ATLANTA — It’s official: A local school is changing its name to honor Braves and baseball legend Henry Louis “Hank” Aaron.
An Atlanta Public Schools committee approved the change to Forrest Hill Academy during a board meeting this week. The school will now be named Hank Aaron New Beginnings Academy.
The decision to honor Hank Aaron was made just days after the anniversary of the historic moment he broke Babe Ruth’s record with his 715th home run on April 8, 1974.
Aaron became the first player in Major League history to record 500 homers and 3,000 hits. He went on to hit 40 or more home runs seven different times, finishing third in the MVP voting six times.
Aaron died in January at the age of 86.
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Forrest Hills Academy was previously named after Nathaniel Bedford Forrest, a Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan leader.
It is not the first name change the committee has approved recently. Grady High School is now Midtown High and Joseph E. Brown is now Herman J. Russell West End Academy.
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The high school’s football stadium also changed from Grady Stadium to Eddie S. Henderson Stadium.
Both the school and stadium were named for Henry Grady, a journalist many consider a racist and white supremacist. Many people argued he shouldn’t be celebrated by having a school named after him.
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