On October 23, 1945, Rickey announced that Robinson would join the Montreal Royals, the top minor league team in the Brooklyn Dodgers’ farm team system.

Public opinion was largely positive, except in regions where Jim Crow ideology reigned supreme. Organized baseball, however, reacted to Robinson’s signing with a qualified approval. Brooklyn Dodgers star and Georgia native Dixie Walker exemplified the dominant not in my backyard attitude when he  stated “ as long as he’s not with the Dodgers I’m not worried.”

Walker would soon become worried though, because Robinson had a stellar season with the Royals, batting a .325 despite an arm injury. His success not only brought the Royals an International League Championship Pennant and a Little World Series title, it proved to all the skeptics and naysayers that an African-American ball player could excel on a white team. Moreover, Robinson’s success provided Rickey with the confidence he needed to move Robinson up to the Brooklyn Dodgers the following season.

Montreal also helped Robinson prepare for major league play by affording him some experience with an all-white team outside the American system of racial norms. Canada did not have the same complex history of racial discrimination that the 1940s United States did. While prejudice still existed, Robinson did not experience the caliber of racism he would soon encounter back in the United States.

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