Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was a baseball player for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was the first African-American major league baseball player of the modern era in 1947.[1] Although not the first African American professional baseball player in United States history, Robinson's Major League debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers ended approximately sixty years of baseball segregation, also known as the baseball color line, or color barrier. In the United States at this time, many white people believed that blacks and whites should be segregated or kept apart in many aspects of life, including sports. The Baseball Hall of Fame inducted Robinson in 1962 and he played for six World Series teams. Robinson earned six consecutive All-Star Game nominations and won several awards during his career. In 1947, he won The Sporting News Rookie of the Year Award and the first Rookie of the Year Award. Two years later, he won the National League MVP Award—the first black player to do so.[2] In addition to Robinson's accomplishments on the field, he supported the early Civil Rights Movement. In the 1960s, he helped to establish the Freedom National Bank, an African-American owned and controlled entity based in Harlem, New York.[3] Robinson also wrote a syndicated newspaper column for several years that he used to support Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.[4] Robinson campaigned for several politicians, including the Democrat Hubert Humphrey and the Republican Richard Nixon. In recognition of his accomplishments, he was posthumously awarded a Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.[4] On April 15, 1997, the 50 year anniversary of his debut, Major League Baseball retired Robinson's jersey number 42 across all MLB teams in recognition of his accomplishments both on and off the field in a ceremony at Shea Stadium.[5] In 1950 Robinson played himself in the biographical film The Jackie Robinson Story.[6] He became a political activist in his post-playing days. In 1946, Robinson married Rachel Annetta Isum, and in 1973, after Robinson died, she founded the Jackie Robinson Foundation.