In January we lost MLB great, Hank Aaron. Earlier this week, the city where he set the MLB home run record honored him by renaming a school for the baseball legend.
In a unanimous vote, the Atlanta Board of Education changed the name of Forrest Hill Academy to the Hank Aaron New Beginnings Academy. The significance of the change is not just that it is a tribute to Hank Aaron. It is also because the school had been named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, a lieutenant general in the Confederate army, a founding figure of the Ku Klux Klan, and the eventual “Grand Wizard” of the racist group.
“It is very important that we understand our history,” said board member Michelle Olympiadis. “It’s very important that we understand where we are coming from.”
This decision follows on the heels of MLB’s decision to pull the All-Star Game from Atlanta. And it’s another major step in healing the pain and removing the stain, forged by racism across America, particularly in the South.
The Hank Aaron New Beginning Academy marks the fourth name change approved by the Atlanta Board of Education. It’s a process aimed at, per AJC.com, distancing “the district from historical figures who held racist views.”
47 years after he broke one of the most revered records in all of sports, sticking it to racists who threatened him and his family during his run at Babe Ruth’s record, Hank Aaron is memorialized in the city again. This time through education.
All of the name changes will take effect when the new school year begins in August.
