Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Mary Frances Early to Help Commemmorate 50th Anniversary of Desegregation at UGA

Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Mary Frances Early will return to the campus of the University of Georgia in Athens to help mark the 50th anniversary of the university's desegregation. Hunter-Gault and the late Hamilton Holmes were the first two black students accepted to the university, while Early was the first black graduate student and the first black person to receive a UGA degree, according to the Athens Banner-Herald.

According to the Athens Banner-Herald, then Hunter and Holmes registered for classes Jan. 9, 1961, ending more than 150 years of racial segregation at the university.

Hunter-Gault will deliver a 50th anniversary lecture Jan. 10, one of several events UGA officials have scheduled to mark the anniversary during the week of Jan. 9-14. Early will be the speaker at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Breakfast on Jan. 14.

I hope many black students out there will be appreciative of the major feats accomplished by pioneers such as Mrs. Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Mary Frances Early. What they did back then was unpopular but they bucked the status quo and should be admired and emulated for their self-less actions.