Jackie Robinson in his Brooklyn Dodgers Uniform

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Description

In 1947, Jackie Robinson crossed the color line in major league baseball when he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers. That decision would not only integrate baseball, but would help the country work to achieve equal rights for all. Civil Rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr., once commented to baseball pitcher Don Newcombe, “Don, you and Jackie will never know how easy you made my job, through what you went through on the baseball field.”

Text from “Baseball: The National Pastime in the National Archives,” a free eBook from the National Archives.

Citation

This primary source comes from the Records of the U.S. Information Agency.

National Archives Identifier: 6802718

Full Citation: Photograph 306-PS-50-7551; Jackie Robinson in his Brooklyn Dodgers Uniform; 1950; Master File Photographs of U.S. and Foreign Personalities, World Events, and American Economic, Social, and Cultural Life, ca. 1953 – ca. 1994; Records of the U.S. Information Agency, Record Group 306; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD. [Online Version, https://docsteach.org/document/jackie-robinson/, December 9, 2025]

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