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Baseball great Hank Aaron was awarded an honorary degree from Princeton University on Tuesday. The university applauded the former home run king for confronting racism during his career with "quiet dignity."
Henry "Hank" Aaron joined major league baseball in 1954, less than 10 years after Jackie Robinson broke the league's color barrier. While America still grappled with Jim Crow segregation in many parts of the country, Aaron negotiated the realities of being black in big time baseball. There were the cheap shots by opposing players, the shouts and slurs of less-tolerant baseball fans. But Aaron, as history and baseball buffs recall, remained the consummate class act.
When he retired from baseball in 1976, after 23 years in the game, he left behind a long list of records, including: total home runs, games played, at bats, total bases, extra-base hits and runs batted in. He was also the first player in the illustrious 500 home run and 3,000 hit club.
But it was Aaron's 755 home runs - breaking Babe Ruth's record of 714 - that really stoked America's pride as well as its prejudice. As he approached the new record, he received nearly 1 million letters mostly from mean-spirited fanatics.
"Today America is a much better place with much more opportunity for all, in part because he gave all of us an imperishable example of grace under pressure," read the university's official citation to Aaron, who retired in 1976 and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982. He is currently the vice president of the Atlanta Braves.
Aaron was one of six distinguished individuals awarded by Princeton University with honorary degrees during this year's commencement for their contributions to athletics, human rights, clinical research, education, the humanities, and the arts and law, according to the university.
Among those honored with Aaron were Geoffrey Canada, president and CEO of Harlem's Children's Zone and Judith Jamison, former dancer, choreographer and artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.