Life Before Baseball
Six year old Jackie Robinson (second from the left) with his family.
Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born on January 31, 1919, near Cairo, Georgia. "He was the fifth child and fourth son of Mallie and Jerry Robinson." Mallie and Jerry were tenant workers on the plantation of James Madison Sasser. However, tensions had arisen between his parents, and when Jackie was six, his father left the family for another woman. Slowly, the relationship between Mallie and Sasser also deteriorated, and eventually the Robinsons were evicted. In the spring of 1920, Mallie and her children went to live with her half-brother in the white neighborhood of Pasadena, California. Robinson was particularly proud of his mother at this point in her life because she "would not allow the white neighbors to drive her away or frighten her or mistreat her kids." It was from his mother's example that Robinson learned to have self-respect and to demand respect from others. In high school, Robinson set himself apart from the others in athletics, specifically baseball and track. He continued doing so at Pasadena Junior College, becoming a star in football as well. When Robinson went to the University of California at Los Angeles, he contiued to distinguish himself in athletics. He became the first student to receive letters in four different sports: basketball, baseball, track, and football. However, he also excelled in other sports as well. "He won swimming champioships" and "reached the semifinals of the national African American tennis tournament". He also played professional football with the Honolulu Bears in 1941. In 1942, Robinson was drafted into the army, but did not enter combat because of an injury to his ankle. Despite this, Robinson prospered in the army, until one day he refused to relinquish his position at the front of a bus. He was court-martialed, but eventually cleared of all charges. In the fall of 1944, Jackie Robinson received an honorable discharge. Two years later, in 1946, Robinson married Rachel Isum, and they had three children together. That same year, he would be signed by Branch Rickey in a move that would change America's pastime forever.