Question

1. Before joining the Dodgers, Jackie Robinson faces racism at a gas station and airport. How does Jackie

Answer 1

1) One time when the team stopped for gas at a gas station, the owner wouldn't let them use the restrooms just because they were black. Jackie Robinson did not take too kindly to that. He then told the man that they wouldn't get their gas from him if they weren't allowed to use the restrooms at that gas station. This persuaded the man to let them use the restrooms. 



2) Jim Crow laws, enacted in southern states by the turn of the 20th century prohibited blacks and whites from “comingling” on trains, streetcars, and buses. Perhaps because the airline industry was new there no similar laws in place for air travel, but nonetheless, it was not easy for an African-American to buy a plane ticket. Jackie Robinson, who was the first African-American major league baseball player, was expected in Florida for spring training in 1946. He and his bride of two weeks boarded an American Airlines flight in Los Angeles to fly to Florida. In the 1940s planes could not fly across the country without several stops to re-fuel, and when they stopped in New Orleans, Robinson and his wife were not permitted to re-board with the other passengers. Left with time to kill in the New Orleans airport while they tried to get on to another flight, they also were refused service in the coffee shop. When they finally were able to book a flight out of New Orleans the next day, that flight landed in Pensacola, Florida where they were asked to find another means of transportation. They completed their trip, riding in the back of a segregated bus.