In the world of sports, every race is represented by at least one athlete. There are people from all over the world that play sports because sports have no boundaries. Today, sports bring many people together, regardless of who that person is. The American sports world, however, was not always that way, and there used to be racism all over anything sports related. However, there was one trailblazer who helped change the mindset of Americans and helped change the discrimination of African Americans in sports.
When baseball was getting more and more popular during the 1930s and the 1940s, Black people were not allowed to play in the MLB, which, at the time, was a white-only league. They had their own leagues called the Negro Leagues. These leagues were not even close to being as big as the MLB and not many people would go and spectate the games. There was a man, however, by the name of Wesley Branch Rickey who wanted to change the world of baseball and the MLB.
Rickey, who was one of the owners of the Brooklyn Dodgers, wanted to bring down the color barrier that had been the unspoken rule since the 1880s. He began searching for the “right guy” and later found a player by the name of Jackie Robinson. Robinson, who at the time was playing for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro League, was signed to the Montreal Royals in 1945.
The Montreal Royals were the international affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and Robinson would play there in 1946. On April 15, 1947, he broke the color barrier, playing first-base for the Brooklyn Dodgers. That year, he would win the first ever Rookie of the Year award and post some very good stats. He would go on to have an incredible career, making six consecutive All-Star games, while also winning the MVP award in 1949. In 1962, Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Today, the MLB honors Jackie Robinson annually on April 15, when every baseball player wears 42, Robinson’s uniform number.
During his first year, Robinson wanted to quit baseball because of all of the hate and discrimination he was receiving. But what he did would change not just baseball, but all of sports in the United States.
Today, leagues such as the NFL and the NBA are mainly composed of Black athletes. According to a survey conducted by Tides that was taken from the 2019-2020 seasons, 74.5% of athletes in the NBA identify as Black, while in the NFL the number is 58.9%. These numbers show how far sports have come since Robinson, and they help show what changes sports have gone through.
Sports would not be the same without diversity. In a world that is very divided on a lot of issues, sports can bring people together. This is because sports do not see color.
If you would like to watch a great movie about Jackie Robinson, I would suggest watching the movie 42. It stars Chadwick Boseman as Jackie Robinson, and it helps tell his story of baseball.
