BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : Dr MARTIN LUTHER KING AND JACKIE ROBINSON - THE MEETINGS OF TWO GREAT MEN IN THE HEIGHT OS OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS STRUGGLES :

 BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY                                                                  Robinson, Jackie

b. 1919 - d. 1972

Born in Cairo, Georgia, Jackie Robinson pushed back the frontiers of racism in sports prior to the success of civil rights legislation. At the University of California-Los Angeles, Robinson was the first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football and track. In 1947, he became the first black American to integrate a major league baseball team, debuting with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson was awarded three of major league baseball’s highest honors: Rookie of the Year (1947), Most Valuable Player (1947) and induction into the Hall of Fame (1962). After he left baseball, he chaired the Freedom Fund Drive of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and served on the NAACP Board of Directors, using his celebrity to influence race relations in America. He donated proceeds from a dinner in his honor to the voter registration work of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and was on the platform at the March on Washington. A founder of the Freedom National Bank in Harlem, Robinson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal posthumously.