The first time Jackie Robinson was in Kansas was in 1942, assigned to a segregated Army cavalry unit, in Fort Riley. Because he had good qualiifications, he applied for admission to an Officer Candidate School (OCS) there in Fort Riley. Even though the OCS had a politic of neutral race, Robinson and his colleages had to wait several months to be accepted; few black applicants had been admitted. Robinson experienced discrimination, and only by the protests of Joe Louis, a heavyweight boxer, and Truman Gibson he was accepted.
