Hank Aaron endured horrific racism as he excelled at baseball and broke Babe Ruth's record. His career was incredible, but today, I hope we also uplift his life of activism and humanitarianism—and his continuing to name the ways in which racism he faced still manifested today.

Aaron was born in Mobile in 1934—the same year Claude Neal was taken from Brewton, Alabama, and lynched. Aaron faced death threats for daring to approach a white man's record 40 years later. That he lived to see yesterday is a reminder that none of this is in the distant past.

He lived an incredible life, and I join others in celebrating his resilience and resistance and record-setting longevity. But he never saw himself as a mythic figure outside of history. His context still resonates. I hope baseball honors that aspect of his legacy, too.