Jackie Robinson

When Robinson cracked baseball's color line in 1947, he also cracked open the United States and helped catapult the Civil Rights movement. Before Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, there was Robinson. For blacks fighting the fight, Robinson was a hero who showed superhuman endurance could pull you through.

Robinson remained a hero because he never quit fighting, even after he'd won the baseball battle. In his autobiography, I Never Had It Made, Robinson wrote, "I cannot possibly believe I have it made while so many of my black brothers and sisters are hungry, inadequately housed, insufficiently clothed, denied their dignity as they live in slums or barely exist on welfare."

Because of Robinson, blacks united, seeking an end to segregation in areas other than baseball. His victory in baseball served to unite African Americans who, following Robinson's lead, began to fight to be free.