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Jackie Robinson: Baseballs
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Jackie Robinson is the first black player in modern (post-1900) baseball. Young Jackie moved from Cairo, Georgia to Pasadena, CA, where he grew up and attended UCLA. During World War II he made lieutenant. Promoter Branch Rickie selected Jackie for the toughest assignment of his life, integrating professional baseball, a task at which Jackie proved worthy. He silenced his critics, frequently turning them into supporters (like The Sporting News).
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In 1962, Jackie Robinson entered the Hall of Fame. This is the greatest honor in baseball. He was the first African-American to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. In 1972, Jackie threw out the first pitch at the World Series. This was his last public appearance. In 1972, Jackie Robinson died at the age of fifty-three.
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Jackie Robinson, like most teens, joined a gang while going to school. He was headed for trouble, but, thanks to the positive influences of Carl Anderson, a local mechanic, and the minister, Reverend Karl Downs, Jackie made a change. Jackie even taught Sunday school lessons to youngsters at Sunday church each week. At John Muir Technical High school, Jackie Robinson learned to compete and win honors in sports. He earned high school letters in football, basketball, baseball, and track and field. Robinson attended Pasadena Junior College from September 1937 to August 1939.
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Jackie Robinson was a football and baseball star at the University of California in Los Angeles, where he played with Kenny Washington, who would become one of the first black players in the National Football League. After serving in the military during World War II, Robinson played baseball for a while for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues. There, he was noticed by a scout working for Branch Rickey.
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Before Jackie Robinson, there was an African American man nicknamed "Fleet". His full name, Moses Fleetwood Walker. During his childhood Walker was surrounded by segregation similar to Jackie Robinson. The only difference was Walker's childhood took place during the 1860's. Jackie Robinson wasn't born until 1919. In 1881 Moses Fleetwood Walker was a member of his junior college baseball team.
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Jackie Robinson is a good American because he was willing to do whatever he could to help desegregate baseball. He was ... a good American because what he did was not only desegregate baseball, but helped to start the change in America that caused the country to realize that blacks were just as much people as were whites. Just like Martin Luther King, Jr., Jackie believed all men are equal and should be treated as equals.
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