Nick Walters assignment 4

This is a picture of Jackie Robinson, the first African-American baseball player in the MLB. This is from the late 1940’s, a time period where African Americans weren’t accepted by most white people. Jackie Robinson was a major key in breaking down racial barriers. When Robinson first joined the league, he had few supporters outside of his African-American society and no friends in the MLB. At games he would be ridiculed by the audience and even by players on the opposing team, solely because of his skin color. However, after people started to get to know Jackie, he became more liked, especially in the Dodgers’ organization. The people in this picture have learned to look past race, as all people should, and have found a friendship that will last them a lifetime. Outside of this photograph, many white people are probably disgusted or taken aback by it because it is such a new concept of white and black people being seen as equals. This picture makes me think about how far we’ve come as a nation in the past 70 years, from being appalled when an African American person plays a professional sport, to having our professional athletics be primarily dominated by African Americans.