Thursday, April 10,20078

Robinson Was a Leader

Copyrighted by Sarah D. Morris, 2008

This upcoming Tuesday Major League Baseball celebrates the sixty-first anniversary of Jackie Roosevelt Robinson breaking the color barrier. It is an important historic event. I think baseball’s biggest contribution to the United States is being a leader in the Civil Rights Movement.

Since I wasn’t alive in the 1960s or earlier, I don’t understand how anyone can judge a person on his or her ethnic background. I know they do. To me, it is wrong!

I can’t comprehend the United States being segregated, but I know it was. I am ashamed that my beloved country couldn’t accept everyone regardless of his or her skin color. I know some people are still this narrow-minded. I simply don’t understand.

Before World War II, almost every facet of American life was segregated, especially in the South. In 1896, Plessy vs. Ferguson ruled that African-Americans could have separate facilities if they were equal. If anyone has been segregated, he or she knows separate facilities are never equal. I was segregated when I began school, and I wasn’t taught what I should have been. After I had the opportunity to go to school with normal students, I received better education. However, when the American Supreme Court ruled African-Americans could go to separate facilities, the United States rejoiced because it made race relations easier.

Although the North had less segregation than the South, nowhere had good race relations. When Major League Baseball was created, nothing said people with darker skin color couldn’t participate. In the early years, a few African-Americans played. Soon the owners came up with the gentleman’s agreement that prohibited African-Americans from playing Major League Baseball. Although it was never written down, it stood for about fifty years.

African-Americans enjoyed watching baseball also and saw an opportunity to make money at it, so they created the Negro Leagues. Though the Negro Leagues had more gimmicks than Major League Baseball, many people thought those leagues had more talent than major leagues. The Negro Leagues didn’t keep good records, so we don’t know how good Josh Gibson or Satchel Page really was. They became legends. However, we know the Negro Leagues had a different kind of baseball than major leagues. They relied on speed and stealing bases rather than power hitting. Some people believed the Negro Leagues had more excitement. I think it is true because speed makes baseball exciting. When the major leagues allowed African-Americans to participate, most of them could run fast and knew how to steal bases.

While African-Americans fought in Europe in World War II, they saw that they didn’t need to be segregated. They played an important role in the victory. Europeans were thankful to African-Americans for helping them to keep their way of life. Although the United States Armed Forces were segregated, African-Americans held important jobs and they proved to themselves that they could do anything if they had an opportunity.

When these African-American soldiers came home after helping to liberate the Jewish people from the Nazi death camps, they didn’t want to accept the inexcusable treatment that they had before the war. The United States was on the verge of the Civil Rights Movement that made her a better country.

For many years, Dodger owner and general manager, Branch Rickey, had wanted to integrate the major leagues. However, he understood that he needed to wait for the right time and find the right player to do it. Then Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis was firmly opposed to mixing the races. Although he was old, people didn’t cross Commissioner Landis. After all, he saved Major League Baseball from a gambling scandal. However, Rickey secretly had been sending scouts to look at the players in the Negro Leagues to find the player who possibly could break the color barrier in Major League Baseball.

Deeply religious, Rickey felt African-Americans should have an opportunity to play Major League Baseball. In the summer of 1945, Rickey intensified his search for the perfect African-American to break the barrier. He wanted an educated older man who was used to dealing with whites. The player must have incredible talent for baseball and self-control to handle racial abuse.

The scouts found Jackie Roosevelt Robinson would fit what Rickey described. Though Robinson was born in Georgia, his family moved to Pasadena, California when Robinson was young. Most people think Pasadena didn’t have discrimination, but it did. I was born there many years after Robinson lived there, and I saw discrimination. However, African-Americans did coexist with people with European backgrounds. Robinson went to Pasadena City College and excelled in four sports. After that, he transferred to UCLA and again he was a four-sport star.

Robinson didn’t finish at UCLA because he didn’t have the money. He enlisted in the Army but never went to Europe to see war action. Although he was court marshaled for his refusal to move to back of the bus, he received an honorable discharge.

Then, Robinson began playing in the Negro Leagues. Many people didn’t think he was the best player in the Negro Leagues, but he could play well. His natural athletic abilities helped to catch the eyes of the scouts.

In a secret meeting, Rickey racially taunted Robinson unmercifully. Rickey definitely was not a racist, but he wanted to see Robinson’s reaction to the awful taunts. Since having an African-American play Major League Baseball would create an unpopular emotional response from many, Rickey wanted to know if Robinson would have the inner strength not to react to those terrible taunts. Before Rickey signed Robinson to a minor league contract, he made Robinson promise not to react to anything for five years.

Although Robinson was hotheaded as a kid, he understood the importance of integrating Major League Baseball, so he agreed. In 1946, he played for the Montreal Royals, the Dodgers’ top minor league team and was their best player. On April 15, 1947, Robinson integrated Major League Baseball.

During the first part of his career, Robinson endured many things, such as spikings and death threats, and he didn’t react, except to become the best player that he could. Many people believe holding his emotions in led to his premature death.

Without Jackie Roosevelt Robinson’s sacrifices, Major League Baseball integration and the American Civil Rights Movement would have been slower to take place. Branch Rickey’s ideas about how to integrate set an example for other Civil Rights Movement leaders. On Tuesday, Major League Baseball remembers the contributions of Robinson to the game. However, the United States should thank him for making this country a better place to live. I do almost every day.