Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes, First African-Americans to Enroll at University of Georgia
Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes on this day became the first two African-Americans to enroll at the University of Georgia.
As the two students registered, a group of white students congregated outside in the corridor and shouted, “Two, four, six, eight, we don’t want to integrate.” Later that day, a riot broke out, and Hunter and Holmes were suspended “for their own safety.” They later returned to classes at the university.
Charlayne Hunter-Gault went on to a distinguished career as a journalist. Dr. Holmes was the first black student admitted to Emory University School of Medicine, and later became a professor of orthopedics and dean at the school.
Hunter and Holmes at the University of Georgia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj4cuJDjWZ8
Read Hunter-Gault’s Memoirs: In My Place (1992)
For a great perspective on the “long Sixties:” Tom Hayden, The Long Sixties: From 1960 to Barack Obama (2009)