Breaking The Racial Wall: Tommy Burns And Jackie Robinson

Breaking The Racial Wall

Segregation has been around since before people enslaved the african americans. It wasn't just "blacks" nearly every race and ethnicity has been enslaved at one time or another in our history. Prior to the Civil War (1861-1865), racial segregation in the United States was common in the north, which were non-slaveholding states. It just so happened that the “blacks” have been segregated the longest, all though school, music and sports. African Americans had to find a way to break that “racial wall” and try to become one a society. Tommy Burns and Jackie Robinson are famous black athletes that took the first step into bringing both communities closer together. Tommy Burns was a boxer who claimed a heavyweight championship
Manager, Branch Rickey, of the Dodgers offered Robinson this opportunity to break the powerful but unwritten color line in baseball. Knowing the pushback from fans and players of other teams, he knew he had to make a condition for Robinson. Not respond to the abuse that he was going to face going into an all white dominated sport. Robinson knew the challenges that would come with being a black baseball player in an all white league and with white fans. Jackie Robinson’s debut in organized baseball was with the Montreal Royals of the International League, the Dodgers’ best farm club. With an impressive five at-bats, he hit a three-run homer and three singles, stole two bases, and scored four times, twice by forcing the pitcher to balk. He was then promoted to the Dodgers the following spring. Robinson thrived on the pressure and established himself as the most exciting player in baseball; His playing style combined traditional elements of black sports with an aggressiveness asserting his right to be at the plate or on the base paths. According to his manager Leo
His success encouraged the integration of professional football, basketball, and tennis. African Americans questioned the doctrine of “separate but equal” which was a legal doctrine used to defend 19th century racial segregation of public facilities - schools, transportation, housing, etc. This then became apart of the civil right movement. Robinson then broke his emotional silence in 1949; he became an outspoken individual who spoke against racial discrimination. Robinson led other baseball players in urging baseball to use its economic power to desegregate southern towns, hotels, and ballparks. Because most baseball teams integrated relatively calmly, the “Jackie Robinson experiment” provided an important example of successful desegregation to ambivalent white southern political and business leaders. Having watched baseball integrate through a combination of individual black achievements, white goodwill, economic persuasion, and public outspokenness, Robinson, when he retired from baseball in 1957, he wanted to bring the same tactics to African-American employment opportunities. When Robinson retired after 50 years of baseball, they retired his jersey number 42 for all of MLB