Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 â October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. When the Dodgers signed Robinson, it heralded the end of racial segregation in professional baseball that had relegated black players to the Negro leagues since the 1880s. Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.
Jackie Robinson was drafted on April 3 ,1942, and was assigned to a segregated cavalry unit at Fort Riley, Kansas. While there, the college-educated Corporal Robinson applied for Officersâ Candidate School (OCS). Although the Army officially supported the training of black officers, few thus far had gained admittance to Fort Riley OCS.
In 1944, while stationed at Camp (now Fort) Hood, Texas, 25-year-old Lieutenant Robinson was attached to the 761st Tank Battalion, an all-black unit which later distinguished itself in the Battle of the Bulge. On July 6, 1944, eleven years before the bus protest by civil rights activist Rosa Parks, Robinson refused to move to the back of a military bus he was riding in, when directed to do so by the white driver.
When the bus reached the end of the line, Military Police were called and took Robinson into custody. When Lieutenant Robinson challenged the racist line of questioning by the assistant provost marshal, the officer of the day, and others regarding his unjust treatment on the bus, he was arrested. As a result of the confrontation, several charges were brought against Robinson, to include insubordination, conduct unbecoming of an officer, refusing to obey the lawful orders of a superior officer, disturbing the peace, drunkenness (although he did not drink), and insulting a civilian woman. He would face these trumped-up charges against him in a court-martial. He was acquitted.
On November 4, 1944, Lieutenant Robinson was honorably discharged from the United States Army, allegedly due to two ankle injuries he sustained playing football in 1937, and again in 1941.
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