see first baseman, number 42, jack roosevelt robinson in his debut game for the brooklyn dodgers. 800 miles away at morehouse college in atlanta, georgia, a young student there, follows as robinson makes social history that day, breaking the racial barrier in major league baseball and paving the way for the few civil rights movement. that student's name is martin luther king jr. the first real progress in civil rights since the civil war took place not at a lunch counter in greebsboro, north carolina, not on a bus in montgomery, alabama, not in a bare racks of our military, not in schools in tope topeka, kansas, but on a baseball diamond in new york. it's summed up perfectly in this clip from our 1994 series.