In the 1940's, Jackie Robinson dominated Major League Baseball with his abilities to play baseball. He crossed the "color line" and led the MLB in many areas. He was a key player on the Brooklyn Dodgers. Jackie Robinson is one of the numerous amounts of people who represented this decade in many ways. He revolutionized America by becoming the first African American to play Major League Baseball.
Jackie Robinson was born on January 31,
1919. This was the beginning of his amazing career. After he went
to college at UCLA and was enlisted in the army, Jackie signed
with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro League in 1945. Since
African Americans were not aloud to play with whites, African
Americans started their own league called the Negro League. Then
in 1947 was when Jackie became the first African American to play
in Major League Baseball on the Brooklyn Dodgers and he had also
crossed the "color line". Only two years later in 1949
Jackie won the League's Most Valuable Player award.
I think that Jackie Robinson represented
the 1940's because he symbolized the start of the coming together
of different races. Since he was the first African American to
play in the MLB, he showed the whites and blacks could finally
play baseball together and not be segregated anymore in two different
leagues. Plus Jackie's appearance in the MLB sparked the interest
of even more African American players to join the MLB. This was
an example for all the people in the United States to come together
and look past the race or color of everybody. The Japanese Internment
is a bad example because the Japanese were being segregated because
of their race. Maybe if Jackie Robinson joined the MLBB earlier,
the Japanese Internment would possibly not have happened if the
military would have seen the coming together of whites and blacks
in the sports world. (this is unlikely but it was just a thought).
Jackie Robinson was and outstanding baseball player and represents
the 1940's very well.
Here are some fun facts about Jackie Robinson. He led the Dodges to 6 National League pennants. Jackie was the first athlete at UCLE to letter in four sports, football, track, baseball, and basketball. In his 10-year career he had a .311 batting average, played in six World Series, and stole home base 19 times. When he won MVP, he led the league with a .342 batting average and 37 stolen bases. Jackie Robinson was one of the greatest baseball players in the history of baseball. But sadly, Jackie Robinson died on October 24, 1972.
Works Cited
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/jrhtml/jrhome.html
http://www.time.com/time/time100/heroes/profile/robinso01.html
www.baseballhalloffame.org/
http://memory.lov.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/collections/jrimages/jackie.gif
http://espn-i.starwave.com/media/classic/2001/0207/photo/c_jrob2_i.jpg