
“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” The great Jackie Robinson, the breaker of the color barrier.
Going on trips such as the one to the Jackie Robinson museum is important because they hold historical significance. The museum commemorates the life and achievements of Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in professional baseball. Visiting the museum provides an opportunity to learn about his impact on not just his baseball legacy but his advocacy and business as an African American. These trips also help preserve his legacy. By visiting this museum, we plant the legacies of Jackie Robinson in our minds which preserve and keep his work from being forgotten. There is a lot that we can learn from these trips because they provide a fun way of teaching the legacy of a colored man through an interactive museum. These trips also help to inspire young people to reach for the sky and that no limit should be placed on our dreams. As a whole, these trips greatly benefit society. These trips give societies insight on the struggles, challenges, and triumphs of individuals who have made lasting impacts. Without such museums or useful trips that give us these insights many of these important individuals would become lost in history.
What I Learned
Young Jackie was raised in Pasadena, California, a young colored boy who had many ambitions. Jackie’s childhood was very sporadic outside of school; he would venture and pick up many gigs or simple tasks to make a dollar wherever he could. Inside school, Jackie always loved to participate in sports during recess.
What do you hear when you think about Jackie Robinson? Do you hear the number 42, or maybe the world renowned baseball player? Jackie Robinson smashed the expectations of all with his legacy of being a baseball player, but his legacy stretches further to his business, advocacy, and his time fighting for his nation. Jackie Robinson was the co-founder of Freedom National Bank of Harlem, an African-American owned bank with the sole purpose of financially aiding African-Americans. Jackie Robinson also advocated many civil rights movements and contributed financially through fundraisers, events, and demonstrations. Jackie Robinson used his fame from being a major league baseball player to gain support in civil rights movements. Jackie Robinson also served for this nation in 1942. After applying to Officer Candidate School and being rejected, he worked with a successful boxing campaign to fight for black soldiers to be accepted into the program.

All these instances in his life are only a small segment featured at the Jackie Robinson Museum at 75 Varick Street. Jackie Robinson was not just the famous all time baseball star but he was a Father, a Businessman, an Advocate, and a soldier. Jackie has left such a large footprint on every single person.
The Jackie Robinson museum was an amazing experience that elevated my understanding of this man’s life. The spacious sections that split his life into pieces that proved that his life was more than his baseball legacy. We all know Jackie was a baseball man, but he was also an Army man, a businessman, and a family man. The Jackie Robinson Museum had flow and above all else split major events in his life so that we can not only remember him for more that the baseball player we know, but also the events that led up to what made Jackie Robinson so influential to not only the lives of black people but the lives of everyone who has a dream or thinks that they cannot achieve whatever they set their minds to.
One of the most memorable portions of that day was the scavenger hunt that had everyones’ hearts racing out of sheer competition. I began racing back and forth sifting through and reading so much new information about Jackie Robinson that I was left mesmerized. One such detail that I remembered was the basketball and track and field that Jackie Robinson also was a part of. Jackie Robinson loved to play sports and that’s what drove Jackie to be the person he grew up to be. One other detail that truly showed how determined Jackie Robinson was stemmed from when he had just completed basic training and applied to Officer Candidate School (OCS) but was denied. Jackie didn’t give up back then because he worked with the boxing champion Joe Louis to fight for Black Soldiers to be accepted. Jackie Robinson faced many death threats that stemmed from racial discrimination and prejudice, but that did not stop Jackie Robinson from leading in his first major fundraising campaign in 1957. Jackie Robinson met his goal of 1 million dollars when he went on a cross country speaking tour to fight for Freedom. The Jackie Robinson museum made me look at museums in a totally different perspective. I used to see museums as an adult way of “teaching” fun, but I was able to realize that when you learn more about an individual so influential as Jackie Robinson and all that he stood for, you gain a greater appreciation for what you currently have. For Jackie Robinson to not only surprise many who thought he couldn’t succeed was truly astonishing, especially at a time where many colored people were often segregated and had a large disadvantage with fewer opportunities than a white person.