Viewers of any Major League Baseball game on Wednesday may have noticed everyone wearing the same number — number 42. Every year on April 15, also known as Jackie Robinson Day, players, managers and coaches dress in this jersey to honor the late Jackie Robinson.
Beginning in 2009, the MLB introduced this tradition to recognize Jackie Robinson’s tremendous contributions not only to the league but to the sport as a whole.
Robinson is known for breaking the MLB’s color barrier as the first African American to step onto the major league fields.
“As someone who is the mom of a young black boy, [Robinson represents] aspiration,” said Kim Gray, a patron at the California African American Museum, which hosts an exhibit on Robinson. “You can make a way out of no way, and be first in your class to do something.”
Issues of racism and prejudice are still prevalent today in Major League Baseball and throughout all of American sports. Dan Durbin, a professor at USC Annenberg, recalled an encounter he had with former MLB player and manager Dusty Baker.
While working on an oral history project documenting the African-American Experience in the MLB, Durbin interviewed Baker at his home, where the baseball player pulled out a stack of racist letters he had received.
“He pulled out one that had a chimpanzee picture glued to the center of it,” Durbin said. “Then he showed a long letter detailing that the chimpanzee was portrayed as being Dusty’s son and detailing all the ways in which the chimpanzee was let down by Dusty.”
Baker did not receive this letter during his playing days in the 1970s and ‘80s. It was sent to him while he was a manager for the Cincinnati Reds in the early 2010s.
“The problem doesn’t go away,” Durbin said, “and it’s one of the reasons why we need to remember Jackie Robinson, because the issues don’t go away, they’re still a part of our culture.”
Once a four-sport star athlete at the University of California, Los Angeles, Robinson took the Negro Leagues by storm in 1945. At the same time, Brooklyn Dodgers’ general manager Branch Rickey was in search of ways to make his club a championship-caliber team. He eventually turned his attention toward the Negro Leagues, where one player, specifically, caught his eye.
After just one season in the Negro Leagues, the Dodgers decided to take a chance on 26-year-old Robinson.
“There are now a lot of men of color who are playing baseball today, and I think a lot of it has to do with him,” said Heather Alexander, a patron at CAAM. “Had it not been for him, for paving the way, then a lot of them wouldn’t be here today.”
Robinson faced unparalleled challenges both on and off the field. He dealt with issues of racism and prejudice from fans, umpires, opponents and even within his own team.
“I am a huge baseball fan, and I understand that, in 2026, I probably wouldn’t be a huge baseball fan if those barriers were not broken,” said Raena Granberry, an attendee of the CAAM exhibit. “He was at the forefront, he was a front-line soldier, who took on the abuse directly.”