Jackie Robinson was a superb athlete and succeeded at almost any sport he tried. He will be considered one the greatest athletes ever. Even though he has accomplished all this he will be known even more for advancing the quality of life for blacks and other minorities. During his superb baseball career Jackie was always involved in Civil Right matters, whenever he got a chance he was speaking out about discrimination against black and similar issues relating to equality. Robinson is usually mistakenly referred to as a conservative Republican but in reality his political views were way to complex to allow him to choose one political party over the other. Robinson’s first serious encounter with politics came in 1949 for which his actions are still criticized. That year he and Paul Robeson, who at the time along with Jackie Robinson were the two most visible and respected black celebrities made a controversial statement in a speech while they were in Paris. Robeson said something to the effect that it would be “unthinkable” for black Americans to fight in a war against Russia because blacks were treated better in Russia than they were in the United States.

Perhaps the cruelest blow was dealt to Jackie Robinson in 1971 when his son, Jackie Jr., died in a car accident. Three years earlier, the younger Robinson had been arrested for heroin possession due to an addiction

On August 28, Robinson took his entire family to he March on Washington, where they heard King’s “ I Have A Dream” speech. In 1964, Nelson Rockefellar, New York Governer and GOP presidential candidate, named Jackie one of his six national campaign directors. Rockefellar lost the party’s nomination to Barry Goldwater who Robinson really hated. In 1967 Robinson had become frustrated enough by the NAACP to resign from the organization’s board of directors. He felt that the black establishment running the association was not involved enough and ignored the efforts of younger leaders. By 1967, Robinson accepted the opportunity to campaign again for Democrat Hubery Humphrey, who he had supported in 1960. Robinson traveled the country delivering speeches on Humphrey’s behalf and was disappointed when Humphrey lost the general election to Richard Nixon, who had abandoned Robinson in 1960.

Some topics in this essay:
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