Jackie Robinson is among history&rsquo\;s most famous Americans. When he took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15\, 1947&mdash\;breaking Major League Baseball&rsquo\;s longtime ba n on Black players&mdash\;one of the 20th century&rsquo\;s most significan t events was recorded. His uniform number (42) is the only one permanently retired by all of Major League Baseball&rsquo\;s thirty teams. What&rsquo \;s less well-known\, and largely lost to history\, is the small army of m en\, women\, and institutions of many types that fought for many long\, bi tter\, and deeply dispiriting years prior to Robinson&rsquo\;s triumphant debut in Brooklyn. All these and more unsung heroes were the pioneers that battled the color barrier for sixty years before Brooklyn\, while making a path possible for Jackie Robinson. It was a battle largely in the shadow s. But like Rosa Parks on a Montgomery bus\, or John Lewis on a bridge in Selma\, it was a battle of dignity and defiance in a hard-won war for just ice. And this is their story.
\n\nBased on the book "Befo re Brooklyn: The Unsung Heroes Who Helped Break Baseball's Color Barrier" by Ted Reinstein. \;
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