-January 31, 1919- October 24, 1972 -First black player in the MLB, making his debut in 1947 for the Brooklyn Dodgers. -His major league debut brought an end to approximately sixty years of segregation in professional baseball. -Him 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 said that he was “a legend and a symbol in his own time”, and that he “challenged the dark skies of intolerance and frustration.” -According to historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, Robinson’s “efforts were a monumental step in the civil-rights revolution…
