Jackie Robinson was born January 31, 1919 in a small town in Georgia called Cairo. Jackie was the youngest child of 5. He had 3 brothers and one sister. Mack Robinson, Willa Mae Robinson, Edgar Robinson, and Frank Robinson. The family grew up with just a mother, Mallie Robinson, as they're father, Jerry Robinson, left them after having marriage problems. The Robinson's were a very close knit family as they lived in poverty and only had each other. Mallie then moved the family to California and single-handedly raised them. She found a very spacious house in a mostly white neighborhood. In Manfred Weidhorn's biography, he states, "Jackie was proud of his mother, who would not allow the white neighbors to drive her away or frighten her or mistreat her kids. From her he learned to stand up for his rights. He learned to respect himself, demand respect from others, and never back down." Jackie excelled at sports at a very young age and loved to play them. His brother Mack, and Olympic track star, inspired Jackie to pursue his love of sports. Jackie faced a great amount of prejudice and discrimination and sports helped him be himself and not have to worry about all of that. Playing sports helped Jackie bond with other white kids and in High School Jackie was very popular. He still faced a lot of discrimination, but he had several white friends. In high school and college he played baseball, football, basketball, and track. He was an amazing athlete and excelled at all of these. At UCLA Jackie was the first to ever letter in all 4 of those sports. There he even broke the broad jump record, who previously belonged to his brother Mack. Overall, Jackie may have grown up in poverty, but him being athletic and being great at sports allowed him to break out and provide for himself.