Aaron, a former Negro Leaguer, was in MLB's first wave of new Black stars, many of them from the Deep SouthGETTY IMAGES
Baseball HOFer HANK AARON died Friday at 86, leaving a legacy that saw him as Atlanta’s "first professional sports star, and, in a soft-spoken way, an agent of change in the post-Jim Crow South," according to Terence Moore of the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION. Though he had come to the game seven years after JACKIE ROBINSON broke the color barrier, Aaron was in the "first wave of new black stars, many of them from the Deep South." Aaron was 42 when he finished playing, but he was "far from finished with baseball." With Robinson’s death in 1972, Black players had "lost their loudest voice and Aaron was not reluctant to criticize what he saw as remaining inequities in the game." Aaron mentioned back then how the game was "hesitant to hire African-Americans for coaching, managing and executive jobs." He even "chastised baseball for refusing to consider him as a candidate for commissioner" in 1984 (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 1/22). In N.Y., Bill Madden notes after his retirement, Aaron served in the Braves’ front office for many years as a vice president, and former MLB commissioner BUD SELIG "further honored him by creating the Hank Aaron Award for the major leagues’ best hitter, presented annually at the World Series" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 1/22).
