1919-1972
First Black in Major League Baseball
Jackie Robinson was born in Georgia, the youngest of five children of Mallie and Jerry Robinson. His father deserted the family when Jackie was six months old, and his mother moved the family to Pasadena, California, in search of opportunity. Mallie Robinson, a domestic, purchased a home in a white Pasadena neighborhood with the help of a welfare agency. The neighbors petitioned unsuccessfully to have the Robinsons removed and then offered to buy the family out. Mrs. Robinson refused. Jackie Robinson remembered that "Pasadena regarded us as intruders. My brothers and I were in many a fight that started with a racial slur on the very street we lived on. We saw movies from segregated balconies, swam in the municipal pool only on Tuesdays, and were permitted in the YMCA only one night a week."
Athletics became a passion for.....
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