Historic Figures - 1

Hank Aaron
1934-Present: Baseball player and executive, born in Mobile, Alabama, USA. Baseball's all-time homerun king, he played 23 years as an outfielder for the Milwaukee (later Atlanta) Braves and Milwaukee Brewers (1954--76). He holds many of baseball's most distinguished records, including most lifetime runs batted in (2,297), most years with 30 or more homeruns (15), and most career homeruns (755). Breaking the latter record, baseball's most venerable since Babe Ruth retired with 714 homeruns in 1935, was both a triumph and a trial for Aaron. He was besieged by the media and badgered by racist letter-writers who resented Aaron breaking Ruth's record. A complete player whose skills were never fully appreciated until he broke the record in 1974, Aaron was voted the National League Most Valuable Player only once (1957). After retiring as a player, he moved into the Atlanta Braves front office as executive vice-president, where he has been a leading spokesperson for minority hiring in baseball. Nicknamed, "Hammerin' Henry,' he was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame in 1982. His autobiography, I Had a Hammer, was published in 1990.
Ralph Abernathy
1926-90: Baptist clergyman, civil rights activist; born in Linden, Ala. An early civil rights organizer and leading confidante of Martin Luther King Jr., he was pastor of the West Hunter Street Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga. throughout his civil rights career (1961--90). He was King's chosen successor as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) (1968--77). Although he was a competent leader, the SCLC never regained the influence it had under King. He resigned the SCLC leadership to run unsuccessfully for Andrew Young's congressional seat (1977). Turning away from the civil rights movement, he devoted his attention to the West Hunter Street Baptist Church and the issues of worldwide peace.