Branch Rickey lost that fight, but when he became the boss of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1943, he felt the time for equality in baseball had come. He knew that achieving it would be terribly difficult. . . . He took his case before the startled directors of the club, and using persuasive eloquence, he won the first battle in what would be a long and bitter campaign. He was voted permission to make the Brooklyn club the pioneer in bringing blacks into baseball. —I Never Had It Made,
Jackie Robinson, as told to Alfred Duckett

Why did Mr. Rickey want to get black players into the major leagues?

He knew he could make a lot more money.
He thought he could pay African American players less.
He thought it would make baseball more popular.
He thought it was wrong that African Americans could not play.