By Peter Dreier
In October 1995, as the Cleveland Indians and Atlanta Braves prepared to face off in the World Series, a group of Native Americans rallied outside Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium to protest what they called both teams’ racist names and mascots. Some protesters carried signs, including one that said, “Human beings as mascots is not politically incorrect. It is morally wrong.”
They marched outside the ballpark, where some vendors were selling the foam tomahawks that Braves fans wave during the “tomahawk chop” – a cheer in which they mimic a Native American war chant while making a hammering motion with their arms.
It wasn’t until 2018 that the Indians officially removed their logo, a cartoonish Native American named Chief Wahoo, from their merchandise, banners and ballpark. In 2020 the owners agreed to change the Indians name itself. For the 2022 season, they would begin using the new name, the Guardians.
The Atlanta Braves’ owners, however, have dug in their heels, refusing to replace a name that many Americans – including Native Americans – find offensive and derogatory.
In July 2020 – in the midst of the nationwide protests around racism, sparked by the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police – some Atlanta fans again urged the team to change its name. In response, the Braves’ brass sent a letter to season ticket holders, insisting, “We will always be the Atlanta Braves.”
The insistence on preserving the team name – along with fan traditions like the tomahawk chop – is even more glaring given the city’s links to the civil rights movement.
The road to Atlanta
For many years, NFL football team owner Dan Snyder refused to change the name of his Washington Redskins – perhaps one of the more egregiously racist team names in any sport. But in 2020 he finally relented, yielding to pressure from investors and corporate sponsors. The team played as the Washington Football Team for two seasons before becoming the Commanders this year.
However, when professional sports teams do change their names, it’s usually done for marketing reasons rather than social ones.
The NFL’s Tennessee Oilers rebranded themselves the Tennessee Titans in 1999, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays became the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008 and the New Orleans Hornets turned into the Pelicans in 2013.
The Braves have had their own merry-go-round with team names.
The story begins in 1876, when Boston’s professional baseball team was known as the Red Stockings. In 1883, they became the Beaneaters and kept that name until 1907, when new owner George Dovey changed it to the Doves, a tribute to himself. In 1911, William Russell bought the team and renamed it the Rustlers, also after himself. But a year later, James Gaffney, a New York City alderman, purchased the team.
Gaffney was part of Tammany Hall, a New York City political club named after Tamanend, a Delaware Indian chief. Tammany Hall used a Native American wearing a headdress as its emblem and referred to its members as “braves.” So Gaffney gave his team a new moniker. From thenceforth they would be known as the Boston Braves.
In 1935, Bob Quinn purchased the Braves after a season in which they sported the worst record in baseball: 38 wins and 115 losses. Hoping to give the team a fresh start, he renamed it the Boston Bees, but the team continued to perform poorly. In 1940, construction magnate Lou Perini bought the team and changed the name back to the Braves.
In 1953, Perini moved the Braves to Milwaukee – the first team relocation since 1903. Nine years later, he sold the Braves to some Chicago investors led by William Bartholomay, who quickly began looking to move the team to a larger television market.
A commitment to improving race relations
Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. courted Bartholomay. To lure the team, he persuaded Fulton County to build Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium for US$18 million – equal to $161 million today.
But Hank Aaron, the Braves’ biggest star, was reluctant to move to Atlanta.
Although it promoted itself as an enlightened place – the city had recently rebranded itself as “The City Too Busy to Hate” – Atlanta was still highly segregated. It was the capital of a state represented by segregationist politicians such as long-serving Sens. Richard Russell and Herman Talmadge. Aaron, a native of Mobile, Alabama, had no interest in returning to the Deep South racism of his birthplace.
The NAACP and Urban League asked Aaron to give the South a second chance. Aaron met with Martin Luther King Jr., who convinced him that bringing the Braves to Atlanta would help the civil rights cause.
Before he would agree to join the Braves in Atlanta, however, Aaron insisted that Fulton County Stadium seating and facilities be desegregated. Mayor Allen shared that view. The city and the Braves complied.
Jimmy Carter, who served as Georgia’s governor from 1971 to 1975 before being elected president, recalled that having a major league team in Atlanta “gave us the opportunity to be known for something that wasn’t going to be a national embarrassment.” Carter said that Aaron “was the first Black man that white fans in the South cheered for.”
The chief and the chop
As the Braves worked to mend relations with the city’s Black community, they didn’t seem to consider how their marketing efforts might offend Native Americans.
In 1966, the year the Braves moved to Atlanta, the team adopted a mascot, Chief Noc-A-Homa, who danced around a teepee behind the left field fence dressed in Native American garb and occasionally performed on the field.
Under public pressure, the team abandoned Chief Noc-A-Homa in 1985. But a few years later, Braves organist Carolyn King started playing the “tomahawk song”
before Braves batters stepped up to the plate. By 1991, the fans had fully adopted the chop.
Today, many fans – not to mention many Native Americans – cringe at the music and the chop. To them, it reflects a stereotypical image of Native Americans as violent and uncivilized, similar to those that appeared on TV and in movies for many years.
In 2019, Ryan Helsley, a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals and a member of the Cherokee Nation, took issue with the tomahawk chop after pitching against the Braves.
“I think it’s a misrepresentation of the Cherokee people or Native Americans in general. Just depicts them in this kind of caveman-type people way who aren’t intellectual,” Helsley told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
“They are a lot more than that,” he said. “It devalues us and how we’re perceived in that way, or used as mascots.”
A name that honors the region’s history
The Braves are now owned by Liberty Media Corp., a $17 billion conglomerate controlled by Chair John C. Malone, who is personally worth $7.5 billion. Only pressure from the Braves’ corporate sponsors, fans, other teams, and even some players will likely push Malone to make a change.
After Aaron died last year, some Braves fans urged the owners to change the name to the “Hammers” to honor the slugger who was nicknamed “Hammerin’ Hank” or just “The Hammer.” His boosters pointed out that it would be simple to put a hammer in place of the tomahawk, which now adorns all Braves uniforms and the team logo. Some version of the cheer could even remain, but with hammers, not tomahawks.
But I’d like to suggest a team name that would make an even bigger statement: the Atlanta Kings, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. King grew up in Atlanta, attended Morehouse College, and spent most of his adult life there. His childhood home, the church he served as minister and the King Center, an educational nonprofit, are all located in Atlanta.
King understood the importance of baseball in American culture. He befriended and worked closely with Jackie Robinson during the civil rights movement. And he helped bring the team to Atlanta.
I think it would be fitting for the Braves to become the Kings and replace the tomahawk with a crown. Or, in the spirit of inclusion, the team could be rechristened as the Atlanta Hammer Kings. And the team could adopt Pete Seeger’s easy-to-sing “If I Had a Hammer” as its theme song.
All it would take is some political courage.
Peter Dreier is E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics at Occidental College in Los Angeles.
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Shelly says
This is so dumb. No one has a problem with it, yet the Libs are making it into an issue. No team should change their name.
Carvalho says
Please cut down on watching fox fake entertainment !!!!
The dude says
So…. uh… “the Libs” are not people?
I mean if “No one” has a problem with it, yet the libs are making an “issue” of it, then “Libs” are literally “No one”?
Sherry says
LOL! Dude. . . to brainwashed cult members like shelly, anyone who doesn’t live in the FOX/trump “alternate reality” of lies, fear and hate actually is considered “No One”. . .
Please count me as one of shelly’s “No Ones”. I live in the real world. LOL!
Harry says
It was the Native Americans who requested the name change – Rightfully so !!!!!
Sherry says
shelly. . . should we take from your comment that Native American tribal leaders are “No One”?
You “should” know better. . . really!
Via the Associated Press, more than a dozen Natives American leaders and organizations have sent a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell asking that the league stop using Native American names, images, and logos.
The letter specifically targets the current Washington name, but it sends a broader message that the authors want the name to not be replaced with a different Native American name, and that they would like the Chiefs to change their name, too.
Baseballs Cleveland Indians are also considering a new name.
As it relates to the Washington NFL franchise, the leaders and groups who contacted Goodell “expect the NFL to engage in a robust, meaningful reconciliation process with Native American movement leaders, tribes, and organizations to repair the decades of emotional violence and other serious harms this racist team name has caused to Native Peoples.”
Steve says
Might want to stop and look around. Many have and will continue to do so like it or not. It’s a done deal all over North America. I assume the No one in your statement is you. The Issue from what I have read is attempting to rid the No ones’ from using derogatory references. The problem is only the woke GQPers are the problem. It must be frustrating being on the wrong side of History on so many issues. “Lead follow or get out of the way”- Lee Iacocca
Sherry says
Hey Steve, I have a great idea. . . let’s “coin” the word “BROKE” for the far right wingers, like the pathetic trump supporters, and the crazy Q people. Let’s see:
* BROKE- “My Moral Code Done Sprung a Leak”!
* BROKE- “If It Ain’t Broke. . . Damn, But, It Is Broke”!
* BROKE- “I Am a Member of the Supremes . . . The White Supremacists That Is”!
* BROKE- “Brandon Is My Hero!”
* BROKE- “I Don’t Need To Bother Thinking. . . I Got Tucker To Tell Me What To Think, And How To Vote”!
* BROKE- “My Bed Is Too “Durn” Low to Crawl Under”!
* BROKE- ” I Like Beer”. . . Just Like Kavanaugh”! “Gimme a Beer”!
* BROKE- ” No Abortion Needed. . . Just Close Your Legs!”
* BROKE- ” No Mask! No Vaccine! . . . My Body, My Choice!”
* BROKE- “Free Viagra is My Right. . . It’s in The Constitution and the Bible!”
* BROKE- “Women Should Be Kept Home Barefoot and Pregnant!”
* BROKE- “Uppity Obummer (born in Kenya) Had the Nerve to Become President and Made Racism Worse!”
* BROKE- “That There “Halocost” Never Even Happened. Just Fake News By Them Hebes”!
*BROKE- “There Ain’t No Racism, Never Was. . . The Slaves Was Happy to Get Out of Those Huts”!
Wow! I could go on and on, but let’s go viral with this and add to the loooooong list!
Sherry says
Actually FIRST on the “BROKE” list should have been “Morally Bankrupt”. . . that says it all!
Dennis C Rathsam says
NO, Just because Cleveland became woke, Atlanta wont! What happened to freedom of speech here in America! All of a sudden its wrong express your opinions, if you do not agree. Well I say Merry Christmas…Ive been saying it for 69 years, & I wont stop now. I speak my mind, as an individual…I dont need to cow down to anyone! I am free…This is America….If I hurt your feelings, get over it!!!!!
Tony says
The “Tomahawk Chant” by the Braves fans, Florida State fans and any others is extremely offensive and unnecessary. Any sports team or organization allowing this should be penalized.
The dude says
No.
This whole thing is stupid.
Where’s the real harm here?
Don’t we have bigger issues to deal with in this country?
When one side of the political spectrum goes into histrionics over every little perceived slight, the other side reacts accordingly, then they all get to play the victim.
Some people ALLOW themselves to be offended, others actively seek out being offended.
That’s why we’ve ended up where we are. With all sides aggrieved and just sure that they are the “true” victims here.
oldtimer says
What’s next, the ” fighting Irish” will that offend all Irish people? The LV Raiders, will that offend viking decendents…….seems anything can offend some poor souls sensibilities these days,
Josey Wales says
https://www.mlb.com/braves/community/native-american-community
All you speaking for others may want to spend the 30 seconds it took to find this, seems like a lot of the hystetical overeaction here simply isn’t valid.
Sherry says
Look. . . the entire Cherokee nation represents only about 15% of all the native Americans in the US. Sure they have been bribed with “pretty beads”. . . what in the world does that prove?
Dave. says
People claiming there’s a groundswell of support for changing the name are either purposefully ignorant or liars. There’s no middle ground. There is polling out there that shows it’s a vocal minority of Native Americans complaining.
Many like to herald the St. Louis pitcher a few years ago. That’s such a crock. It was the post season, and he wanted an edge. That’s it. The squeaky wheel gets the oil.
You folks can go on and on about racism, as you will. All you’re doing is parroting what you’ve heard or trying to make up for your own personal issues.
It’s absolutely moronic to claim that the names are anything but positive. It’s an honor to be called strong. Period.
From the comments so far, I imagine I’ll get blasted by keyboard warriors raging from basements. Have at it. I could care less what parrots and liars say.
Sherry says
Maybe they should change the “Braves” name to the “Whitey Rednecks”. . . that would be OK, right? LOL!
Carvalho says
Sherry – I think if you did that all of the t-rump supporters would be upset!!!
Sherry says
@ Carvalho. . . LOL! Ya think? LOL!
I can picture their grimaced faces trying to come up with a kick ass response now. Hey FOX, can ya help us out here? You’ve brainwashed your followers to the point that they cannot come up with a snappy retort without you!
Put Me In Coach says
… and the home, of the, brave.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Janet K. says
As a dedicated Cleveland Indians fan, I strongly suggest Atlanta doesn’t cave to this baloney in our ultra sensitive world. Please understand my reasons. I always looked at our Indian as a warrior and the thought of exploitation or racism NEVER entered my mind. I believe all hardcore Indians fans agree with me. I will never refer to my team as that dumb G word, they are and always will be my Indians. It honestly stings every time I watch the game and see the altered uniforms and hear them broadcasting the G word. (most of the time, they still screw up thank God) It’s heartbreaking. Don’t do it Atlanta, don’t do it.
Sherry says
Come on janet cheer for the “Whitey Rednecks”. . . you can do it! Instead of the “chop” you could pretend to be using a hoe. No one will be offended, right? LOL!
Sherry says
Oh! Oh! I know. . . then the “Whitey Rednecks'” mascot could wear one of those nice long white robes and a “hoodie” to match! Perfect, simply perfect!