Maye and Aaron Leery of Braves Move to Atlanta

Oct. 21, 1964 - The Milwaukee Braves will ask the National League tomorrow afternoon for permission to move to Atlanta. There are at least two Braves players, Lee Maye and Hank Aaron, who have their fingers crossed that the league says “no,” although they know that is merely wishful thinking.

Maye and Aaron, Negro outfielders, today expressed concern about racial discrimination if the club moves to Atlanta, although both added they would go because it’s their “job.”

“I just hope and pray we don’t go,” said Maye, a native of Tuscaloosa, Ala. He said Atlanta won’t be like Milwaukee, “as far as we [Negroes] are concerned. I’m very familiar with the South, and I’ve been to Atlanta a couple of times. I’m almost positive we are going to face discrimination.

“They’re not going to treat us any better than those people [Negroes now living in Atlanta]. Negroes face discrimination already in Atlanta, and it’s not going to stop overnight because the Braves move there.”

Atlanta has promised not to segregate in its new $18 million stadium, but Aaron isn’t buying that.

“I was there nine or 10 years ago, and I have no intention of playing under those conditions again,” Aaron said. “There’s no doubt about it; the South is segregated, and I just don’t want to play under those conditions.”

Aaron agreed, however, that he would “just have to go down there and find out” if the move would affect his playing.

Maye will go, too. “I don’t want to,” he said, “but if the Braves go, I have to. That’s my obligation.”

Their families are not going, however. “I don’t see any reason to disrupt my household here,” Mrs. Barbara Aaron said. The Aarons live in an expensive ranch home in Milwaukee’s northern suburb of Mequon.

“I’m staying,” she said. “All my friends are here, and I’ve got two children in school here.”

Maye said his wife, Nancy, and their 11-year-old son would stay in Milwaukee, too. “My boy is going to stay in school here,” he said. Atlanta schools are integrated only down to the eighth grade.

The Braves’ board of directors voted, 12-6, to move the franchise in a special two-hour meeting in Chicago today. No serious opposition from the owners is foreseen.

Milwaukee fans reacted with bitterness, anger, and regrets. One group announced they planned to hang up a large banner near County Stadium addressed to Injun Joe, the nickname given the Braves’ symbol: “Hope you scalpum Atlanta like you scalpum Milwaukee. Ugh.”

Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen praised the move for making “the national pastime truly national. The entire South now belongs to the Atlanta Braves.”

Asked about reports that some Negro members of the Braves, particularly Maye and Aaron, did not want to move to Atlanta because they feared discrimination, Mayor Allen replied: “Both Hank Aaron and Lee Maye are great ballplayers. They’ve made tremendous contributions to the league they play in. I am certain they would find Atlanta a most receptive town and that once they try it, they will be exceedingly happy.”

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