Jackie Robinson changed baseball 75 years ago. That was just the start.

It is a challenge not to limit Jackie Robinson’s life to a single date – April 15, 1947. On that date, Robinson crossed the color line into Major League Baseball and eventually transformed No. 42 into a symbol of progress. 

And yet, Robinson was more than a number, more than a world-class athlete. As a member of the NAACP and a columnist, he was a champion for baseball and for Black people. 

“You have made every Negro in America proud through your baseball prowess and your inflexible demand for equal opportunity...