On March 2, 2005, President George W. Bush greeted Rachel Robinson in the Capitol rotunda in Washington, ., and gently placed into her hand the Congressional Gold Medal in the name of her deceased husband, Jack Roosevelt Robinson. The ceremony of awarding the gold medal—the highest civilian honor that can be presented by Congress—took place nearly fi fty-eight years after Robinson played his fi rst Major League baseball game for the Brooklyn Dodgers. On that day in April 1947, Robinson’s presence in the lineup represented a giant step for integration. Merely by setting foot on the fi eld of play, Robinson broke the sport’s color barrier and.
