It’s Hank Aaron week for the Atlanta Braves as the city of Atlanta honors Aaron’s work in the civil rights movement and as arguably the best player in baseball history. Today at the Center For Civil Rights And Human Rights, former Attorney General Eric Holder, current San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, and legendary sportscaster Bob Costas were honored for exemplifying what Aaron stood for.
Aaron’s wife Bilye gave a heartwarming introduction for the awards as she first brought Costas on stage. Costas detailed how he first saw Aaron play as a child and how electric the country was surrounding Aaron hitting his 715th home run that broke Babe Ruth’s record. He also mentioned the significance of it being nationally televised. Despite many bigoted people sending Aaron death threats for his historic accomplishment, many white Americans still rallied behind his milestone.
Eric Holder was honored shortly after Costas. Costas would conduct the interview with him. Several topics were discussed such as the political and racial climate when Barack Obama was elected as president and how racism hopefully start to lessen in America at the time. That would not be the case as bigots still resented a black president. Holder said that the next president must be someone who has a vision and inspires the people, with some subliminals coming at Donald Trump. When Costas asked if Holder would try to run for president in 2020, he did not rule that out. Holder jokingly said that it’s up to his wife on if that run definitely happens. Holder went on to say that despite our circumstances, we are in a better place than we were 50 years ago and the 50 years before that.
San Juan Mayor Carmen Yuliz Cruz was the final award recipient to be interviewed by Costas regarding her award. She detailed the horrific conditions that are still occurring throughout Puerto Rico. The conditions are still so bad that there is still not an exact casualty count from Hurricane Maria last fall. Cruz also took some shots at Trump for not recognizing that Puerto Ricans are American citizens too. She also called out Trump inappropriately throwing paper towels to Puerto Ricans as if they were not humans. She also paid homage to Hank Aaron and also Roberto Climente, who still remains a Puerto Rican icon as a baseball player and throughout their community to this day.
Congrats to Holder, Cruz and Costas for winning these awards and continuing to recognize racial injustices throughout America. These individuals were very deserving of these awards in a week that celebrated an American legend in Hank Aaron.