Jackie Robinson Marker Finds a New Home
Marker in Robinson’s Georgia Hometown Damaged by Vandals
Like fellow Georgian, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jackie Robinson was a peacemaker. Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia, on January 31, 1919, nearly 13 months before Andrew Foster organized the United States Baseball League, a league for Negro players, designed to compete with the White major league for the heart of baseball fans in America. The organizational meeting took place at the Paseo YMCA in Kansas City, Missouri.
Robinson’s father, Jerry Robinson, was a sharecropper; his mother, Millie McGriff, took care of a family of five children. Shortly after his birth, his mother moved the family to Pasadena, California.
Robinson earned the honor of signing the first professional contract by a Black baseball player since Fleetwood Walker’s 1888 contract expired. Robinson had to pledge to refrain from violence, even if attacked by opposing White players.
In 1946, Robinson signed a contract to play baseball with the Montreal Royals, the Brooklyn Dodgers farm team. The following season Robinson made his debut in major league baseball when he stepped onto the Ebbets Field turf on April 15, 1947. Robinson was named the National League’s Rookie of the Year at season’s end. In 1949 he was the National League’s Most Valuable Player. He kept his pledge…
