Jackie Robinson was a Republican until the GOP became the 'white man’s party'

Wearing his military uniform, Jackie Robinson signs a contract on Oct. 23, 1945 to becomes the first Black to play with a white professional baseball team. Bettmann/Getty Images

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson played his first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers, forever changing baseball and society.

Robinson was Black, and the integration of all-white major league baseball was perhaps the most important story about civil rights in the years immediately following World War II.