Jackie Robinson is one of the well known African Americans during the 1950's. Jackie was born in 1919 in Cairo, Georgia. His mother was a single mom, she raised Jackie and her four other children. They were the only black family on their block. The prejudice they encountered only made Jackie want to become the first African American to play baseball. Major League Baseball had a color barrier that only allowed white people to play. This segregated African Americans to play for more than 50 years. In 1941 Jackie was asked to play on an All- American football team. Financial struggle forced him to leave college and enlist in the Army. After two years in the army he progressed to second lieutenant. After he left the Army Jackie played for the Kansas City Monarchs. This was considered the "Negro Baseball League", Jackie played on this team for one year. The Brooklyn Dodger president Branch Rickey asked Jackie about joining the Dodgers, in 1947. He was the first African American player in Major League Baseball since it became segregated. By the end of his first season with the Dodgers he was the National League Rookie of the Year. He had 12 home runs, 29 steals, and a batting average of .297. He was the National League's Most Valuable Player of the year. Even though Jackie had a great career he was not liked by many fans. When Jackie walked out onto the field he was booed and got many things threw at him. Even the players of other teams did not like Jackie. He played first base many of the guys would purposely try to step on his heels to hurt him. In 1962, Jackie Robinson's success paid off by being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. On April 15, 2013 their was a movie produced about Jackie's life called "42."
The in 1950's the pop culture was very different then the things we do today. "On The Water Front" was a popular movie. http://www.bobborst.com/popculture/top-100-songs-of-the-year/?year=1950 this is a list of the top 30 songs during the 1950's.
Even though today we still have a little discrimination it is not as bad as it was in the 1900's. It is not just against African American's it is still a big deal to everyone and I think segregation is going to happen again if we stop learning about 1950-1960 and the horror that happened in America.
https://docs.google.com/a/fdschools.org/document/d/1Vva0IC_Jl-tvzejjU5aTdgVmhOiW4YLckMrGtK4gZGM/edit This is a list of all the sites I used to gather information.
The in 1950's the pop culture was very different then the things we do today. "On The Water Front" was a popular movie. http://www.bobborst.com/popculture/top-100-songs-of-the-year/?year=1950 this is a list of the top 30 songs during the 1950's.
Even though today we still have a little discrimination it is not as bad as it was in the 1900's. It is not just against African American's it is still a big deal to everyone and I think segregation is going to happen again if we stop learning about 1950-1960 and the horror that happened in America.
https://docs.google.com/a/fdschools.org/document/d/1Vva0IC_Jl-tvzejjU5aTdgVmhOiW4YLckMrGtK4gZGM/edit This is a list of all the sites I used to gather information.