42: Do you have the guts not to fight back?
42 was his number, Jackie Robinson was his name – the first Black player in Major League Baseball and you can imagine it will be a life altering if not a divine opportunity that will change a young man, the men he called teammates, and challenge a nation to break down the walls of racism, inequality and segregation. A story, I think is told very well in 42 the movie. After his discharge from the Army in 1944, Robinson began to play baseball professionally. At the time, the sport was segregated, and African-Americans and whites played in separate leagues. Robinson began playing in the Negro Leagues, but he was soon chosen by Branch Rickey, president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, to help integrate major league baseball. He joined the all-white Montreal Royals, a farm team for the Brooklyn Dodgers, in 1946. He later moved to Florida to begin spring training with the Royals, and played his first game in Ebbets Field for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. I think the story of Jackie Robinson …