The thought, from state Rep. Trey Kelley, is already successful help, with Georgia’s lieutenant governor seconding it, calling Aaron a “hero to Georgians everywhere and deserves to be honored in a way that reflects his stature and his commitment to Georgia values.”

The Georgia legislature could have the ultimate say on the matter—and nothing will occur till January when legislators reconvene. The group didn’t approve a earlier proposal to interchange the statue with one among Rep. John Lewis, which had bipartisan help. An earlier measure to interchange Stephens’ statue with one among Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t cross as nicely.

The statue in query would go within the National Statuary Hall. The determination to take away Stephens got here as increasingly more folks discovered lionizing Confederate heroes to be in poor style. Stephens was a white supremacist who rejected the Declaration of Independence’s “all men are created equal” assertion.

Florida and North Carolina have each changed statues within the Hall of Confederate figures.

States have been allowed to decide on which two figures they might enshrine within the Capitol in 1864. An all-white Georgia legislature in 1927 opted for Stephens, a transfer that was controversial even then, as he was well-known for saying slavery was the “natural and normal condition” of Black folks.

“There’s nothing more American than baseball, and no one personifies American values more than Hank Aaron,” Kelley informed the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “He used his influence to advance civil rights, inspire entrepreneurship and hammer home the Georgia we know today.”