Story Two

History of Black Professors

Historically the University of Georgia has been known as a predominantly white school in both their faculty and students.

Seven years after the desegregation of UGA, Richard Graham became the first full-time African-American faculty member. He began his career at UGA as a visiting professor at the School of Music and after a year became part of the faculty. He later became director of the school in 1994.

In 1980, the Black Faculty and Staff Organization was formed to create a positive environment for minority students. The idea of the organization was to help students appreciate African-American History while giving them an environment to grow in their culture.

“Considering history and the civil rights movement during that time period it’s amazing that he was hired in the 1960’s at all, especially in such a conservative state like Georgia,” states Danielle Davison a black UGA sophomore.

Black faculty have an important role in recruiting and encouraging minority students. According to the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (JBHE) Research Department, only five flagship state universities out of the nations 50 have more than 100 black faculty members. UGA can be found with 167 black faculty in 2006.

Although UGA is in the top five for black faculty the ratio of percent of black state population to percentage of black faculty is .20 and the percentage of black faculty was 5.6%.

“Nope, I have never had a black professor,” Davison states about her time here at UGA.

UGA has made significant accomplishments with in segregation, but diversity among professors can still be improved. Not only would it benefit minority students but it would give other students a positive opportunity to experience diversity.