Jackie Robinson

At the time Brooklyn Dodgers President Branch Rickey invited Jackie Robinson to join the Major League Baseball team in 1947, the MLB hadn’t had an African American play for it since its segregation in 1889. Jackie Robinson’s legendary decade-long baseball career included winning six pennants and one World Series Championship for his team. He was recognized as the National League Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player of the Year and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.

Long after his death in 1972, Robinson has never left the American consciousness. The world honored him in 1997, the 50th anniversary of his signing with the Dodgers. He was featured on a commemorative stamp, was made the subject of a 2011 biopic starring Harrison Ford as Rickey and Chadwick Boseman as Robinson, and starred in a 2014 Mazda3 commercial, the greatest of all honors.