CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.House Bill 9223
Florida House of Representatives - 1997 HR 9223
By Representatives Lawson, Lynn, Constantine and Morse
1 House Resolution
2 A resolution honoring Jackie Robinson on the
3 50th Anniversary of becoming the first
4 African-American to play Major League Baseball.
5
6 WHEREAS, Jackie Robinson was born on January 31, 1919,
7 just 30 miles from Tallahassee in Cairo, Georgia, the grandson
8 of a slave and the son of a sharecropper, and
9 WHEREAS, just 28 years later, on April 15, 1947, Jackie
10 Robinson became the first African-American to play in a Major
11 League Baseball game in the United States, thus paving the way
12 for the racial integration of all professional sports in this
13 country, and
14 WHEREAS, on this, the 50th anniversary of Jackie
15 Robinson's historic breaking of the color line in Major League
16 Baseball, it is with great pride and affection that the
17 citizens of the State of Florida remember this heroic figure
18 and his numerous ties to our state, and
19 WHEREAS, much of Jackie Robinson's initial public
20 exposure came in 1946 while playing as a member of the
21 Brooklyn Dodgers' top farm team, the Montreal Royals of the
22 International League, during spring training in the State of
23 Florida, and also in nearby Cuba during the 1947 spring
24 training season, and
25 WHEREAS, on Sunday, March 17, 1946, Jackie Robinson
26 captured national media attention by playing in the first
27 racially integrated spring training game in modern
28 professional baseball history when he played for the Montreal
29 Royals before a crowd of 3,000 at City Island Ballpark in
30 Daytona Beach, and
31
1
CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.
Florida House of Representatives - 1997 HR 9223
113-267A-97
1 WHEREAS, in 1948, the Brooklyn Dodgers opened their
2 spring training facility, "Dodgertown," in Vero Beach, where
3 Jackie Robinson played spring training games for the 1948
4 season, and
5 WHEREAS, Jackie Robinson's debut as the first
6 African-American to play Major League Baseball on April 15,
7 1947, signaled not only an historic turn in race relations and
8 racial equality in this country, but the beginning of a truly
9 extraordinary baseball career, as Jackie Robinson went on to
10 lead the National League in stolen bases and be voted Rookie
11 of the Year in 1947, and
12 WHEREAS, on September 30, 1947, Jackie Robinson became
13 the first African-American to play in a World Series, and
14 WHEREAS, on July 12, 1949, Jackie Robinson was one of
15 four African-Americans who were the first to play in a Major
16 League All-Star Game, and
17 WHEREAS, in 1949, Jackie Robinson became the first
18 African-American to win Major League Baseball's Most Valuable
19 Player Award, and
20 WHEREAS, in 1962, Jackie Robinson became the first
21 African-American elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and
22 WHEREAS, it is fitting and appropriate that the
23 citizens of the State of Florida and the Members of the
24 Florida House of Representatives honor Jackie Robinson on
25 this, the 50th anniversary of his Major League Baseball debut,
26 NOW, THEREFORE,
27
28 Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of
29 Florida:
30
31
2
CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.
Florida House of Representatives - 1997 HR 9223
113-267A-97
1 That the House of Representatives of the State of
2 Florida hereby honors the memory of Jackie Robinson on the
3 50th anniversary of his historic debut as the first
4 African-American to play Major League Baseball in the United
5 States.
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
3