FREE ESSAY ON JOHN JOHNSON

JOHN JOHNSON

Jackie Robinson
Breaking the Color Barrier
Jackie Robinson was an American athlete, business executive, and civil rights leader.
Born in Cairo, Georgia, to a family of sharecroppers, Jack Roosevelt Robinson attended
Pasadena Junior College in California and the University of California at Los Angeles. At
UCLA he demonstrated exceptional athletic ability and became the first UCLA
student-athlete to win varsity letters in four sports; football, basketball, baseball,
and track.
In 1941 Robinson left college to join the United States Army. After graduating from
Officers Candidate School, Robinson became a second lieutenant in what was then a
segregated army. Troubled by the mistreatment of black soldiers in his unit, Robinson
protested the U.S. Army's discriminatory practices. Military police at Fort Hood, Texas,
arrested Robinson when he refused the driver's order to move to the back of a bus. A
court-martial acquitted Robinson and he received an honorable discharge in 1944 with the
rank of first lieutenant.
Robinson began his professional baseball career in 1945 with the Kansas City Monarchs,
one of the leading teams of the Negro Leagues. Later that year, Robinson signed with
Branch Rickey, the general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson spent the 1946
season playing for the Montreal Royals of the International League, a minor league
affiliate of the Dodgers. After one season with the Royals, Robinson was called up to the
Brooklyn team in 1947, becoming the first black to play major league baseball in the 20th