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Roundtable credits Bootle
Building renamed during
desegregation ceremony
By KERRI GRAFFIUS a
kgrafftus@randb.com
Leaders gather to
discuss ’61 events
By PAUL FULTON Jr.
pfulton@randb.com
Former governors, judges
and attorneys gathered Tuesday
morning in Hodgson Hall to dis
cuss events surrounding the
University’s desegregation —
some 40 years after Hamilton
Holmes and Charlayne Hunter-
Gault integrated the University.
“This is an opportunity to
have a conversation not
possible 40 years ago,” said
Patricia Bell-Scott, moderator
of the roundtable discussion
and professor of family and
consumer sciences and women’s
studies. “A conversation that
never happened. I
also thought it an opportunity
to have a conversation with no
cultural constraints.”
Former Georgia Gov. Ernest
Vandiver, who headed the state
in 1961 during the University’s
integration process, said the
desegregation celebration was
a historical event.
“It’s been a great day not
only for the University of
Georgia but for Georgia,” he
said.
Vandiver said, when he heard
of Federal Judge William A.
Bootle’s order to desegregate
the University, he invited about
50 friends and legislators to
the Executive Mansion in
Atlanta to investigate their
opinions on the court’s order.
One by one, he said, the
people gathered in the room
refused to support the integra
tion of Georgia’s schools until
Carl Sanders, president pro
tempore of the senate at
the time,said he would
enforce Bootle’s desegregation
order.
“He was a very real part of
our time in history,’’ Vandiver
said. “Those who said (they
didn’t favor the integration)
were relegated to the ashes of
history.”
Vandiver eventually proposed
to the Georgia legislature that
all statutes of segregation be
removed from the state’s law
books, and only about 20 of
more than 250 lawmakers
opposed his decision.
“From that day on,” he said,
“we saw a new day in Georgia.”
Sanders said the ruling sent
state lawmakers scurrying to
decide what to do and how to
do it.
“Emotions were high at the
time,” Sanders said. “Everyone
was in a state of confusion.
But I knew in my conscience
that education was crucial.”
Donald Hallowell, an attor
ney who represented Holmes
and Hunter, said he learned dur
ing the state’s desegregation
process the importance of mak
ing a difference in the events
surrounding him.
“I learned that if one was
going to be helpful to his people,
he or she not only had to go to
school, but they had to get out
and do something about it,” he
said.
Judge Constance Baker
Motley, an attorney for the
NAACP Legal Defense and
Educational Fund in 1961,
commended Bootle’s decision
to integrate the University and
credited him with creating
a new attitude toward Georgia’s
schools, colleges and
universities.
“If it weren’t for Judge
Bootle, we wouldn’t be here
today,” she said. “When Judge
Bootle rendered his decision
in favor of Charlayne and
Hamilton going into
the University of Georgia, he
knew that decision would
bring a great uprising in
Georgia, so to speak. But he
said he was going to stay with
his decision.”
Motley said that while law
makers, citizens, educators
and students have learned
many valuable lessons during
the last 40 years, they should
be cautious as they
approach a new sense of chang
ing times.
“If you think we saw
tumultuous times in this past
century,” she said, “I have a feel
ing we may see more tumul
tuous times in the century we’ve
just entered.”
After a day-long celebration of
40 years of desegregation at the
University, the building where the
first two black students regis
tered for classes was renamed
Tuesday in their honor.
Hamilton Holmes and
Charlayne Hunter (now Hunter-
Gault) were admitted to the
University in 1961. In a ceremony
attended by numerous digni
taries, including Gov. Roy Barnes
and Athens Mayor Doc Eldridge,
University President Michael
Adams formally renamed the
Academic Building in Holmes’
and Hunter-Gault’s names.
Holmes’ wife Marylin com
mented that her late husband
“would have laughed at the irony
of this building being named in
his honor when they tried to keep
him out of it."
During the ceremony in the
University Chapel, Adams gave
Hunter-Gault and Holmes’
widow a small model of the build
ing now bearing their names.
“I have always felt that the
bond between (Hamilton) and
me was at least as thick as
blood,” Hunter-Gault said. “Now
it’s as thick as cement.”
Built as two separate struc-
7 have always felt that
the bond between
(Hamilton) and me was
at least as thick as blood.
Now, it’s as thick as
cement. ”
Charlayne Hunter-Gault
Honoree, University Alumna
tures both before and after the
Civil War and later connected as
one, the Academic Building was
the site where Holmes and
Hunter-Gault first registered for
classes following a court order to
allow them to attend the
University.
In November, the University
asked the Board of Regents to
rename the 169-year-old building
in Holmes’ and Hunter-Gault’s
honor — which the Regents did
within days.
Although students no longer
register for classes in the build
ing, the white, Greek-columned
structure still remains as a sym
bol of the University’s integration
in early 1961.
“I want this building to say to
future generations who walk
under the Arch, ‘It’s time for all
of us to come together,’ ” Adams
said.
Following the dedication cere
mony, spectators crowded the
sidewalk and the stairs before the
Holmes/Hunter Academic
Building. After Hunter-Gault and
Holmes’ widow removed a red
cloth from the historical marker
in front of the building, each
woman took time to rub their fin
gers over the engraved names.
Holmes’ mother Isabella, came
before the plaque to slowly rub
her fingers on the gold letters
that stated her son’s admittance
to the University as one of the
two first black students.
Hunter-Gault said the newly
renamed building is “rvot about
me, and it’s not about
(Hamilton). It’s about spirit, love
and getting along.”
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