Charlayne Hunter-Gault Biography

Civil rights activists who wanted to integrate all-white Southern colleges approached Hunter—who had been ranked third in her class at her Atlanta high school—to be a test case. The team had thought to start with a state school located in Atlanta, but Hunter wanted to go to the University of Georgia at Athens, which had a good journalism program.

Hunter's 1959 request for admission was denied due to the university's claim that it had "limited space." While a legal team, whose members included Vernon Jordan, filed suit, Hunter studied at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Then a court ruling came: In January 1961, Hunter—along with her high school classmate, Hamilton Holmes—would be allowed to enroll at the University of Georgia. Holmes and Hunter thus became the first two African-American students to integrate the school, with Hunter becoming the first African-American woman to enroll there.

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