The foremost historian of the integration of baseball, Jules Tygiel, maintains that in the 1940's and 1950's "the problem of Jim Crow seemed unsolvable, the challenges insurmountable, and the path uncertain."  Based upon your reading of John C. Chalberg, Rickey and Robinson: The preacher, the player and America's game, answer the following questions in an essay: What were these "insurmountable challenges," how did Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson meet them, and what path did they take when breaking the color line in organized baseball?  How had their respective life experiences prepared them for the fiery trial of 1946-1947?  

Your essay should be approximately 1000 words (five typewritten pages). Quotation from sources may constitute no more than 10% of your paper. Papers that exceed this limit will receive a failing grade.

The final draft of your essay should be carefully crafted and devoid of spelling errors. Proofread your papers for typographical errors. Remember that pronouns and their antecedents must agree in number and recall how to form the possessive case.  Do not use contractions in a formal essay. Avoid the passive voice ("is," "was," and other forms of the verb "to be"). Watch for convoluted syntax and imprecise or faulty diction (word choice). Strive for the active voice and try to compose sentences that are compact and periodic (subject-verb-object).

There is an extremely useful site devoted to “some of the most commonly violated rules of writing, grammar and punctuation.”   See http://www.junketstudies.com/rulesofw/