hreats, one said if Jackie showed up to play in Cincinnati, he would be shot at site. On the road, when the team stayed in nice hotels, Jackie was forbidden and was forced to stay in homes willing enough to take him in.# But Jackie, like Rickey said, had the amazing strength to not fight back. For he knew every time he lashed back, the insults would only get worse and his goal of African-American equality would only become more impossible. The first two years in the majors were by far his most challenging. But again, like it did in Montreal, his amazing ability as a baseball player saved him from the torture of being a black man in a white world. In 1947, he received the Rookie of the Year Award and slowly, as it was in Montreal, he began to receive the respect he deserved.# Soon, the same newspapers that questioned his ability to “make it in the big leagues,” was exclaiming his amazing wonder as a baseball player. Jackie was now in the spotlight and experiencing the severe pressure of being the first African-American in baseball. But Jackie’s attention would soon turn away from baseball and focus more on the big picture...Civil Rights and African-American equality."A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." Jackie not only believed in this quote, but lived it as well. Soon after Jackie’s first season, a myriad of other black ballplayers were given the chance to excel in the Major’s as well. Dan Bankhead pitched for the Dodgers, Larry Doby played for the American League Cleveland Indians, and Henry Thompson and Willard Brown played for the St. Louis Browns.# One year in the public spotlight, and already Jackie was changing baseball and America. The response from the black community was overwhelmingly positive. Black fans by the thousands poured into the stadium to see Jackie play, and even though they were not permitted to sit near the white fans, their joy and explosiv...
