Focus on Sport/Getty
- The Atlanta Board of Education voted to change the name of a school that honored a KKK leader.
- The school will instead adopt a name that honors Atlanta Braves legend Hank Aaron.
- Aaron broke Babe Ruth's record for career home runs during his career in Atlanta.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
A high school named after confederate general and KKK founder Nathan Bedford Forrest will be changing its name to honor Atlanta Braves legend and MLB Hall-of-Famer Hank Aaron.
The Atlanta Board of Education voted unanimously on Wednesday to change Forrest Hill Academy's name to the Hank Aaron New Beginnings Academy. The new name is expected to be in place by August when students return to the southwest Atlanta alternative school for the 2021-22 school year.
"The South has a lot to offer with respect to historical teachings and oppression," board member Michelle Olympiadis said during the meeting, according to Vanessa McCray of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "It's very important that we understand where we are coming from."
Forrest was a lieutenant general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War and later became one of the first leaders of the Ku Klux Klan, becoming the "Grand Wizard" of the organization. The removal of Forrest's name from the school is now the fourth name change dating back to last summer by the Atlanta Board of Education, as the district attempts to distance itself from historical figures who held racist views.
Aaron began his career in the Negro Leagues and played 21 seasons for the Braves. His tenure in Atlanta was famously defined by breaking Babe Ruth's all-time home run record in 1974.
But the slugger was a frequent victim of vehement racism in America throughout his career. He received death threats from hate mail during his quest to break the home run record and was regularly heckled by opponents and spectators before, during, and after games.
"My kids had to live like they were in prison because of kidnap threats, and I had to live like a pig in a slaughter camp," Aaron told the New York Times in 1990. "I had to duck. I had to go out the back door of the ballparks. I had to have a police escort with me all the time. I was getting threatening letters every single day. All of these things have put a bad taste in my mouth, and it won't go away. They carved a piece of my heart away."
Aaron was even targeted by local media at the time, as he admitted in an excerpt from Jackie Robinson's "Baseball Has Done It," a collection of first-person accounts from baseball figures telling of their battles against racism.
"I've read some newspapermen saying I was just a dumb kid from the South with no education, and all I knew was to go out there and hit," Aaron wrote. "It has taught me that regardless of who you are and how much money you make, you are still a Negro."
Aaron passed away in January at the age of 86. The recency of his death would typically mean the school district would have to wait five years before using his name on a school building according to its five-year waiting period policy. However, an exception to that rule can be made in the case of a unanimous vote, which was the case for the district's recent name-changing decision.