Posted this time last year...Major League Baseball Honors Jackie Robinson's Legacy Today - 66th Anniversary - April 15 2013

Today Major League Baseball honors the legacy of Jackie Robinson, commemorating the 65th anniversary of Robinson breaking the color barrier.

https://plus.google.com/101690531482664240203/posts/fD7VbwJkm35

Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American baseball player who became the first black Major League Baseball (MLB) player of the modern era.^[1] Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. As the first black man to play in the major leagues since the 1880s, he was instrumental in bringing an end to racial segregation in professional baseball, which had relegated black players to the Negro leagues for six decades.^[2] The example of his character and unquestionable talent challenged the traditional basis of segregation, which then marked many other aspects of American life, and contributed significantly to the Civil Rights Movement.^[3]^[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Robinson

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Valentino Martinez on April 15, 2012 at 1:13pm

LEGACY

Robinson's major league debut brought an end to approximately sixty years of segregation in professional baseball, known as the baseball color line.^[115] After World War II, several other forces were also leading the country toward increased equality for blacks, including their accelerated migration to the North, where their political clout grew, and President Harry Truman's desegregation of the military in 1948.^[167] Robinson's breaking of the baseball color line and his professional success symbolized these broader changes and demonstrated that the fight for equality was more than simply a political matter. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that he was "a legend and a symbol in his own time", and that he "challenged the dark skies of intolerance and frustration."^[168] According to historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, Robinson's "efforts were a monumental step in the civil-rights revolution in America ... [His] accomplishments allowed black and white Americans to be more respectful and open to one another and more appreciative of everyone's abilities."^[169]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Robinson

Jackie Robinson's door-opening impact in professional sports; on the Civil Rights Movement; and on the concept of respecting performance and potential in individuals underscores why VALUING DIVERSITY matters in recruitment.