Hunter-Gault’s experience defined by race, gender too

The civil rights movement boasted an impressive group of activists, among them Malcolm X, Whitney Young, and Congressman John Lewis. Although these men greatly contributed to the civil rights movement, historians often recognize Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as its backbone.

“For so many years, our perception of the movement was one that we call King-centric, the idea that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was at the center of everything,” UGA history professor Dr. Robert Pratt said.

According to Pratt, not only was the civil rights movement King-centric, but it was male-centric as well.

“There were a lot of male civil rights leaders in the forefront,” he said. “There were women that were doing very brave things too, but for the most part, were not getting any attention. It wouldn’t be until later that historians would go back and discover the role that women played.”

Pratt credits Charlayne Hunter-Gault, the first black woman admitted to UGA, for bringing attention to women’s roles in the movement.

“I think it certainly gave African-American women an enormous since of pride,” he said.

When evaluating the differences between Hamilton Holmes, who was the first black man admitted to UGA, and Hunter-Gault’s experiences, one factor cannot be ignored: their differences in gender. For instance, when Hunter-Gault stepped foot on UGA’s campus in 1961, the university had a requirement that all female students live on campus. Holmes was allowed to live off campus because males did not have such restrictions.

“The fact that she was female and had to stay on campus certainly made her experience different than Holmes’,” Pratt said. “I think she maybe worked harder at trying to get along with white students and because she had to live on campus, there was really no place for her to hide.”

Some female students supported Hunter-Gault while she was living on campus.

“There were a group of female Jewish students that came to her and told her that they understood what she was going through,” said Dr. Derrick Alridge, the Director of UGA’s Institute for African American Studies. “They came from a similar story of discrimination and racism.”

Many of Hunter-Gault’s peers in Myers Hall, however, were not pleased to share their living space with a black woman.

“When Charlayne first came here, many of the girls that were in her dorm weren’t necessarily comfortable with her,” said Jill Severn, head of Access and Outreach at the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies. “There’s this assumption that just because they were all women, that they were all sisters in a way. That sort of solidarity is undercut by things like race and class.”

According to Severn, some women sought out Hunter-Gault later on and apologized for their behavior.

“You don’t want to get into a sort of ‘these are the good women, and these are the women that are on the wrong side of history’,” she said. “It’s a complex history and over time, people change their views.”

Severn notes that for the most part, Mary Francis Early, the first black woman to graduate from UGA, came to the university to support Hunter-Gault.

“She didn’t want her to have to be here by herself,” Severn said.