicted upon him by opposing players and fans.

Robinson’s faith will resonate with many Christians who believe, as he did, that “a person can be quite religious and at the same time militant in the defense of his ideals.” This religious biography of Robinson chronicles the important role of faith in his life, from his childhood to his groundbreaking baseball career through his transformative civil rights work, and, in the process, helps to humanize the man who has become a mythic figure in both sports history and American culture.

If you enjoyed this guide to essential Jackie Robinson books, check out our list of The 20 Best Books on Martin Luther King, Jr !

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Jackie robinson statue thief pleads guilty, facing 19 years in prison, jackie robinson ks statue thief pleads guilty ... facing 19+ years in prison.

The 45-year-old man who stole and destroyed a Jackie Robinson statue in Kansas pled guilty on Thursday to multiple charges, including theft, and is now facing over 19 years behind bars!

Remember, the large Jackie statue was stolen on January 25 from a youth baseball park in Wichita, KS ... only to be found burned and destroyed days later at a nearby park.

Multiple people were captured on surveillance video taking the statue , but only one person, Ricky Alderete , has been arrested and charged.

Now, Alderete could be headed away for nearly two decades, after admitting his role in the crime in court this week.

Prosecutors say Alderete pled guilty to aggravated burglary, aggravated criminal damage to property, interference with law enforcement, criminal damage to property, theft, making a false writing, and identity theft.

Authorities have said they don't believe the incident was racially motivated.

All told, Alderete could be sentenced to 19 years and 1 month in prison ... and could also be forced to pay League 42 (where the statue was taken) over $41k.

The statue was purchased by the league for around $50k, per the Associated Press, and installed in 2021.

After the statue was stolen and destroyed, a GoFundMe was started ... and ultimately raised over $194k!

Alderete will learn his fate in a Kansas courtroom on July 1.

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45-Year-Old Man Arrested, Allegedly Stole, Destroyed Jackie Robinson Statue

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The Story of Jackie Robinson: An Inspiring Biography for Young Readers (The Story of Biographies) Paperback – April 6, 2021

Purchase options and add-ons.

• Independent reading —This Jackie Robinson biography is broken down into short chapters and simple language so kids 6 to 9 can read and learn on their own.
• Critical thinking —Kids will learn the Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How of Jackie's life, find definitions of new words, discussion questions, and more.
• A lasting legacy —Explore how Jackie Robinson made the world a better place for future generations, including you!
• Part of series The Story Of: A Biography Series for New Readers
• Print length 64 pages
• Language English
• Grade level 1 - 2
• Lexile measure 840L
• Dimensions 5.83 x 0.3 x 8.27 inches
• Publisher Rockridge Press
• Publication date April 6, 2021
• ISBN-10 1648766501
• ISBN-13 978-1648766503
• See all details

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About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Rockridge Press (April 6, 2021)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 64 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1648766501
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1648766503
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 7 - 9 years, from customers
• Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 840L
• Grade level ‏ : ‎ 1 - 2
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.83 x 0.3 x 8.27 inches
• #49 in Children's Baseball Books (Books)
• #51 in Children's Sports Biographies (Books)
• #194 in Children's Multicultural Story Books

About the author

Andrea thorpe.

Andrea Thorpe is a life-long Jersey girl, a wife, and a mother of three daughters. Andrea has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, teacher certification, and a Master’s degree in Student Personnel Services. During her nine years in public education, Andrea worked as a classroom teacher and guidance counselor and was recognized as Teacher of the Year. Now a veteran homeschool mom, Andrea enjoys teaching her lively trio from the comfort of the family’s New Jersey home. When not homeschooling or working on writing projects, Andrea loves to spend time with family and friends, search for bargains in antique and thrift stores, and complete DIY home décor projects.

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