The Hank Aaron Invitational. is an effort to increase the participation of Black players in baseball. As of September, 6.8% of professional baseball players are Black or African American, according to Zippia. In 1995, the last year the Braves won the World Series, 19% of Major League Baseball players were Black. The Braves’ last World Series-winning roster featured seven African American players, including an all-Black starting outfield and starting first baseman, Fred McGriff.
The Braves roster has had a lack of diversity for years now. Currently, the organization leans on Haitian-American pitcher Touki Toussaint to represent the Black community on the MLB’s days of honoring legends like Aaron and Jackie Robinson. The 25-year-old Toussaint still spends time in the Braves’ Triple-A organization of the Gwinnett Stripers and is not currently on the World Series roster. The organization has also drafted a pair of Black metro Atlanta players in recent years, including McEachern high school graduate Trey Harris and Stockbridge high school graduate Michael Harris. However, there’s still a great deal of work to be done for the franchise in a city that’s 51% Black, according to the 2019 United States Census.
