Person of the Week: Jackie Robinson

The Person of the Week this week is Jackie Robinson. Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play baseball professionally in the MLB (Major League Baseball) since the 1880s when segregation laws were beginning to be adopted. He was born in 1919 and died in 1972. His first professional MLB game was with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 and he stayed with the Dodgers for his entire career, until 1956.

Was Jackie Robinson the first professional African American Baseball player?

The first African American to play baseball for the "major league" was Moses Fleetwood Walker in the 1880s, as he played for the Toledo Blue Stockings. This is a picture of Moses:

Recently, new research has suggested that William Edward White may have been the first African American player, since he substituted for a player in one professional game in 1879.



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