Jackie Robinson, born Jack Roosevelt Robinson in 1919, was the first black professional athlete to play in the Major Leagues, not the Negro Leagues. Born in Cairo, Georgia, to a family of sharecroppers, Robinson moved to Pasadena to live in California. His mother, Mallie Robinson, raised Jackie and her four other children single-handedly, caused by the leaving of their father. They were the only black family on their block and the prejudice that they encountered only made their bonds to each other stronger. This also strengthened Jackie's will to become a better person and made his perseverance stronger, too.  His mother was a very religious woman who believed in a better life for herself and her children.   She worked domestic jobs for wealthy people and had to get relief with welfare.  Even though money was limited, Jackie didn't go without her love and attention.

     Pasadena had segregation as did Georgia, but the segregation in Pasadena was not as restricted.  African-Americans could swim in the municipal pool, attend the YMCA on designated days, and only some eating places were closed to black people.  During these times his mother taught him important lessons of self-respect and self-confidence. Growing up in a large, single-parent family, Robinson excelled early at many sports and learned how to make his own way in life. His life was influenced by Carl Anderson ,a neighborhood automobile mechanic, who directed him away from petty, youthful misbehavior.  Karl Downs, youth minister of Robinson's Methodist Church, supported him on the sidelines whenever Jackie was on the playing field.  Karl also counseled him in his athletic, social, and academic life, especially during the tough times. 

     Encouraged by these mentors, his mom, and his successes in sports, he turned his energies to the playing fields.  In athletics, he had the freedom to relate to people on equal terms, with less emphasis on the color of his skin and more on his growth, finesse, and performance level.  Robinson was skillful and was accepted as a friend by his white teammates.  Without segregated schools in Pasadena, he attended school with his white friends, and they visited back and forth in each others' homes.  As he grew and gained experience in life, he saw that athletic success didn't always make him accepted in an unequal American society.  Opposing teammates often made remarks or racial slurs, and enticed quarrels or arguments.  Robinson won letters in football, baseball, basketball and track at Muir Technical High School and Pasadena Junior College.  He had many attractive offers from universities nationwide and chose the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), because it was near his mother in Pasadena.  At UCLA he demonstrated exceptional athletic ability and was the first UCLA student to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football, and track.  In 1941, due to financial pressures, Robinson left UCLA.

     After UCLA, he worked for a few months as an athletic director in the National Youth Administration, in Atascadero, California.  Jackie had a strong desire to play professional sports, and in the fall of 1941 joined a semiprofessional, racially integrated football team in Hawaii called the Honolulu Bears.  He would play football on the weekends and worked construction jobs during the week.  After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December, 1941, he returned to the U.S.  In 1942, he was drafted into the U.S. Army.

     In the Army he was stationed to a segregated unit in Fort Riley, Kansas, where, under policy, he could not enter Officers Candidate School.  After protests by heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis who was also stationed at Fort Riley, and Truman Gibson, African-American advisor tto the Secretary of War, and others, black men were accepted for officer training.  After graduating from Officers Candidate school, Robinson was moved to 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 board.  Determined to prove his rights, he considered himself an equal and ignored segregation laws when boarding a bus, and sat in the white section.   Military police at Fort Hood, Texas, arrested Robinson when he refused the driver's order to move to the back of the bus.  This racially-charged incident could have destroyed Robinson's service record.  Robinson did not smoke or drink alcohol, but was charged with public drunkenness, conduct unbecoming an officer, and willful disobedience, this leading to a court martial.  However, he was found not guilty of the offense and was assigned to various camps in the country as athletic director to new recruits.  He left the service in November, 1944, with an honorable discharge.

     For a while, Robinson coached a basketball team in Austin, Texas at Houston Tillotson College.  The birth of his baseball career began in 1945, when he signed with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League for $400 a month.  The fight for true freedom and equality was on its way for Jackie Robinson.  This was the beginning of a fight that would end in victory for African-Americans.

"Life is not a spectator sport.. If youre going to spend your life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion youre wasting your life."  Jackie Robinson (National Archives and Records Administration website)