Select Text Level:

Educator Family PreK
On February 5, 1934, Henry Louis Aaron was born in Mobile, Alabama. “Hammerin’ Hank” became a baseball legend. Many of his records, including seasons as an All-Star (21) and runs batted in (2,297) still stand. His home-run record stood for more than 30 years, and he was the first to congratulate his successor, Barry Bonds, when it was broken in 2007.
 
Like many African American baseball players of the 1950s, Aaron began his career in the Negro Leagues, where he helped the Indianapolis Clowns win the 1952 Negro League World Series. He soon signed with Major League Baseball’s Boston Braves, where he trained in Florida. While in Florida, Aaron was often unable to travel or socialize with the rest of his team due to the region’s racist Jim Crow laws. 
 
Aaron stayed with the Braves organization for most of his spectacular career. The franchise first moved from Boston to Milwaukee, then to Atlanta. Aaron had mixed feelings about returning to the South. “Returning to the South took some of the boy from Mobile out of me,” he said, “and replaced it with a man who was weary of the way things were. I was tired of being invisible.” 
 
Aaron was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame the first year he was eligible (1982) with 98% of the vote.
franchise
Noun

professional sports team, usually found in the United States and Canada, organized with a league-wide business model.
Jim Crow
Adjective

(1874-1965) set of laws, rules, and behaviors that enforced segregation between African Americans and whites in the American South.
racist
Adjective

community or government policy of denying certain rights to people based on their ancestry, usually signified by skin color.
runs batted in
Plural Noun

statistic used in baseball and softball to credit the batter with the total scoring results of his or her at bat, regardless of the athlete's individual scoring result.
spectacular
Adjective

dramatic and impressive.
successor
Noun

person who comes next.

Media Credits

The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited.

Writer

Caryl-Sue, National Geographic Society

Producer

Caryl-Sue, National Geographic Society

Last Updated

Jan. 24, 2014

For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service. If you have questions about licensing content on this page, please contact ngimagecollection@natgeo.com for more information and to obtain a license. If you have questions about how to cite anything on our website in your project or classroom presentation, please visit our FAQ page.

Media

Some media assets (videos, photos, audio recordings and PDFs) can be downloaded and used outside the National Geographic website according to the Terms of Service. If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the lower right hand corner (download) of the media viewer. If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media.

Text

Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service.

Interactives

Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. You cannot download interactives.