Pin:Hank Aaron

Commemorating Hank Aaron's 500th home run in 1968, this pin celebrates the contributions of one of baseball's finest athletes. Before the end of his career, "Hammerin' Hank" would hit another 255 home runs for a record of 755 major-league home runs - a record that would stand into the 21st century - while also setting 12 other major-league records. Born in Mobile, Alabama, in 1934, Aaron began his professional baseball career playing in the Negro League in 1951. In 1953 he became one of only five black players in the Class A South Atlantic League. Seven years after Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color line, in 1947, Aaron became one of the first African-American baseball players in the major leagues. He began playing for the Milwaukee Braves in 1954, the year of the Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, that officially ended segregation in schools. Even after the major strides of the Civil Rights Movement, hate mail and death threats came pouring in - often as many as 3,000 a day - as Aaron neared Babe Ruth's long-standing record of 714 career home runs in the early 1970s.