“Over seventy years ago, in 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first African American athlete to play in the World Series, having famously broken the color barrier in Major League Baseball earlier in the year. In another breakthrough, Leopoldo “Polín” Martinez, a Mexican American ballplayer, pl

Popular athletes can reflect the broader societal change that is going on around them; they can also be instigators of that change. This collection traces the African-American civil rights movement through the 20th century and touches on athletes like Jack Johnson, Jackie Robinson, and Muhammad A

In this post, readers explore an extraordinary figure in a new way.  A 1950 comic book about Jackie Robinson’s early career reveals little of the hardships he faced, but focuses on the talent and integrity of on the baseball’s greats. Written by Archivist Cathy Keen, th