Jackie Robinson Made History and Hit It Out of the Park

When Was Jackie Robinson Born?

Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born on January 31, 1919, to a farming family in Cairo, Georgia. As the youngest of Mallie and Jerry Robinson’s five children, he was named after the former president, who died 25 days before Robinson was born. He didn’t have an easy childhood.

A family portrait of Jackie Robinsons’ family.

Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images

A year after he was born, Robinson’s father abandoned the family. His mother then moved with her five children to Pasadena, California, where Mallie worked a series of odd jobs to support them. Pasadena was a fairly affluent suburb, but the Robinsons didn’t have much money.

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