714. That's the number of home runs that Babe Ruth hit during his career, a record that most

sports fans and writers believed would never be broken but here's the sound of it

shattering.

There's a drive into left field that ball is going, and out of here.

It is one of the most famous swings in the history of baseball.

The year was 1974.

The batter was Henry Aaron, otherwise known as Hamarin Hank.

He would hold on to that new record for the next 27 years.

But this isn't just a story about heroic athletic prowess.

Hank Aaron is black, born in Alabama in the 1930s,

and so the story of his home run record also contains the story of American racism.

It's about segregation, humiliation, the persistent threat of violence, and ultimately about the era when those

things began to change. On this episode, the story of how Hank Aaron helped create that change with his bat and his

cleats and his quiet determination.

This is what it takes, a podcast about passion, vision, and perseverance from the Academy of Achievement.

I'm Alice Winkler.

Madamay, this child is gifted, and I heard that enough that I started to believe it.

If you have the opportunity not a perfect opportunity and you don't take it you may never have another job.

It all was so clear. It was just like the picture started to form itself there was

no way in which a lie could prevail over the truth darkness over light

death over life.

Every day I wake up and decide.

...