Jackie Robinson

Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 - October 24, 1972), nicknamed Jackie Robinson Robinson), the first African diaspora player in the modern history of Major League Baseball. Robinson was born into a sharecropper family. He participated in baseball, basketball, American football and track and field competitions in his early years. He was also drafted into the army during the Pacific War. On April 15, 1947, Robinson wore jersey No. 42 and represented the Brooklyn Dodgers as the starting first baseman. The game was his first game in the major leagues; in the early days, African diasporas were only allowed to play in the Negro Leagues, so Jackie Robinson's entry into the major leagues broke the racial segregation of American baseball for nearly 60 years; the No. 42 jersey number he wore was retired by Major League Baseball in 1997. It was the first case of jersey number retirement that applied to the entire league among the four major professional sports in North America.