Playing in the Negro Leagues
Jackie Robinson started his professional baseball career in 1945. At that time, however, baseball was largely segregated, with blacks and whites playing in different leagues. So, he played in the Negro Leagues at shortstop for the Kansas City Monarchs. He only played one season, however, in the Negro Leagues. That same year, in 1945, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a pure racist, was succeeded at the position of the Major League commissioner by Happy Chandler, someone who was not nearly as racist.