Jackie Robinson:
African-American Baseball’s Greatest
Turning Point
Jordan Layne
Junior Division
Historical Paper
Jackie Robinson integrated Major League Baseball in 1947. This was considered a major
turning point in African-American sports and integration. This milestone made AfricanAmericans realize they could integrate other things like schools, restaurants, and hotels. Soon
after Jackie entered the Major Leagues, other Major League teams began signing the best talent
the African-American teams had to offer. But, what about the rest of the players who were just
so-so or barely able to hold a roster spot on a Negro League team? Integrating the Majors
eventually led to the demise of the Negro Leagues, which were baseball teams for African
American players. This was a major turning point for them because now, instead of being well
known heroes, players had to go back to being average citizens of the time, which often meant
very tiresome low-paying jobs.
Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born on January 31, 1919, in Cairo, Georgia, to a family of
sharecroppers. When Jackie was a year old, his father left the family, and his mother moved the
family to California. Jackie lived a troubled childhood and joined a gang. Sports saved Jackie
from this lifestyle. When he entered high school, he broke all the school’s athletic records. He
received a scholarship to UCLA, where he played four sports: baseball, football, basketball, and
track. He started in each throughout the entirety of college. After college, he entered the Army.
While in training, he was riding a bus and sitting next to a light-skinned African-American
woman, whom the driver mistook for a white woman. He asked Jackie to move to the back of the
bus. When Jackie refused, he was arrested and Court Martialed. He was found not guilty of all
charges and received an Honorable Discharge. Following his discharge, the Kansas City
Monarchs of the Negro League offered Jackie a job, which he accepted.
The Negro Leagues were strong in the early 1940s. Many of the Major League Baseball
players, who barnstormed against them, said they could beat any Major League team on a regular
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basis. A world renowned General Manager named Branch Rickey was famous for signing and
developing great baseball talent in St. Louis. He envisioned that if he could bring a star Negro
player to his team, his team could go from good to great. These players and others could begin to
integrate into all professional sports. Due to St. Louis’s location in the South, there was much
racism and he knew he would never be successful in bringing African-American players to that
city. When he was offered the position of General Manager in Brooklyn in 1942, he accepted and
began working on his master scheme to integrate baseball. He sent scouts to Negro League
games saying he was going to recruit players for a team called the Brooklyn Brown Dodgers.
Reports kept coming in and one name was almost always on them: Jackie Robinson. Branch
Rickey sent his scout Clyde Sukeforth to scout Robinson. An impressed Sukeforth took
Robinson back to Brooklyn to meet with Mr. Rickey and told Robinson they would discuss a
contract for Rickey’s Negro League Team. But, Mr. Rickey never had any intention of starting a
Negro League team, but instead was planning to bring one of the first African-Americans into
the Major Leagues. Robinson was asked if he could make it in the Major Leagues; he said yes.
Rickey set guidelines for Jackie; he must not fight back, no matter what anyone says or does to
him. Robinson asked Rickey if he wanted a player who was afraid to fight. Rickey explained that
the first time Robinson got in a fight, he would be kicked out of baseball and the “Noble
Experiment” would be put off for another twenty years. So on October 25, 1945, Jackie
Robinson officially signed a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers. This was a turning point. For
the first time, an African-American was officially a member of a Major League baseball team.
In 1946, Jackie was sent down to the Dodgers’ Triple-A team, the Montreal Royals. He
was good enough to win the league Most Valuable Player award that year. On April 15, 1947,
Jackie Robinson stepped onto the Dodger’s Major League field. He didn’t get a hit, but was
walked once and stole a base. His stats that day were not as important as the fact that another
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turning point had been reached. Jackie Robinson was the first African-American baseball player
to play in the Major Leagues.
He faced two racial problems other than the unruly fans with their racial slurs and
comments. The first problem he faced was some of the Dodgers players planned to sign a
petition stating they wished to be traded if Jackie stepped into the locker room. Rickey heard
rumors of it, before it could happen, he sent out word saying if any player wished not to play
with Jackie, they could quit the team. Another problem was racial comments from players of
opposing teams. The Philadelphia Phillies was the second team Jackie played against, and their
Manager Ben Chapman wanted no part of Jackie. Mr. Chapman told his players that they would
be fined $5,000 if they did not continuously insult Robinson. They even went so far as to hire
another Assistant Coach just to yell racial comments at Jackie. Jackie stood and listened as the
racial comments grew worse. Jackie tried to play better with each slur, but the comments came to
a climax and it seemed if they got any worse, Jackie would have to react. Teammate Eddie
Stanky came to Jackie’s rescue and yelled back at the Phillies, “Why don’t you yell at somebody
who can answer back?” This was a turning point, because the Phillies’s insults stopped as well
as the fans, for the most part (Robinson, I Never Had It Made, pg. 60).
Because Jackie was on the team, players from other teams began heckling fellow
teammates. While in Boston, players began heckling Pee Wee Reese. Pee Wee was from
Kentucky and the fans thought they could get on Pee Wee’s nerves since he was from the racist
South. They began yelling: “Hey out there, Kentucky boy. When yo’ grandpappy finds out how
you heah socializing and fraternizing with cullud folks he’s gonna cut you off from yo’ mint
juleps”. The heckling kept coming and eventually Reese had enough. He trotted over from his
shortstop position to Jackie at second base. He put his hand on his shoulder and began talking to
Jackie in a buddy-buddy way. The words he said to Jackie weren’t important. In fact, neither
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Jackie nor Pee Wee can remember a single word that was exchanged. However, Reese sent a
message telling the Boston Players: “Robinson and I are teammates, and we came here to play
baseball. We came to beat the living daylights out of Boston. If the Braves want to spend their
time throwing silly barbs while we play baseball, that’s all right with us”. This ended the racial
heckling. This and the Eddie Stanky event became a major turning point for Jackie. He now
knew he had the support of his fellow teammates (S. Robinson, Pg. 57).
Jackie went on to win the 1947 Rookie of the Year award and established himself as a
Major League baseball player. Ben Chapman even said this of Jackie, “Robinson is a major
leaguer in every respect” (Robinson, I Never Had It Made, pg. 60). Jackie went on to win the
Most Valuable Player Award in 1949 and played on a World Series winning team with the
Brooklyn Dodgers in 1955. He had a remarkable career in baseball and played for ten seasons
from 1947 to 1956. In 1962, he was inducted as the first African American baseball player in the
National Baseball Hall of Fame. Attributes of Jackie’s baseball career are: a fierce base stealer,
an excellent hitter, a career batting average of .311, and a top-notch fielder. Jackie did all this
despite being moved from his original position as Shortstop to First Base in 1947, and then
moved again to Second Base in 1948, where he would stay for the rest of his career.
When Jackie left baseball in 1956, he immediately began working in the Civil Rights
Movement. He wrote letters to the president; he joined with the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People. He also went on many civil rights speaking tours and worked
with Martin Luther King, Jr. Baseball had been very harsh and stressful on Jackie, and, by the
time he reached his early 50’s, he had lost vision in his right eye and acquired diminished vision
in his left eye, and was confined to a wheel chair. A once great ground breaking athlete was now
confined to a wheel chair and was blind. All of America realized his condition on June 4, 1972,
during his number retirement ceremony. After the ceremony, a fan asked Jackie to sign a ball.
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“I’m sorry”, Jackie replied, “I can’t see it. I’d be sure if I wrote only to mess up the other names
you have on it”. The fan handed the ball back to Jackie and said, “There are no other names, Mr.
Robinson. The only one I want is yours”. This simple act shows how much Americans loved and
respected Jackie Robinson. Soon after this, he passed away on October 24, 1972, at age 53. His
untimely death was probably due to a lifetime of stress and was a sad end for such a great and
powerful man. Today America still misses him deeply (Denenberg, pg. 116).
The other half of the story is about the players in the Negro Leagues who were not good
enough to play in the Major Leagues. Here is their story.
When Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball in 1947, other teams
immediately began signing all the top Negro talent. As other good players began falling from the
ranks of the Negro Leagues and into the hands of the Majors, fewer and fewer fans began
showing up for games. This led to the collapse of the Negro National League in 1949. The Negro
American League survived until 1958, but it too had lost its fans and barely survived until then.
This left remaining Negro League baseball players out of a job. This was the end of a great era.
If Jackie Robinson had not broken the color barrier, it would have been possible for them to play
baseball much longer, earn enough money to get a good education, and to aspire for a better job
than most of the rest of their race.
An example of one of these players is Larry Kimbrough. Larry Kimbrough was born on
September 23, 1923, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As he grew up, he began playing sports and
was found to be really good at baseball. He learned to pitch both right and left handed, and went
to Penn State and was inducted into their Hall of Fame. When he left college in 1942, he signed
with the Philadelphia Stars, a Negro National League team. He played for 5 seasons, which is
when most players hit the prime of their career. Instead, Jackie Robinson entered the Major
League, and the Negro National League collapsed. However, Larry Kimbrough was not good
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enough to sign with a Major League team. So without the Negro League to play in, he was out of
work and the only option he had was to work a menial job just like the average AfricanAmerican of the time, such as factory work or sharecropping, and many of these jobs were
almost as bad as slavery.
With the collapse of the Negro League, black fans could no longer go to elite high quality
baseball games with no segregation in the stands, like they had at the Negro League games. For
many African-American fans, Negro League games were a big social occasion and where you
went if you wished to be seen. But at Major League games, the best seats were reserved for white
spectators, and African-Americans had to sit in a small confined area in the outfield.
Another turning point was that Major League attendance increased while Negro League
attendance declined. If the Negro League attendance had not declined Major League attendance
would have remained constant. For example, the Dodgers attendance was raised from 1,796,824
in 1946 to 1,875,026 in 1947, an almost 11,000 person increase in attendance. Now, team owners
were receiving a slight increase at integrated games in attendance due to African-Americans
attending, but it did not compare to the income received for renting the stadiums to Negro
League teams to use while their Major League team was out of town.
There were positive things that came from African-Americans entering the Major
Leagues. At first, African-American Major Leaguers were not allowed to eat with their teams at
some restaurants, due to the fact that many restaurants admitted whites only. Eventually, teams
boycotted these restaurants until they promised that their fellow African-American teammates
could eat with them. It was the same scenario with the hotels the teams frequented. This was a
huge turning point in civil rights in that African-American baseball players were allowed in the
formerly segregated restaurants and hotels, and later, regular African American citizens gained
the same rights (J. Robinson, Baseball Has Done It, pg. 95).
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Also, Major League playing conditions were much than the Negro Leagues. Negro
League players had to ride on a bus rather than on a comfortable train. Also, Negro League
games could be played in one city in the morning, another city at midday, and yet another city at
night. Then, players would ride the bus through the night and start the process all over, which
would be unheard of for Major League players.
Player statistics were not kept, so there is no way to determine whether African-American
players of the pre-desegregated era were equal to the white Major Leaguers. Stories have been
told of balls hit by players, like Josh Gibson, that went farther and were hit harder than those of
Babe Ruth. These hits were not due to bad pitching. Pitchers like Satchel Paige were able to
come in the Major League when they were well past forty and dominate just like they were
starting their careers.
Jackie Robinson helped the best African-American baseball players integrate into Major
League Baseball. This earned them better pay, improved playing conditions, and began
integration of restaurants and hotels. However, there were drawbacks. The average ballplayers in
the Negro Leagues lost their careers, and the opportunity to do what they loved instead of
strenuous, low-paying jobs. Additionally, African-American fans could no longer attend a
baseball game without facing racial prejudice from white fans, since the Negro Leagues declined
rapidly after Jackie Robinson integrated Major League baseball. In conclusion, Jackie Robinson
was more than just a turning point for American baseball; he influenced the evolution of
integration of all sports and society as a whole, but at the cost of ending the Negro Leagues.
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Bibliography
Primary Sources
“1946, 1947 Major League Attendance”. Database Baseball website, Retrieved 12 Jan 2013 from
http://databasebaseball.com/leagues/leagueatt.htm?yr=1946 and
http://databasebaseball.com/leagues/leagueatt.htm?yr=1947
These webpages gave the attendance totals for each year for each of The Major League’s 16
teams, which showed how popular the Dodgers were before and after Jackie Robinson.
“Baseball and Jackie Robinson”. National Archives, Washington, DC. Retrieved 9 Oct 2012
from http://www.archives.gov/publications/prolouge /2008/spring/robinson.html
This website gave good information about the baseball career of Jackie Robinson, and also had
photographs of him, and a time line about the life of Jackie Robinson.
“Baseball Championship,” Kansas City Sun Newspaper, July #31, 1920. Retrieved 16 Jan 2013
from http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90061556/1920-07-31/ed-1/seq-1/
This article told about the Negro League Championship game that was to be played that day
between Rube Foster’s Giants and the Kansas City Monarchs. This showed how popular the
Negro Leagues were to the fans.
“Jackie Robinson, Civil Rights Advocate”, Teaching With Documents: Beyond the Playing
Field. National Archives, Retrieved 9 Oct 2012 from
http://www.archives.gov/educational/lessons//jackie-robinson
This webpage told about some of the things Jackie did during his life after baseball. It also had
links to access Civil Rights telegrams and letters that Jackie had written.
“Personal Profiles” Negro Leagues Baseball Museum eMuseum Retrieved 8 Dec 2012 from
http://www.coe.ksu.edu/nlbemuseum/history/players.html
This source gives a short biography of every Negro League player ever to play in the Negro
League. Some biographies also contain player quotes. Most have at least one photo per player
with a link on each to access more photos. It clarified how the Negro League and their players
were different from those of the Major League. Most players wrote about themselves on this
Robinson, Jackie. I Never Had It Made. New York, New York: Harper Collins Publishers Inc, 1995.
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This is an autobiography of Jackie Robinson. This book described Jackie’s whole life through his
own eyes, before, during, and after baseball. In this book Jackie describes what he thought of all
the situations that he had ever been in and what he did to solve his problems.
Robinson, Jackie. Baseball Has Done It. Brooklyn, New York: Ig Publishing, 1964
This book is an autobiography of Jackie Robinson. In this book he explains the racial prejudice
he faced during his life. Also he goes on to interview other African-American baseball players
from his time, who were some of the first ones to follow in his footsteps.
Robinson, Sharon. Jackie’s Nine. New York, New York: Scholastic Inc., 2001
This book gave good information about how Jackie seemed to his family. It also told about his
struggles with life and civil rights. It also gave great information about how Jackie lived his life
off the baseball field.
Weatherford, Carole Boston. A Negro League Scrapbook. New York, New York: Scholastic Inc.,
2001.
This book was a good source of pictures to know what teams looked like, the way they played,
and what type of transportation was used. It also told some of the famous Negro League players,
the first Negro League players to enter the Majors, and all the Negro League players that have
been inducted into the Hall of Fame. It also told how many people normally attended Negro
League games.
Secondary Sources
Adomites, Paul. Cooperstown: Hall of Fame Players. Pgs. 224-225. Lincolnwood, Illinois:
Publications International, Ltd.,
This book gave a brief description of the life and career of Jackie Robinson. It also gave his
complete statistics from the Major League and what statistics of his that were keep from the
Negro League.
Denenberg, Barry. Stealing Home: The Story of Jackie Robinson. New York, New York:
Scholastic Inc., 1990
This book gave good statistical information about Jackie as well as told about his life before,
during, and after baseball.
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Hanfit, Joshua. Jackie Robinson. New York, New York: Baronet Books, 1996
This is a biography of Jackie Robinson. It gives information about his life. It tells about some of
his racial disputes when he was both young and old. It also tells about the turning point that
Jackie has had on professional sports not only while he played but also after he played.
“Historical Timeline” Negro Leagues Baseball Museum eMuseum Retrieved 8 Dec 2012 from
http://www.coe.ksu.edu/nlbemuseum/history/timeline.html
This source showed an accurate timeline of Negro League baseball all the way from 1860 to
1959. It also told me how that Jackie Robinson was not the first Black Baseball player and also,
when the Negro League started and ended and some of the Negro League’s best player’s
highlights.
“Negro League Baseball Timeline of Events in Professional Black Baseball”. Negro League
Baseball Website, Retrieved 12 Jan 2013from http://www.negroleaguebaseball.com/timeline.html
This website was a timeline of all major events in Black Baseball History. This told about how
Black Baseball was prior to Jackie Robinson and slightly afterwards.
“Negro Leagues History”. Negro League Baseball Museum, Retrieved 13 Jan 2013 from
http://www.nlbm.com/s/history.htm
This website gave a basic history of the Negro League from its start to its end. It described
various things about the Negro League and what they had going for them.
“Robinson, Jackie”. National Baseball Hall of Fame, Retrieved 9 Oct 2012 from
http://baseballhall.org/hof/robinson-jackie
This website gave statistical information about Jackie. It told his lifetime statistics and what
baseball awards he won during his career.
Vernon, John. “Jim Crow Meet Lieutenant Robinson, a 1944-Court Martial, Vol. 40, No.1,
National Archives website. Retrieved 9 Oct 2013 from
http://archives.gov/publication/prolouge/2008/spring/robinso.html
This website gave information about Jim Crow laws in the Army. It also gave information about
Jackie Robinson, including that because of the Jim Crow law in the Army that blacks must move
to the back of the bus, caused Jackie to end up in a lot of trouble with the army and end up
receiving an Honorable Discharge.
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