No one defines any better "Black History" -modern history anyways- than Jackie Robinson. Rosa Parks is still number one, but Jackie is a solid number two. (And if I may round my personal top five, still with the focus on the 20th Century, I'd go with Dorothy Dandridge, Tina Turner and, of course, my man Willie O'Ree!)

Jackie Robinson had immense pressure squarely set upon his shoulders when he made his way onto Major League Baseball and into history. So much stress shortened his days among us - but he did succeed at the task he had given himself and for that he deserves all the admiration in the world. Cyrano de Bergerac may have said it best when he declared that "we walk better under the staccato of hateful eyes" (I merely paraphrase here) but the fact remains that it must be someone incredibly strong of character, gifted with superhuman poise and resolve, to be able to go through that, non-stop, for a long time... And Jackie had to live through just that for as long as his ascension lasted - and all of his MLB time as well.

I used to think, as a child, that Smokey Robinson, Jackie and the Robinson Crusoe's own Friday were all related, somehow...! With the edge going, truly, to the latter two... Nowadays, I know better and concede that Jackie's accomplishments surpass everything fiction, either in song or in writ, could have imagined or crafted for even a young impressionable mind...

Jackie Robinson didn't care if baseball had never seen his kind in about eighty years of segregation - he went ahead and caused a precedent. And now look at sports today: the best athletes are black! We owe it to him. I mean - what would the Boston Red Sox be without Mo Vaughn in 2004 and 2007 - hmm?