Hank Aaron Memorial Service - Truist Stadium. Atlanta, GA

Hank Aaron, the superstar outfielder for the Atlanta Braves, passed away on Jan. 22, 2021. On the day of his passing, I had the opportunity to walk around the Atlanta Braves Stadium, and again during his funeral. For those who aren't baseball fans, he is the true record holder, or maybe the greatest record in sports, career home-runs. When he was arriving to the record, held by the legendary Babe Ruth, Hank received 929,000 letters—at an ounce apiece, 29 tons of mail! Some of it supported and had words of support Hank on, but much of it was filled with racist hate and violent threats. Yet he kept going. As John Lewis, the late civil-rights hero, is quoted saying that Hank Aaron had “that extra ounce of grace” that allowed him to excel under extreme hardship.

To baseball fans, and really all sports fans, and to so many others, Hank Aaron was so much more than a record-setting baseball player and icon. He was a leader who risked his life in the name of racial justice.

"If you haven’t found something you’re willing to die for, you probably aren’t fit to live,’ - Martin Luther King Jr.