Hank Aaron

Henry Louis "Hank" Aaron held the Major League Baseball all-time home run record for 33 years — 755 home runs hit with a quiet consistency that was the antithesis of spectacle but the essence of greatness. When he broke Babe Ruth's record on April 8, 1974, he did so while receiving death threats so serious that he traveled with a bodyguard and the FBI investigated the hate mail that flooded his mailbox.

Born in Mobile, Alabama, in 1934, Aaron grew up in a section called Down the Bay, playing baseball with bottle caps and broomsticks because his family couldn't afford equipment. He joined the Negro League's Indianapolis Clowns at 18 before being signed by the Milwaukee Braves. He was named NL MVP in 1957 and led the Braves to a World Series championship that same year.

Aaron's pursuit of Ruth's record in 1973-74 exposed the persistence of American racism. He received 930,000 pieces of mail in a single year — much of it threatening, much of it containing racial slurs. He kept the worst letters, he said, so he would never forget. After retiring, Aaron became a successful business executive and dedicated himself to increasing opportunities for minorities in baseball. He joined the ancestors on January 22, 2021, at 86.