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Jackie Robinson As A Civil Rights Activist

Jackie Roosevelt Robinson was born on January 31st 1919. In 1947, at the age of 28, Jackie became the first African American to break the “color line” of Major League Baseball when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers. During his tenure with the Dodgers, Jackie was not simply an average player. Among various other accolades, Mr. Robinson was a starter on six World Series teams as well as being named the National League Rookie of The Year in 1947. His advantageous career was then capped in 1962 when he was inducted in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.1 Contrary to popular belief, Jackie's perseverance in implementing racial integration extended beyond his career in Major League Baseball. During the Sixties Jackie Robinson was a key contributor in the civil rights movement and the struggle to gain equality for African Americans. He was an active member of the NAACP, an outspoken supporter of Martin Luther King, and an ardent writer to United States' Presidents. In his Presidential letters, Jackie's voice was most loudly heard and successfully interpreted through his varying writing tones and persuasive techniques.

Jackie Robinson's first letter was sent on May 13th 1958 to our thirty-fourth President, Dwight Eisenhower. The purpose of this letter stemmed from an incident which occurred in Little Rock, Arkansas. A year prior, Governor Orval Faubus, in an attempt to gain popularity amongst white voters, ordered national guardsmen to Little Rock Central High School to restrict all African American students from entering. Segregation in Arkansas public high schools was outlawed by the Supreme Court in 1954 thus making the Governor's action illegal. President Eisenhower responded to the situation by sending Federal Troops to the location to protect the black students as they attended their classes.2 Jackie Robinson was very pleased with President Eisenhower's decision, but became increasingly frustrated as the President remained stagnant in...