The Atlanta Board of Education made one more adjustment to the new name of the high school that now honors legendary Braves player Hank Aaron.
The board voted to rename Forrest Hill Academy — named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate general who was active in the Ku Klux Klan — last month. Now, Hank Aaron New Beginnings Academy is becoming the Henry Louis “Hank” Aaron New Beginnings Academy, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Monday (May 10).
Board members agreed last month that “names do matter,” and emphasized the importance of understanding history.
The school will bear its new name at the start of the next school year.
Aaron died on January 22. He was 86.
The Atlanta Braves also honored Aaron by establishing a fellowship program in his honor to boost diversity. The new program was announced in February.
“Hank’s life-long passion was to increase diversity across every aspect of baseball,” Derek Schiller, Atlanta Braves President and CEO, said in an MLB press release. “This fellowship is special because it allows us to build upon his legacy by creating a stronger organization today while continuing to develop the talent pipeline to secure the game's next generation of diverse leadership.”
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