To kick off the campus-wide reading event to celebrate the 60th anniversary of desegregation at the University of Georgia, UGA alumna Charlayne Hunter-Gault will participate in a conversation with longtime New Yorker columnist and author Calvin Trillin to discuss his book An Education in Georgia: Charlayne Hunter, Hamilton Holmes, and the Integration of the University of Georgia (UGA Press). The conversation will be moderated by Valerie Boyd, Charlayne Hunter-Gault Distinguished Writer in Residence, associate professor, Journalism, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, UGA.
First serialized in the New Yorker in 1963, Trillins’s book details the experiences of the first African-American students on the Athens campus and the legal struggle surrounding their admission. The book also looks at the protests and riots against their admission, the students' suspension, as well as the court case that had them reinstated. Trillin’s book includes interviews from the time with students, their families, friends, and professors that reveal the struggles of integration and drastic social change on a southern campus.
This is a free virtual event open to the UGA community and the public at large. Registration is required to attend. Visit https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_y3NL_Z4YT_K7c-K6boGnkg.
Throughout the month of February, the UGA Press will share supplemental materials including discussion questions, interviews, news articles drawn from the New Georgia Encyclopedia, and other prompts via social media. They will be announcing book giveaways as well as providing a discount code to students, faculty, staff, and community members who register for the event.
This event is sponsored by the University of Georgia Press, the New Georgia Encyclopedia, the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, and the Mary Frances Early College of Education.
Charlayne Hunter-Gault is a Peabody and Emmy award-winning journalist with more than 50 years in the media industry, extending her work at various times to all media including The New Yorker, NBC, The New York Times, PBS, NPR and CNN. She is also the author of four books, including In My Place, an autobiography and To The Mountaintop: My Journey Through the Civil Rights Movement. Her latest is an e-book, Corrective Rape, looking at the criminal way men in South Africa abuse lesbian women by attempting to “correct” their sexuality. Her upcoming book upcoming book features a collection her almost 60 years of print articles focusing on the subjects she calls “My People.” She continues with the PBS NEWSHOUR with a special series called Race Matters, looking at solutions to racism and is a highly sought after lecturer and moderator. Charlayne is the wife of former banker Ronald Gault and the mother of two children—Suesan, an artist and singer, and Chuma, an actor and director.
Calvin Trillin has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1963, concentrating his reporting on America. As the Nation’s “Deadline Poet,” he writes weekly verse on the news of the day. In addition to his books of reportage, he has published memoirs, comic novels, and books of verse. His books include Remembering Denny, Obliviously On He Sails: The Bush Administration in Rhyme, Tepper Isn’t Going Out, About Alice, Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin, Jackson, 1964, and No Fair! No Fair! (with Roz Chast).
Support for this event was provided by Elizabeth and Sheffield Hale.