Hank Aaron: Interview with the Former Atlanta Braves Slugger

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AH: The Civil Rights Movement went hand in hand with the start of your career. How did that help baseball?

AARON: I think it all went hand in hand, civil rights and baseball, anything that had to do with breaking down barriers of segregation. Of course, that was the bigger issue–the civil rights issue. As far as hotel accommodations, train accommodations, travel, things like this, it affected a multitude of people, rather than changing for just a few. . . .

AH: How much did the success of black athletes on the playing field help the Civil Rights Movement?

AARON: All of it helped. This country was infested with segregation on all fronts, no matter what it was–baseball, all walks of life. You couldn’t go somewhere to take a drink of water from a fountain. All these areas were affected. So we needed a hand in everything, and baseball did a tremendous job of breaking down some of those barriers.

AH: You’ve sometimes alluded to how difficult the 1973 season was for you.

AARON: The only thing I can say is that I had a rough time with it. I don’t talk about it much. It still hurts a little bit inside, because I think it has chipped away at a part of my life that I will never have again. I didn’t enjoy myself. It was hard for me to enjoy something that I think I worked very hard for. God had given me the ability to play baseball, and people in this country kind of chipped away at me. So, it was tough. And all of those things happened simply because I was a black person.

AH: Would Jackie Robinson have made a good manager?

AARON: I don’t know. I think Jackie would have expected the same out of his players that he himself gave when he played, and that’s kind of hard. Jackie was a perfectionist; he expected players to play as hard as they could no matter whether they were one run in front or twenty runs behind. And players just don’t do it. But I do believe that if Jackie wanted to be a fine manager, he could have adapted and could have been as fine a manager as anyone else.

AH: How far do we have left to go as far as race relations in sports?

AARON: There’s still some problems in this country, and still some problems in baseball. It may not be on the baseball field, but you still have problems in the front office. People shouldn’t fool themselves into thinking baseball has reached the point where all of these problems are eliminated. That is not the case. We still have problems with the front office. They still need to be liberalized a little bit more than they are now.

AH: Are you involved with trying to spur that on?

AARON: There’s no such thing as being involved in it. It’s just that you speak out on it every time it comes forth. You just let people know that baseball isn’t all that we think it is–the American dream.

This article was written by Bryan Ethier and originally appeared in the June 1999 issue of American History. For more great articles, subscribe to American History magazine today!

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Tags: African American History, American History, People