Term paper on Jackie Robinson Integrates Major League Baseball

Jackie Robinson Integrates Major League Baseball

term paper RESOURCE GUIDE

Segregated from the major leagues, professional African American baseball players participated in the Negro Leagues through World War II. In 1947, Branch Rickey, general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, called up Jackie Robinson from the team’s minor league farm club in Montreal . A star athlete at UCLA and a World War II serviceman, Robinson stoically accepted jeers and racial epithets and won that year’s National League Rookie of the Year award for his athletic achievements. Through his skills and endurance of insults, Robinson, later inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame, broke the color line in baseball.
Suggestions for Term Papers

1. Discuss the origins of Negro League baseball.

2. Discuss the career of a famous Negro League player (e.g., Josh Gibson, ‘‘Cool Papa” Bell , Satchell Paige).

3. Discuss the difficulties Robinson faced in his first year in major league baseball and his response.

4. How did Latino players fare with baseball’s color line?

5. Discuss public reaction to Robinson’s first year in the major leagues.

Suggested Sources : See entry 71 for related items.

GENERAL SOURCES

Brashler, William. The Story of Negro League Baseball . New York : Ticknor&Fields, 1994. Concise, easy-to-read, and interesting account of the history of the Negro League, with a focus on Jimmie Crutchfield’s career.

Cooper, Michael L. Playing America’s Game: The Story of Negro League Baseball . New York : Lodestar Books, 1993. Concise, comprehensive, and easy-to-read illustrated history of the Negro League and the men who played in it.

Dixon , Phil, and Pat Hannigan. The Negro Baseball Leagues: A Photographic History . Mattituck , NY : Amereon, 1992. Follows Simpson Younger, the first black to play college baseball, to Jackie Robinson’s breaking the major leagues’ color barrier after World War II and the subsequent death of the Negro Leagues in the mid-1950s.

Margolies, Jacob. The Negro Leagues: The Story of Black Baseball . New York : Franklin Watts, 1993. A concise and easy-to-read account examining the history of the Negro League, with highlights of some of the great players.

McKissack, Patricia C., and Frederick McKissack, Jr. Black Diamond: The Story of the Negro Baseball Leagues . New York : Scholastic, 1994. An interesting and easy-to-read history of the Negro League and its great heroes.

SPECIALIZED SOURCES

Coombs, Karen M. Jackie Robinson: Baseball’s Civil Rights Legend . Springfield , NJ : Enslow, 1997. The story of Jackie Robinson and his advent into all-white major league baseball.

Tygiel, Jules. Jackie Robinson Reader: Perspectives on an American Hero . New York : NAL/Dutton, 1998. Different viewpoints on Jackie Robinson and his impact.

BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES

The Biographical Dictionary of Black Americans . New York : Facts on File, 1992. Critical resource on more than 180 African Americans covering all fields of endeavor.

Falkner, David. Great Time Coming: The Life of Jackie Robinson, from Baseball to Birmingham . New York : Simon&Schuster, 1995. Complete biography of this all-time baseball great from New York through the civil rights movement.

Porter, David L., ed. African-American Sports Greats: A Biographical

Dictionary . Westport , CT : Greenwood , 1995. An excellent article on Jackie Robinson and his contributions to baseball.

Rampersad, Arnold. Jackie Robinson . New York : Random House, 1997. Detailed and comprehensive biography of the baseball star from childhood to fame. The author is a university professor and biographer who was given access to Robinson’s papers.

Riley, James A. The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues . New York : Carroll&Graf Publishers, 1994. Comprehensive coverage with detailed biographical sketches of the men who played the game.

Robinson, Jackie. I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography . Hopewell , NJ : Ecco, 1995. In his own words, the Jackie Robinson story as he saw it; examines the fortunate combination of talent and opportunity.

Robinson, Sharon. Stealing Home: An Intimate Family Portrait by the Daughter of Jackie Robinson . New York: HarperCollins, 1997. Intimate portrait of Jackie from his daughter’s viewpoint.

Smith, Jessie Carney. Black Heroes of the 20th Century . Detroit: Gale, 1997. A compendium of African American achievements over the past 100 years.

Stout, Glenn. Jackie Robinson: Between the Baselines . San Francisco: Wood-ford, 1997. General biography.

AUDIOVISUAL SOURCES

Jackie Robinson Story: 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition . Wynnwood, PA: Schlessinger/Library Video, 1998. Videocassette. 83-minute chronicle of Robinson’s life and struggle for fame from UCLA to the big leagues.

WORLD WIDE WEB

‘‘Jackie Robinson.” CMG Worldwide . 1997. http://www.jackie42.com/right.html Paragraph description and small picture; leads to biography, photographs, career highlights, and other material.