Reflections on Jackie Robinson's Legacy on His 100th Birthday

He was born 100 years ago in a red-clay corner of Georgia, though for many Americans, Jackie Robinson burst onto the stage fully formed in 1947, a 28-year-old rookie in Dodger flannels.

That’s the enduring image, the Robinson captured on film at Ebbets Field and fixed in the national imagination: the silent but dynamic hero, broad-shouldered and trim, shattering the color barrier as he ropes another liner, dances off third or hook-slides home in a cloud of dust.

That vision of Robinson — late to the majors, but still in his playing prime — is on display in this gallery of 100 photographs honoring the centennial of his birth on Jan. 31. Many of the selections come from the archives of The New York Times, rounded out with images from other sources, such as U.C.L.A. and Ebony magazine.

As these photos make clear, Robinson’s decade in major-league baseball was just one act in a remarkably rich and complex life — one of vision, fortitude, dignity and endurance — shaped by the currents and contours of American history even as it recast them.