the life of Jackie Robinson essays

the life of Jackie Robinson essays Jackie Robinson, actually called Jack Roosevelt Robinson, was born on in Cairo, Georgia in 1919 to a family of sharecroppers. His mother, Mallie Robinson, single- handedly raised Jackie and her four other children. They were the black family on their block, and the prejudice they encountered only strengthened their bonds. From this humble beginning would grow the first baseball players to break the Major League Baseball's color barrier that segregated it for more than 50 years. When Jackie was only sixteen months old, his father left. His mother decided to move the family out to California. When they got to California they lived with his mother's brother, Burton. Before they arrived at California, his mother had made arrangements to find other living conditions because; Burton's house would be over-crowded, so Jackie's mother took a job washing and ironing clothes. There was not enough money from her job though, so she went to welfare for help. Welfare added to her salary, which barely made enough to keep them alive. The family, at times did not have enough food to eat and his mother would bring scraps from her job to feed them. His mother was a very busy person, and she always went to work before sunrise, and always returned from work late. When she was home, she was usually exhausted, but she still made the energy to help her kids and take care of them. One time, a girl in the neighborhood ran up to Jackie and called him "Niger, Niger, Niger." He had retaliated by calling her "cracker." When he called her that, she went and told her father and he stormed out of the house. He and Jackie had a stone- throwing fight until the father's wife came out and took her husband inside. From then on, all the white people in the neighborhood signed a petition to get them thrown out of the neighborhood. Jackie's mother stood her ground and would not make anybody force them to leave. ...