40th Anniversary of UGA's Desegregation

40th Anniversary of the Desegregation of the University of Georgia January 9, 2001

For those interested in learning more about the desegregation of the University of Georgia, here are some of the books used as resources for the historical information on this Web site:
To order University of Georgia Press books, visit the University of Georgia Press Web site

	"In an era when most of the country appears to have given up on school desegregation as an important marker of racial equality, Robert Pratt provides a vivid account of how we have forgotten the heroes of the 1950s and 1960s who put their lives on the line to end racial segregation in higher education. He tells the dramatic story of how black lawyers, Donald Hollowell, Horace Ward, and Vernon Jordan, took on the racist political establishment to see that Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes gained access to the University of Georgia. It is a history worth reading before we have retreated too far." Steven Lawson, author of Running for Freedom: Civil Rights and Black Politics in America Since 1941 University of Georgia Press

	In My Place (Farrar Straus Giroux, 1992) is Charlayne Hunter-Gault’s memoir of growing up in South Carolina and Georgia and of her days at the University of Georgia. The final chapter is the text of the Commencement address she delivered at UGA in 1988, 25 years after her own graduation.

	Equal Justice Under the Law (Farrar Straus Giroux, 1998) is the memoir of Constance Baker Motley, a key member of the legal team for both Horace Ward's admissions lawsuit and also that of Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter-Gault. Now a federal judge, Motley worked for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund at the time.

	An Education in Georgia (University of Georgia Press, 1991) is an account of the desegregation of the university written by journalist Calvin Trillin, who covered the court fight and subsequent events for Time magazine in the early ’60s. An Education in Georgia originally appeared as a series of articles in The New Yorker.

	Ernest Vandiver, Governor of Georgia (University of Georgia Press, 2000) is the recently released biography of the man who presided over the state from 1958 until 1962, when Georgia grappled with the issue of desegregation of its public schools. Written by Harold Paulk Henderson, a professor of political science at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, the book presents a detailed portrait of this transitional figure in the political history of the state.

	A Pictorial History of the University of Georgia (University of Georgia Press, 2nd edition, 2000) traces the history of the university from its founding in 1785 as the first chartered state university through to the present. With text by retired history professor F.N. Boney, the new edition has a foreword by current UGA President Michael F. Adams. Included among the more than 300 illustrations is a photo of Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter first arriving on campus, and another of her most recent visit to the university in 1998.

	The University of Georgia: A Bicentennial History 1785-1985 (University of Georgia Press, 1985) is a richly varied account of people and events by Thomas G. Dyer, a professor of history who has served the university in many roles, including his current one as vice president for instruction. The book includes a 32-page chapter on the desegregation of the institution.