Henry Aaron did as much as anyone to redeem the South

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/hank-aaron-did-as-much-as-anyone-to-redeem-the-south/2021/01/22/6eeb8242-5cec-11eb-8bcf-3877871c819d_story.html

Long before the television impresario Ted Turner marketed the Atlanta Braves as “America’s Team,” Atlanta had no big league team at all. There was no Major League ballclub anywhere in the Deep South as of 1964, the year three disappeared civil rights workers were found buried in an earthen dam in Mississippi. The city dangled a new stadium, lavish TV rights, parking receipts and the generous patronage of Coca-Cola to attract a franchise.

The Braves of Milwaukee took the bait, which meant that Henry Aaron of Mobile, Ala., was headed back to the South. I’m going to call him Henry in this column because that was the name he preferred, as opposed to “Hank,” a nickname attached to him by a PR man who thought White fans might find it friendlier. A giant on and off the field, Aaron died on Friday, a few weeks shy of his 87th birthday.

How did he feel about the move? As you might expect: “I have lived in the South, and I don’t want to live there again,” Aaron said in anticipation of the Braves’ 1966 debut in Atlanta.