Essentially, baseball resembled American society at the time. African Americans were not allowed to play in the recognized major and minor leagues of organized baseball from 1903 to 1947. That all changed when Jackie Robinson entered the scene and debuted as the first African American in the Major League Baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson in 1947 in what was called a "noble experiment" and effectively brought the issue of race to the forefront of American culture nearly 20 years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Baseball is a sport that, since its inception, has been able to transcend racial issues, but not without its own share of