A court-martialed soldier turned baseball pioneer shattered MLB's color barrier and changed American culture forever.
Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball's color line on April 15, 1947, starting at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers. No Black man had played in the major leagues since Moses Fleetwood Walker in 1884, making Robinson's debut a watershed moment in American sports and civil rights history.
Before baseball fame, Robinson was a four-sport star at UCLA — the school's first athlete to letter in football, basketball, baseball, and track. Ironically, baseball was considered his worst sport at UCLA, where he hit just .097, though he went 4-for-4 in his very first game and twice stole home.
While stationed at Fort Hood, Texas in 1944, Robinson refused to move to the back of a segregated Army bus. He was court-martialed on charges including public drunkenness — despite never drinking — but was acquitted by an all-white panel of nine officers and honorably discharged.
Robinson's brother Mack was an accomplished athlete in his own right, winning a silver medal in the 200 meters at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, finishing behind the legendary Jesse Owens. Mack inspired Jackie to pursue sports, and Jackie later broke Mack's junior college broad-jump record.
During his 10-year MLB career, Robinson won the inaugural Rookie of the Year Award in 1947, was a six-time consecutive All-Star, and won the 1949 NL Most Valuable Player Award — becoming the first Black player so honored. He helped the Dodgers win the 1955 World Series.
Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962 in his first year of eligibility. In 1997, MLB retired his number 42 across all teams — the first time any professional sport had universally retired a player's number.
Beyond baseball, Robinson became the first Black television analyst in MLB and the first Black vice president of a major American corporation, Chock full o'Nuts. In the 1960s, he helped establish Freedom National Bank, a Black-owned financial institution in Harlem.
Robinson was posthumously awarded both the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom after his death in 1972. MLB also created 'Jackie Robinson Day,' celebrated every April 15 since 2004, when every player on every team wears number 42.
Branch Rickey, the Brooklyn Dodgers' general manager, specifically scouted the Negro leagues looking for the right player to break the color barrier. He selected Robinson not only for his talent but for his character and ability to endure racial hostility with nonviolent dignity.