Ten Essential Reads About Baseball Legend Hank Aaron

Henry Aaron rose up from the depths of Southern poverty to become one of the towering figures in baseball history as well as a bittersweet symbol of both American racial intolerance and triumph.

No matter what happened in America, his greatness still shone.

In 2014, 40 years removed from the remarkable home run record, those who were involved with Aaron’s special day still remember the importance of his becoming the home run king. From the pitcher to the ushers in the stands, those who were there recall that fateful day in Atlanta.

Aaron’s work on the baseball field and being the face of baseball in the Deep South was a form of civil rights activism, showing that achievements can be made if the playing field were equal.

Hank Aaron reached international renown in 1974 by breaking Babe Ruth’s all-time home run mark, but that was just the crowning achievement of a career that spanned 23 years and saw Aaron set all manner of records.

The mistake in trying to classify Hank Aaron as simply some triumphant figure who overcame racism to achieve baseball immortality is that it doesn’t do justice to what he experienced or how he responded.

In 1973, the baseball legend got 900,000 letters. It was Carla Koplin Cohn’s job to report the threats to the FBI.

The reality of the Black athlete in America is to be either disfigured or perverted—sometimes both—to suit the needs of the viewing public.

Take a look back at some of the greatest moments from his career, including the chase for his record-breaking 715th career home run.

When I spoke to my boyhood hero 25 years after his famous home run, I learned why he’d kept going through the death threats and the hate.