Former President Bill Clinton credited the racial tolerance Hank Aaron inspired for making it possible for Barack Obama to become president.

Hall of Famer Hank Aaron talks about race relations in a USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin interview as part of its Wisconsin baseball legends package.

Most were sent during his baseball career, when Aaron dared to challenge the sacred record of a white man.

But some came years later, when he dared to challenge politicians who continued to traffic in racism and white resentment.

Not that any of it was easy, or a road Aaron wanted to take.

Hank Aaron told USA TODAY in 2007 that he kept the racist letters and death threats he received during his pursuit of the all-time home run record to remind himself of how far the nation still has to go. (Photo: Michael A. Schwarz, USA TODAY).

Though Aaron was indignant at the abuse and contempt he was subjected to, he rarely let on when he was playing.

“All of those have put a bad taste in my mouth, and it won’t go away,” Aaron told the New York Times ahead of the 20th anniversary of his landmark 715th home run.

Indeed, without Henry Aaron, former President Bill Clinton said in 2009, there is no President Barack Obama.

“We’re a different country now,” Clinton told Aaron at his 75th birthday party.

Almost seven years ago, USA TODAY’s Bob Nightengale asked Aaron why, after all these years, he still held onto those awful letters

“To remind myself that we are not that far removed from when I was chasing the record,” Aaron said then

Theirs was the same vitriol Aaron was too often subjected to, and his death reminds us that his work is not done