Breaking the Color Barrier

Baseball has been called Americas pastime for over 140 years. Just over half a
century ago however, baseball was not Americas pastime for all minorities. There was no
law against the hiring of minorities in the Major Leagues, but none of the managers wanted
to hire anyone except whites. Minorities were just as talented as whites from a skill
standpoint. That did not, however, help minorities in getting signed. The managers thought
that minorities were not equal to whites in any way, and that is the reason that they were
not signed. Minorities such as blacks were forced to play in the Negro Leagues, a league
formed for only blacks, if they wanted to play baseball. The first person to break this
color barrier in sports was Jackie Robinson. Jackie Robinson was the first person to
break the color barrier, and also influence others to do the same in other parts of
society.
Jackie Robinson was born on January 31, 1919 in a small sharecroppers farmhouse
near Cairo, GA (Allen 17). He grew up like a black would have in that time period, in
poverty. His family would be lucky to eat two meals a day, some days going with no meals.
It all depended upon what his mom brought home from her job (Tygiel 60). Robinsons
grandfather was a slave and his father was a sharecropper (Canale). When Jackie was
young, his dad deserted his family because he was embarrassed to be a sharecropper
(Tygiel 60). Soon after Jackie was born, he moved to Pasadena, CA onto a street named
Pepper Street. His family was the first black family in the neighborhood (Morales). As a
kid Jackie Robinson was already breaking other color barriers.
Jackie was raised in California, and many believed that he escaped racism as a kid
(Tygiel 60). They believed that in California, people would be a lot less racist than in
Georgia because they werent in the Deep South. Despite these beliefs, he was still subject

to much racism. Jackie had to watch movies on segregated balconies, swim in the
municipal pool only on Tuesday, and was permitted to the YMCA only one night each
week (Tygiel 61).
One of the women in the same neighborhood as the Robinsons started a petition to
kick them out of the neighborhood (Morales). Others even tried to buy out the Robinsons
from their Pepper Street home (Tygiel 61). Jackies way of combating the white
harassment was to form the Pepper Street Gang. They mainly stole stuff to make them feel
better about themselves (Morales). As a kid, Jackie had difficulties with the police because
he was always shooting off his mouth about his constitutional rights (Tygiel 63). He had
a very tough childhood.
Jackie started showing off his athletics when he went to Pasadena Junior College
for high school where he was a football, baseball, basketball and track star (Allen 33). He
was a well respected athlete. Jackie Robinson went to UCLA for college. He became the
first UCLA winner, black or white, of four varsity letters for sports in one year (basketball,
baseball, football and track). This is significant, because it showed the managers of the
MLB teams that he was the real deal, a true athlete and they could scout him if they
wished.. His nickname at UCLA was the dusky flash (Allen 33). Athletics became a
passion for him and his brother. It became what he and his brother focused on most of the
time. Jackie still faced racism and discrimination even though he was the best on his team.
An example of this was when Jackie was the leading scorer in his conference in basketball
but was not named to the first, second or third all-conference teams (Tygiel 61). Jackies
career at UCLA was a huge step to him breaking the color barrier. It showed everyone that
he could play with white athletes and even do better than them at sports.
After graduating from UCLA his athletic dreams were crushed when he was drafted

to fight in World War 2 where he served as an officer. Luckily, he was never injured and
was allowed to continue his athletic dreams after he was discharged (McCollum). Jackie
wrote that he was actually in two wars: one against a foreign enemy, the other against
prejudice at home (Tygiel 38).
Before World War 2, there was no great demand to integrate baseball (Tygiel 34).
All of this changed, however, after World War 2 when it, more than any other event in
American history, caused America to re-evaluate their racial attitudes. Americans changed
their attitudes, because they saw that blacks were fighting by the sides of whites and
helping out their country. A black soldier said, How can we be trained to protect America,
a free nation, when all around us rears the ugly hand of segregation (Tygiel 37)? Many
whites believed that since blacks fought in the war, they should be able to play baseball
with whites (Tygiel 73). Elmer Ferguson of the Montreal Herald said, Those who were
good enough to fight and die by the side of whites are plenty good to play by the side of
whites (Tygiel 74). World War 2 helped blacks greatly as it opened whites eyes to the
injustices of racial discrimination.
Just a little bit before World War 2 started a Negro League was formed which lasted
for a decade. The Negro League was a baseball league where blacks could play baseball
with other blacks. The Negro League was unfair, however, as some of the blacks playing in
the league didnt even get paid; they had no contract (Tygiel 22). For half a century,
baseball provided an image of American society: blacks and whites in two separate realms,
unequal (Tygiel 8). Westbrook Pegler, a journalist for the Montreal Herald, even accused
baseball of treating blacks like Hitler treated Jews (Tygiel 34). Sometimes in the off-season
in the early twentieth century, blacks would play against whites in exhibition baseball
games. Blacks would win many of these games. Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis

forbade clubs from appearing as a unit in the off-seasons because of this, because some of
the games were televised and it showed that blacks were better than whites in sports
(Tygiel 28). Landis, a racist man, never wanted blacks to be better than whites at anything.
Baseball ignored the Negro League players even during World War 2 when the white
players were drafted. Instead of having the blacks play, the MLB hired older, retired whites
to play (Tygiel 38). Blacks were able bodied, but the managers of the Major Leagues were
still not open to hiring them. The managers still believed that blacks were not equal to
whites in any way.
After Jackie came back from World War 2, he wanted to play baseball. He went to
the Brooklyn Dodgers training camp to see if he could try out for the team.

One day a Negro lieutenant came out for the ball team. An officer told
him he couldnt play. You have to play with the colored team, the officer
said. That was a joke. There was no color team [for the Brooklyn Dodgers].
The lieutenant didnt say anything. He stood there for a while watching us
work out. Then he turned and walked away. I didnt know who he was then,
but that was the first time I saw Jackie Robinson. I can still remember him walking
away by himself (Tygiel 62).

This quote is saying that when Jackie Robinson went to try out for the Brooklyn
Dodgers after World War 2, he was laughed at. The white players didnt want anything to
do with a black player. He had to play in the Negro Leagues with other black players.
There was no rule against hiring blacks in the Major Leagues; however baseball experts
argued that no blacks had the talent to be in the MLB and that was the reason it wasnt

integrated (Tygiel 31-32).

Instead of getting onto a Major League team, Jackie joined the Kansas City
Monarchs in 1944 in the Negro League. He made $400 a month (Canale). Instead of
playing with whites in the Major Leagues like he wanted to, he was stuck making only
$400 each month. This was an important step though in Jackie Robinson breaking the color
barrier because the Negro League allowed him to show off his poise to Brooklyn Dodgers
manager, Branch Rickey. Within weeks of the end of World War 2, Branch Rickey
announced his intent to end Jim Crow laws in baseball (Tygiel 8). The road to ending Jim
Crow laws would not be easy.
After Commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis died in 1944, the door
opened for Robinson to join the MLB. Landis was keeping baseball an all-white sport
(Martin). His departure meant that there could be a more open case for black players
playing with whites in the Major Leagues. A New York Post writer accused Commissioner
Landis of smug hypocrisy in his handling of the matter with blacks (Tygiel 34). Henry
Chandler, the new commissioner, started a new phase in baseball integration (Tygiel 43).
Branch Rickey, the Brooklyn Dodgers manager, was a religious man which is why
he didnt want blacks and whites to be separated anymore (Tygiel 48). Rickey held a three
hour meeting with Jackie in August of 1945 (McCollum). Rickey shouted many things that
fans would say to Jackie in the places he would go to see how he would react (Simon 82).
If Jackie couldnt accept the bad words Rickey was saying, there was no way he would be
able to be in the Major Leagues. Rickey said in the meeting, Im looking for a ballplayer
with the guts not to fight back (Simon 81)! He also said, Ive been looking for a great
colored ballplayer, but I need more than a great player. I need a man who will accept
insults, take abuse; in other words, carry the flag for his race (McCollum). Jackie needed

to be able to show all whites that he could act just as well as whites. He would not act out
and he would show America that he was just as good as whites at baseball. Branch hired
Robinson because he was talented, one of the best blacks skill wise at baseball, college
educated, disciplined which was important because otherwise whites would not accept him
and tough so that he could take the abuse he would receive.
On March 1, 1946, Jackie Robinson attended the training camp of the Montreal
Royals, the AAA minor league farm team of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Jackie had broken the
color barrier, but discrimination did not end that quickly. From February 25 to 26, 1946,
police arrested 100 blacks, 2 of whom died in police custody in the Deep South where
Jackie was going. There were also nine lynchings.
When Jackie arrived in Florida for spring training he said that he wanted to go back
to California because the trip was too hard on him and his wife. A group of his friends
convinced him to stay because he had gone too far to stop. Jackie played in an exhibition
game on March 17, 1946. He played five innings and went 0-3. He got on base due to a
fielders choice. He stole second and scored (West). Jackie played poorly in exhibition
games with Montreal. He was close to being cut. Reporters said that if Jackie was white he
would have been dropped immediately (Tygiel 4).
Then, on March 21 an exhibition game was cancelled due to Jackies skin color.
George G. Robinson, executive secretary of the Jacksonville Recreation Department said,
It is part of the rules and regulations of the Recreational Department that Negroes and
whites cannot compete against each other on a city-owned playground (West). Jackies
World War 2 service and his four letter career at UCLA did not help him get any respect in
Florida. Many games were cancelled. The only place Jackie could play was in Daytona
Beach because of the agreement the authorities and the Montreal Royals had made. A large

group of whites met with the mayor of Sanford, a town where Jackie was going to play at,
and demanded Robinson be run out of town. Sanford officials told the Royals that black
and white players would not be allowed on the same field together. Robinson talked again
about quitting but was persuaded by his friends not to do so. The Montreal Royals
lakefront hotel, the Mayfair, would not accept blacks so Jackie had to stay at a different
hotel than his teammates (West).
After the few exhibition games Robinson played in, he had his first minor league
regular season game. He got four hits, including one homerun, two stolen bases and he
scored four times (Simon 97). Jackie had broken the color barrier in sports, but he was not
done yet, he had to play on the MLB team, the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinsons number one
problem was that he would argue and talk back to white officials and players in sports
(Tygiel 62).
Branch Rickey believed that had Jackie been white, Jackies number one problem
would have been praised as he would have been seen as a fighter, but because he was black
they thought of him as offensive (Tygiel 63). That was one thing that Jackie had to work on
in order to make it to the Major Leagues. Hector Racine, President of the Montreal
Royals, said, We made this step [hiring Robinson] for two reasons. First, we are signing
this boy because we think of him primarily as a ballplayer. Secondly, we think it a point of
fairness (Tygiel 71). This point of fairness showed that even before Jackie broke the
color barrier there were people that felt that the color barrier needed to be broken. Jackie
was impressing his coaches and teammates, as well as many others.
After Jackie had broken the color barrier, most of the press supported him (The
Rise and Fall). After his first minor league season, Jackie was promoted to the Major
League team of the Brooklyn Dodgers. When Jackie first walked into the Dodgers

clubhouse there was no locker for him, just a couple of nails on the wall to for him to hang
his clothes. Ralph Branca, Robinsons teammate, said, There was Carl Furillo, then my
locker, a space for Robinson and a few lockers further down the line (Bodley).
The Dodgers held spring training in North Daytona so that Jackie would be able to
train with them. The mayor announced that no one could object to Jackie practicing there.
Jackie again could not stay with the his white Dodgers teammates at the ocean-front
Riviera Hotel or eat at any of the same restaurants (West). This showed that even though
Jackie was on a previously all-white team, people still didnt think of him as equal to his
teammates.
After spring training and at the start of the regular season Jackie was the starting
first basemen in his first game for the Dodgers (Tygiel 9). When Robinson crossed the
color barrier in the Major Leagues, some whites and nearly all blacks said the move was
long overdue. A large number of whites and many MLB players objected to his presence
because they still believed that blacks were not equal to whites in any way (The Rise and
Fall). Whites in the Major League did not accept the integration. They tried to get traded
from the Dodgers and they refused to play against him. The commissioner said he would
suspend anyone that refused to play with Jackie (Tygiel 9).
The whites did play with him, but showed much hatred towards him. Some pitchers
aimed at Jackies head and others would try to spike him or injure him on the base paths.
Enos Slaughter of the St. Louis Cardinals spiked Robinson and caused a seven inch gash.
Fans would shout nigger at him and would make death threats when he came to the plate
(West). After Jackie was able to show his baseball skills to the players much of the hatred
towards him stopped. He was awarded with Rookie of the Year in 1947. The award was
renamed in his honor in 1987 (The Rise and Fall). The award being renamed in his

honor showed the respect that the Major Leagues had for Robinson. If the MLB didnt feel
that he was worthy and important to have an award named after him they would not have
named it after him. Jackie integrating baseball caused other racial barriers to fall. The
hotels and restaurants where the Dodgers stayed became integrated thanks to Robinson
(The Rise and Fall). This showed that whites were now starting to see that blacks were
equal to whites in at least some ways. They finally figured out that blacks could stay at
hotels with whites and eat at restaurants with whites without any real trouble.
Branch Rickeys main dream was to end Jim Crow laws in baseball. He had
succeeded with the signing of Jackie Robinson, and in the decade following Jackies
integration many facilities became black and white facilities, even in the Deep South. In
1959, integration was complete when the Boston Red Sox signed a black player to their
previously all-white team (Early). At that point every team in the Major Leagues had a
black player on their team.
Baseball was one of the first institutions to accept blacks on a relatively equal basis
(Tygiel 9). Ralph Branca, Jackies teammate, said, You have to give him credit. He really
did break the color barrier. He made it easy for Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks and
everybody else who followed (Bodley). Branca gave Jackie even more credit than Martin
Luther King Jr., because Jackie was the first one who truly broke the brunt of color barrier;
King Jr. just had to take down a few more pieces for blacks to be considered on an even
more equal basis.
Modern day effects from Jackie Robinson can still be seen today. Twenty years
after Jackie coming into the majors, 20% of the players were black. Modern times only 8%
of players in baseball are black but that is a lot considering all of the farm teams (Early).
Blacks are also less attracted to baseball because it is less exciting than basketball or

football.
Jackie Robinson was the first black player to be put into the Hall of Fame. He was
also the first person, black or white, to have their number retired throughout all of baseball
(Early). In April 2007, players and some entire teams wore Jackies number, 42, to honor
the sixtieth anniversary of Jackie breaking the color barrier (Bodley). Jackie Robinsons
breaking of the color barrier has had many effects throughout the years, and they have
made a great impact on the world of sports.
Jackie Robinson developing baseball into an integrated sport is an important part of
American history. Jackie was the first player to break the color barrier, and he helped
encourage others, such as Martin Luther King, to do the same. Without him breaking the
color barrier, racism may have existed for several years longer. The effects of Jackie
Robinson can still be seen today as blacks can do whatever whites do.

Works Cited
Allen, Maury. Jackie Robinson. New York, NY: Franklin Watts, 1987.
Bodley, Hal. Historic day was just the beginning. USA Today April 13, 2007: sec.
Sports, pg. 05c.
Canale, Larry. The Trailblazer: Jackie Robinson. Footsteps March 2000: pg. 20.
Early, Gerald. Where Have We Gone, Mr. Robinson? Time April 23, 2007: pgs. 48-49.
Martin, W. Allen. Stereotypes still exist in baseball. USA Today April 24, 2007, sec.
News, pg. 10a.
McCollum, Sean. Jackie Robinson: Leading the Way. Scholastic Update April 1997:
pg. 18.
Morales, Leslie Anderson. Young Jackie Robinson. Apple Seeds February 2000: pg.
21.
The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow. Jim Crow Stories - Jackie Robinson. May 16, 2002.
Educational Broadcasting Corporation. January 11, 2008
<http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_jackie.html>.
Simon, Scott. Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley
& Sons, Inc., 2002.
Tygiel, Jules. Baseballs Great Experiment Jackie Robinson and His Legacy. New York,
NY: Oxford University Press, 1997.
The History of Jim Crow. November 2, 2003. West, Jean. January 11, 2008
<http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/resources/lessonplans/hs_es_jackie_robinson.htm>.

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