Play Ball!

                 Integrating  professional baseball. 
Jackie Robinson first African-American professional baseball player. Jackie Robinson changed American sports forever. Before the 1940's  sports were segregated there were certain teams that blacks were not allowed to play on and there were certain teams that whites were not allowed to play on.   
Jackie Robinson was so good that in 1947 the Brooklyn Dodgers took him on. He  broke the baseball color line. 
boston red sox The Boston Red Sox were the last team to integrate their roster. This happened some 12 years after Jackie Robinson broke the baseball color line.    
African-American baseball team Now that baseball is not segregated  there are some great baseball players that are of different races! In them included Babe Ruth,  Sammy Sosa, Hank Aaron and Barry  Bonds. 
Jackie Robinson's first day 

      

 Why was baseball segregated for so long? Racism is the only answer. Baseball led the way to integration. In 1947 when Jackie Robinson played in the white league the blacks started to realize that we need to step up and do something about the racism problem. Racism is still going on in a lot of places. It has so much history that nobody knows all of it and we never will.   

      Racism is not right and some people still think it is. There will probably never be a day when we are completely free of racism but we hope there will be.       

 

This web page was made by          Jasmin Fields