The legendary Vin Scully said it best during this record breaking moment: "What a marvelous moment for baseball, Atlanta, Georgia, the country and the world. A black man is getting a standing ovation in the deep south for breaking a record of an all time baseball idol and it is a great moment for all of us and particularly for Henry Aaron who was not only met by every member of the Braves but also his father and mother."
If you were alive at the time (I was not), this must've been such a powerful moment to see an African American man get a standing O from a crowd of Southerners for breaking Babe Ruth's, perhaps America's most iconic athlete in history, most prestigious record. The racial tension was terrible at the time (Aaron got countless death threats) so to see this scene unfold must have been a great moment of unity for a dangerously divided country.