Leadership is "a process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task or goal." Leadership is doing something before anyone else has done it and showing others how to do the same thing.
Jackie Robinson was not only an athlete, he was also a great leader. Here are the ways that Jackie Robinson was a leader:- LEADER IN SPORTS 1. One way that Jackie Robinson showed his leadership was how he influenced young African-American people to play baseball. He became a great athlete at a time when African-Americans did not have any rights. It has been described as an "exceptional act of leadership" that left an indelible mark on history when Jackie Robinson became the first African-American major league baseball player in 1947. When he accomplished that goal it paved the way for other great African American baseball players like Willie Mays and Hank Aaron. In an interview about Robinson, Aaron was quoted saying "he was my hero and always has been. Not only for the baseball that he played, but simply because of the person he was." LEADER IN CIVIL RIGHTS 2. Jackie Robinson was not only an athlete, he was also a civil rights activist. When he was playing baseball and was being verbally abused he showed leadership by staying calm and showed courage and grace. It is said that this inspired a generation of African Americans into a non-violent civil rights movement. After he retired from baseball, he became very involved with Martin Luther King. Here is a part of an article from Sports Illustrated that tells what MLK thought about Jackie Robinson in the civil rights movement: [A]s Robinson's career was winding down with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Robinson started to speak out for civil rights. Many people in the press and civil rights community discouraged Robinson from taking this step, worried it would tarnish his image, and even argued that as an athlete Robinson had no vocal place in the struggle. But King, by then the movement's undisputed leader, said that Robinson had every right to speak because he was "... a pilgrim that walked in the lonesome byways toward the high road of Freedom. He was a sit-inner before sit-ins, a freedom rider before freedom rides." An emboldened Robinson toured the south to speak for civil rights and became the most requested speaker on the circuit: more requested than even Dr. King. He would end every speech the same way, saying, "If I had to choose tomorrow between the Baseball Hall of Fame and full citizenship for my people I would choose full citizenship time and again." That shows leadership. LEADER IN BUSINESS In 1957, after he left baseball Jackie Robinson worked in corporate America. He was the first black vice president of a major American corporation, called Chock Full O'Nuts. Robinson continued to open doors for African Americans. He not only became a leader but role model because a great proportion of the company's employees were black and he may have been someone they could look up to and say to themselves that they could achieve more. |
|
|
Sources: http://www.alduncan.net/leadership-Jackie-Robinson.html
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2014/07/hank_aaron_talks_about_jackie.html
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/jackie-robinson
http://sports.yahoo.com
www.archives.gov
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2014/07/hank_aaron_talks_about_jackie.html
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/jackie-robinson
http://sports.yahoo.com
www.archives.gov