In Power 50 Years Later

“I’m now able to appreciate shared traditions that wouldn’t have been possible had it not been for the desegregation of UGA,” says Josh Delaney, student body president at the University of Georgia.

This year, UGA marks the 50^th anniversary of desegregation at the institution. Josh Delany campaigned in 2010 and after an intense competition, Delaney, along with his running mates, Stephen Thompson and Maddy Adler won the majority of student vote and therefore, the election.

Delany, who is black, doesn’t believe that his race affected his run either positively or negatively. “I don’t think that there was any major reaction to my running as a black candidate or to my subsequent election,” Delaney says.

Shreya Desai, a member of the campaign team for Delaney’s party in 2010, as well as a minority on campus also saw no difference in student opinions stemming from wholly race related reasons. “I didn’t see any extreme opinions either way about Delaney’s race. Of course, it was a heated race, but the tensions rose from healthy competition and wanting to provide the campus with an SGA that could best serve their needs as a student body.”

On a campus that is less than 15 percent multi-racial, there were undoubtedly reservations in electing a black student as the voice of the white-dominated campus, however; Delany believes that “it’s definitely a sign of the times. Being in office as we mark the 50^th anniversary of desegregation is amazing.”

Being black and in power is slowly becoming a usual occurrence. In 2008, Barack Obama became the U.S. President and Delany believes that this is “truly a tangible reminder of how far we’ve come.”

Of course, despite his optimism, Delany has no disillusions about the state of the campus body when it comes to race relations, “I will say that 50 years later, desegregation has happened, but the campus as a whole is not 100 percent integrated.”

With that reality in mind, one of the biggest platform pieces for Delaney’s campaign team, The Snapshot, was “bringing people together,” according to Delany. “Our goal was to express the opinions of many and to ‘bring everyone into the picture’ with our platform.” Delany considers his term a success.

“We were able to accomplish a lot and I was able to work with some of the most talented individuals on campus,” he states. “Everything we came into office wanting to accomplish was worked on and the diversity within the senate has risen.”

In addition to being student body president, Delaney is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, a traditionally black fraternity. “It’s really given me a deeper historical context of African Americans on campus.”

When it comes to his actions a president, Delaney believes that his race isn’t a factor, just as it’s become a  non-issue as a minority on an extremely under populated minority campus. “During my first year on campus, I was extremely aware of my race and I allowed it to stifle my interactions on campus, but now that feeling is non-existent. I’ve made great friends on campus and we’ve helped each other learn.”

Desai, however, has a different opinion. “Josh is black. Race undoubtedly affects the way that the world works and it is no different with his presidency. His character as a person affected his presidency and that character was built from his experiences as a minority,” she explains

Ms. Sandra's Love

As students push their way through the double doors into UGA’s Snelling Dining Commons, welcoming shouts of “come on in darlin,” “hello sweet pea!” and “How are you doin boo?” ring through the air. At the cashier turnstile stands a short African-American woman clothed in an over-sized hunter green polo shirt, with embroidery reading “The University of Georgia” (complete with the arch logo), and “Food Services” below that in white lettering. On the opposite side, she wears a name badge that reads, “Ms. Sandra Patterson, Cashier-Snelling.” She smiles broadly revealing a large, yet perfect gap between her two front teeth. Bangs hang just above her eyebrows, and her neatly combed hair is shoulder length. Snelling’s soul and many students mom-away-from-home, stands right in front of me sipping on cranberry juice from a UGA Food Services mug.

She was raised by her father and grandmother, the South Carolina native has bittersweet memories childhood with her nine sisters. She commends her father on a job-well-done and comments, “He was one in a million.” Her family relocated to Athens, Ga. when she was six years old. She was educated through the Athens-Clarke County school system and graduated from Clarke Central High School in 1978. “I was pretty much a quiet girl,” she recalls, “because there was so many of us, I didn’t get to do much.”

Ms. Sandra began her adult life at the age of 18, when she got married. At the time, she was working at a children’s daycare center. She somberly remembers coming out of work for three years because of her newborn’s problematic heart condition. After her son’s recovery, she went back to work, reporting though to a different place. Ms. Sandra begins to smile, despite not feeling well, as she reminisces about her beginning days at Snelling: “When I first started here, I wasn’t a cashier. I was on the main line and a salad maker.” She then moved around campus a bit to The Bulldog Café and other campus eateries. She came back to Snelling though, “because this was home,” she says pointing passionately to table we sat at.

Speaking of the “home” suddenly makes her cheeks perk up and eyes brighten as she states that she’s the proud mother of three and a grandmother to five. “I love children” she says, “that’s my main focus.” Ms. Sandra says her love for children is “probably because my mom died when I was small and who ever takin care of you, they don’t take care of you like mom.” Looking downward yet smiling, she says “that’s probably part of my life I’m missing, so I try to take it up now, and give. And I enjoy it too.”

Giving is the most important part of Ms. Sandra’s cashier position. She works Monday through Friday from 6:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. most days, including some Saturdays. On average, she greets 2,400 students a day, according to the Executive Director of Food Services, J. Michael Floyd. Ms. Sandra beams joy into student’s lives daily with her up-beat personality and warm greetings. She gets that joy “from God” she says, “he’s the one keeping me happy [and] making sure I have it in me to give out to others.” Students pass through the turnstiles and immediately she reigns them in for a hug. Not one person walks by Ms. Sandra without being touched emotionally or hugged physically. Some students even stop to share their problems such as, “I’m not getting A’s Ms. Sandra,” in which she replies, “uh ah, we can’t have that,” and proceeds to examine the problem further.

She’s more than a cashier to most students at UGA, including a recent alum, Chris LeCraw, creator of the Facebook group, “I love Sandra the Snelling Dining Hall Lady” which now has 3,149 members. Respect and appreciation for Ms. Sandra runs deep through bulldog blood. LeCraw comments “no matter how I felt before entering Snelling, I couldn’t help but walk away feeling happier after seeing Miss Sandra.” LeCraw is just one of the many students who formed a friendship with Ms. Sandra over the years he spent here at UGA. He remembers, she “would ask me about my classes, how I was feeling, girls I was dating, etc.”

She blushes humbly as I remind her of the immense love UGA students feel towards her. Floyd spoke of UGA alumnus memories pertaining to Ms. Sandra: “when they think of their four years at UGA, they’ll remember Ms. Sandra because she’s the lady at Snelling that made them feel at home.” Floyd also notices that, “it’s the joy that her customers show her, that is her paycheck.” Ms. Sandra is not only appreciated by the study body for her loving character, but also by her coworkers at Snelling.

Although unnoticed formally as part of University of Georgia’s desegregation movement, Ms. Sandra is one of the biggest contributors to change for the good. She has been a Snelling employee for 22 years, Ms. Sandra has never let an opportunity to greet students pass her by. The instant she lays eyes on a student, she begins to care for them as her own, regardless of their race, color, ethnicity or creed. Ms. Sandra’s self-made goal is to “make sure everybody feels comfortable so they’ll want to stay here. “

What a remarkable spectacle it is to see Ms. Sandra, fleshing out love and joy into everyone’s day at the Snelling Dining Commons. The process of desegregation at the University of Georgia has been going on for 50 years now. With each day, Ms. Sandra furthers the cause, by spreading the same love and joy to all students and staff she comes in contact with.














Sources

Miss Sandra Patterson
Snelling Cashier
Phone: 706-201-0589

Chris LeCraw
UGA Alum
E-mail: clecraw@gmail.com

J. Michael Floyd
Executive Director of Food Services
Phone: (706) 542-1256

Desegregation: A Coach’s Take

Wayne Norton all but stands alone at the moment.

In this sense, Georgia's head track and field coach shares common ground with those who walked before him on the University campus 50 years prior. When Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes strode onto the campus as the first black students at Georgia, they stood out, a minority in a numbers game stacked against them.

Times have changed, but there is still a numbers game being played in collegiate athletics — one in which Norton finds himself in to this day.

Norton is the only black head coach, and one of only two minority head coaches, at the University of Georgia. In athletics, where minority athletes often outnumber white athletes in any sports, the issue of hiring black coaches has become a national issue in sports, one in which Georgia is not exempt.

But the discrepancy in numbers at the University can be deceiving.

"I think this is an issue that sometimes the actual results aren't always reflective of the effort and the attitude behind it. And so I think that the university has done a really good job … in attacking the issues and the problems," Norton said. "I think the effort and all we've been trying to do has been pretty good. But again, looking at it, sometimes you might not see all the results."

The University has provided its share of results in recent years, especially for a school in the Southeastern Conference — a conference historically known for racial biases against minority coaches and even players.

Although it took until 1995, Georgia hired its first black head coach in Tubby Smith, who took over the men's basketball team. Since then, coaches such as Norton and former head men's basketball coach Dennis Felton have been handed the reins of a Bulldogs' athletic team.

In 2004, Georgia also hired Damon Evans as the first black athletic director in the SEC.

For a school in the SEC, hiring three black head coaches in the span of nine years — from Smith in 1995 to Felton in 2003 — is a definite start.

And for Norton, he believes the numbers game will continue to trend in a positive direction thanks to a concerted effort by the Athletic Association.

"I think they've got a lot of programs in place that I would say are working towards an improved situation," Norton said. "Hopefully it will continue and not be reversed."

When athletic director Greg McGarity took over the athletic program in 2010, he made it clear that race would not factor into any hires he made for the Georgia athletic program. And while his first hire — volleyball coach Lizzy Stemke — is white, the expectation is that the Athletic Association will continue striving to push to find the best candidate.

“I think we’ll be very aggressive on all our searches. We want to hire the best person we can,” McGarity said in a September interview. “We expect there to be a diverse pool. That’ll be an expectation, and pretty much we’ll let the chips fall where they may after that … I would say I’m pretty colorblind.”

Norton may stand alone in terms of race for the University's coaches, but the past 50 years have still made quite a difference in his eyes. And for Georgia's lone black coach, as long as the effort remains in place to consider minority candidates, then the numbers game is nothing more than a statistic.

"When you look at the reality, the reality of the situation is a lot better than the perceptions are," Norton said.

Emily Story

On February 8, 2011 the University of Georgia Department of Textiles, Merchandising, and Interiors sponsored a photographic exhibit portraying African Americans before and after segregation. The ongoing exhibit is titled “Headties to HipHop: A Photographic Celebration of African American Dress” and is located in the Barrow Hall Gallery.

The gallery was compiled by Patricia Hunt-Hurst, department head, Katalin Medvedev, assistant professor, and José Blanco, assistant professor. On the opening day of the gallery, Hunt-Hurst and Medvedev gave a gallery talk discussing the exhibit and African American contributions to dress.

“It focuses on a different element of the history of dress, fashion, and African American history,” said Hunt-Hurst. “It shows the past and more recent history and how the African Americans have contributed.”

In the gallery talk, Dr. Hunt-Hurst spoke her studies of African American dress, and some of the photos in the exhibit are from research she did for her doctorial.

The first wall of the exhibit contains photos retrieved from the Georgia archives called the “vanishing Georgia collection.” It displays photos of women and men in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. The photographs show the different headwraps uses for them. The headties were tied different ways for different functions, including protection from the sun during slave work.

“ It’s function; I can’t quite say is its fashion,” said Hunt-Hurst as she walked through the gallery.

The second wall of the exhibit displays photos collected from Pandora. This portion of the gallery starts with the 1960s because that is when desegregation occurred. The first picture is of Charlayne Hunter, dressed in a conservative 1960s long coat, and Hamilton Holmes, dressed in a long trench coat, pushing their way through the media to be the first African American students at UGA.

“We tried to narrow it down and look for things in the pictures that were distinct,” said Medvedev.

The rest of the photographs on the second wall of the exhibit display fashion throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s. These include a picture of Hershel Walker and Charlayne Hunter, African American fraternities and sororities, as well as Mr. and Mrs. Bulldawg in 1996.

“We don’t really have a conclusion because the history is still being finished, researched, and studied,” said Dr. Hunt-Hurst.

The exhibit runs until March 1, and is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m Monday through Friday.

HOPEless story

When former Georgia Governor, Zell Miller, initiated the HOPE scholarship in 1993, ‘keep HOPE alive’ became a household phrase. Now, 18 years later, the University of Georgia’s ‘B’ students might have less to celebrate.

“Students right now are living in a very interesting time,” said James Mooney,

Associate Director for Operations in UGA’s Office of Student Financial Aid. “We’re going into one of the most volatile financial aid years I’ve ever seen.”

With budget cuts threatening the HOPE, the opportunities for many Georgia students to go to college are dwindling.

Juan Carlos Cardoza-Oquendo, a junior Foundation Fellow from Decatur, GA, does not want to see any cuts to HOPE.

“I want HOPE to be need-based,” Cardoza-Oquendo said. “Maybe put an income cap on it, $100,000.”

As UGA celebrates the 50th anniversary of its desegregation, Cardoza-Oquendo believes that the HOPE has since segregated the university.

“It’s facilitating higher education for upper-middle class people who on average tend to be white,” Cardoza-Oquendo said. “ The flipside of that is it’s closing the doors to lower class people who tend to be black. There are working white folks too, but it’s mostly black.”

According to “Merit-Based College Scholarships and Car Sales,” by Terry Economics Professors Christopher Cornwell and David Mustard, “household income is an important determinant of a high-school student's academic achievement, [thus] scholarship funding generally flows to those who would have attended college anyway.”

In “The Distributional Impacts of Lottery-Funded Aid: Evidence From Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship,” Cornwell and Mustard reiterate that scholarships are more likely to be awarded to households with larger incomes.

“In contrast, counties with large shared of African Americans receive relatively fewer scholarships to state institutions, which by far is the largest category of HOPE recipients,” Cornwell and Mustard said. “Counties with poorly educated African Americans receive less aid to all types of institutions.” [how do I quote from document?]

According to Cornwell and Mustard, black enrollment rates at four-year public schools rose 21 percent between 1993 and 1997 because of HOPE while white enrollment rates only increased by percent. Yet, since black enrollment rates were much lower from the get go, a slight increase in enrollment causes a disproportionately high percentage change.

“Although HOPE has raised the African American share of college students enrolled in Georgia institutions, it does not follow that the scholarship has created more racial diversity at the institutional level,” Cornwell and Mustard said. “Because African American enrollment gains have occurred primarily at less selective institutions (like Historically Black Colleges and Universities) and not at Georgia Tech and UGA, HOPE may actually increase the stratification of Georgia colleges and universities by race.”

Cardoza-Oquendo believes that a lack of support may explain why minorities and working people do not receive the HOPE as frequently as their white middle and upper-middle class peers.

“You know, maybe their parents didn’t go to college and they couldn’t show them how to apply,” Cardoza-Oquendo said. “If you’re the first person in your family to go to college, there’s a lot you have to figure out on your own.”

Imella Sanchez, Administrative Associate to Dr. Jack Houston, Jr. in UGA’s African Studies Institute, believes that those from less privileged backgrounds may have more problems keeping HOPE.

“Some students who receive the HOPE scholarship that are first generation college students who are sometimes unable to maintain receiving the scholarship because they come from a low income background that is not as privileged as some of their fellow students,” Sanchez said. “They have to take on part-time jobs which in the mean time makes their grades suffer, so they might not maintain the HOPE scholarship.”

[To be continued…]

Understanding Diversity at UGA: The Current State of Diversity Post Desegregation

More than half of undergraduate students enrolled at the University of Georgia are defined as White by ethnic origin according to the UGA Fact Book 2010 studies[1].

Out of more than 25,000 undergraduate students, around 20,000 were qualified as white, limiting the scope of diversity at the University.

“I thought there would be a lot more diversity here,” said Hemali Vin, a junior from Pittsburgh, Pa. studying microbiology at UGA, “In my classes it’s overwhelmingly not diverse.” Coming from a hometown like Pittsburgh, Vin attended a high school where she could always find someone like her, meaning of Indian decent, to talk to. Here in Athens, Ga., Vin cannot even attend a Hindu temple because the closest one is in Atlanta.

Although the majority of Vin’s classes make her out to be the minority, the Foundation Fellow excludes her Honors classes from that bundle. “In the Honors Program it is smaller groups so you can find more diversity” said Vin. Out of UGA’s expansive campus within a sub-culture such as Honors more diversity is cultivated.

Vin cannot say exactly how it is the Honors Program creates such a community but feels that the diversity in the school enhances communication and engagement since she can talk to a number of people regarding a multitude of cultures, making for a great Honors experience.

Aaron Marshburn, from Charlotte, N.C. agrees with the sentiments that the Honors Program is more diverse. “The Honors Program is so diverse because they take people on the merit and that’s recognizing a very fundamental thing about the ludicrousness of trying to draw distinctions,” said the international affairs and journalism double major with a minor in German, “When you take the best students and the students who are open minded and want to challenge themselves academically what you get naturally is a diverse crowd.” If all of UGA was set to the same standards as the Honors students, according to Marshburns theory, there could be an entirely different, less one-sided enrollment pool.

Like Vin, Marshburn is also a Foundation Fellow and cites the fellowship as a platform for his interest in diversity, especially thanks to the international focus. But, is being a Foundation Fellow or in the Honors college the only way to experience diversity at UGA?

Vin and Marshburn both agree that UGA does have diversity, despite what the numbers may suggest. Programs such as the Indian Cultural Exchange or non-Panhellenic sororities and fraternities, along with a number of programs listed on UGA’s master calendar provide the average student with a number of options to enhance their UGA experience by seeking out diversity.

UGA pushes for diversity such as bringing in more minorities from race to gender through their summer programs and the Governor’s Honors Program. But, it is up to the students to embrace these opportunities and incorporate them into their daily lives to truly create a diverse environment.

But how are students defining diversity at UGA? “It just basically reflects recognition of the fact that people are different,” said Marshburn, it is then up to the person to be open or close-minded about how they see other people. Marshburn thinks that there is room for everyone at UGA to work on “objectively evaluating things around them and approaching things they are not comfortable with” and combat a potentially unconscious close-minded attitude.

Marshburn may describe himself as the average American, but not every average “white guy” is interested in “bringing Americans in contact with the outside world” or being the only white member of the Asian American Journalism Association. Despite his diverse tastes, Marshburn is still able to feel comfortable in every place on UGA’s campus.

On the other hand, Vin did not express a place where she felt uncomfortable rather instances when she noticed that she was different. For example, UGA sporting events such as football games are overwhelmingly white. Also, in general, there is a lack of religious diversity.

As previously mentioned, Vin a Hindu, has nowhere in Athens to go pray like her friends have on Sundays. “I just wish that I could do that too… but I haven’t found a good religious outlet yet” said Vin, “it would be nice to be able to get students together.”

Issues of diversity are so unlimited because the definition is so broad. Ethnic origin, gender, religion, sexual orientation, even political views are all characteristics that set people apart from each other. At UGA, it is easy to pinpoint the limited ethnic origin numbers as proven through the UGA Fact Book results, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. Even within those ethnic origins are deeper issues of intercultural diversity meaning religion or gender, etc. This brings an enormous opportunity for diversity to exist, but also makes it very easy to squander.

Vin said that when first coming to UGA, she felt that there was not a lack of diversity and that a lot of progress has been made since desegregation. “It’s really nice when you think about it” said Vin commenting on the number of cultural events such as India Night and how these groups are well established, “it just may not be obvious from an outsider looking in on a first impression.”

Taking a wide panoramic shot of UGA, for example the enrollment numbers, does not highlight the progress. But when zeroing on a smaller target such as the Foundation Fellowship, the significant progress and diverse outlets shine through.

Hopefully, in the next 50 years the numbers will start to even out and more people will be able to experience a diverse UGA that can be found in Honors, but students will have to as Marshburn suggests, actively change the way they approach outsiders and heed his advice by “working to expand your horizons and see the other side of life.”

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[1] http://irhst40.irp.uga.edu/html/eFactbook/2010/S04Enroll.pdf

White Flight

One of the most important decisions for parents is where their child will go to school. Many parents take into account education, proximity and overall quality of the school. During desegregation parents also began to take into account racial statistics in schools.

A term known as “white flight” refers to a shift of white residents looking for better education for their children. There is no magic number for what a population of a race should be, but when it gets around 50 percent white flight begins to happen. Clarke County began to see changes within the county once desegregation began to take place.

Housing and Consumer Economics Professor Douglas Bachtel discussed “white flight” and how it affected Clarke and Oconee counties.

“Pull factors into Oconee County is the school system,” said Dr. Bachtel. “It is a suburban bedroom community of Athens. It has real high educational attainment levels and real high income levels and low minorities.”

Camille Fulmer is now a resident in Oconee County after raising her two childern in Clarke County. She now helps her daughter, a 1985 Cedar Shoals High School graduate, raise her son.

“We are very glad we live here with the prospect of Jackson (grandson) going to Oconee Schools,” said Fulmer. “We can get a house a whole lot cheaper in Clarke County than here (Oconee County), but that is not an option for us.”

Fulmer has only spent seven years in Oconee County after moving out of Clarke County. Fulmer said, “Once you get out and you see how it is you just don’t go back.”

Fulmer watched both her son and daughter be taunted. Her daughter Joy Fulmer said, “I was the only white person in my freshman PE class at Cedar Shoals. After coming from a private christian school with no black people. That was scary.”

Many residents in Athens send their children to private schools for superior education. So Oconee County schools function like a private school system only it’s public.

Come and See.

There would have been dancing and music and soul food.

Above all, the “Hot Corner” would have been alive.

“Things were always happening on the ‘Hot Corner,’” said Lynn Green, theatre assistant for the Morton Theatre. “You had music spilling out from the Morton and people hustling and bustling.”

Formed by the intersection of West Washington and Hull Streets downtown, and bordered by Wilson’s Soul Food on one side and the Manhattan Café and the Morton on another, the “Hot Corner” has played a role in the life of black culture over the last century.

“It was the center of African-American life,” Green said.

In the historically segregated area, the space — little more than a block — became one of celebration and liberation.

On display were not only shops and street life, but also the Morton’s own attractions, which have included, over the years, films, stage shows and a burlesque.

Before the mass appeal of television and home entertainment, it was Morton that brought people out at night.

“In order to be entertained, one still needed to dress-up and head out to the ‘Hot Corner,’” said Calvin Smith, a university alumnus and performer, who opened the Morton’s centennial season last year.

As with much else in the area, the decades took their toll.

By the ‘70s, the “Hot Corner” had lost much of its place in the culture of the city that surrounded it:

The Morton had been dark for decades behind locked doors, left behind by the eponymous family that had once owned it.

The Manhattan, too, was long gone.

“The face of it changed,” Green said.

And then someone — or, rather, someones — arrived to remember what had come before.

Every year, during the first week of May, the Hot Corner Association organizes a festival in commemoration of the mini-district’s past life in the city.

The group, headed up by businessman Homer Wilson, hopes to both revitalize and inspire, focusing on the corner’s legacy in the years since.

The “Hot Corner” is dead, but it is not gone.

Return now to the intersection of Washington and Hull and see the new growth:

The Morton is once again spilling out with music as performers and groups trek back to the renovated space; around and across from it, businesses have reopened and replaced the ones before.

And along the streets, people are bustling.