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Charlayne Hunter-Gault

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@ National Portrait Gallery

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Born Due West, South CarolinaIn January 1961, following a two-year legal battle, Charlayne Hunter-Gault and fellow student Hamilton Holmes walked resolutely onto the University of Georgia campus as the first African American students to enroll at the all-white public university. Within forty-eight hours of their arrival, students opposed to the pair’s admission were rioting outside Hunter-Gault’s dormitory and hurling bricks and bottles through her window. Hunter-Gault and Holmes were suspended, ostensibly to ensure their safety. They soon returned under a new court order, “determined as ever to stay the course.” Joseph Schwarz, an art professor who helped organize a faculty resolution to reinstate the suspended students, created this portrait. It captures the cool determination that enabled Hunter-Gault to challenge entrenched segregation and earn the journalism degree she fought to pursue at the University of Georgia. In 1988, twenty-five years after her graduation, Hunter-Gault became the first African American to deliver the school’s commencement address.Nacida en Due West, Carolina del SurEn enero de 1961, luego de dos años de batalla legal, Charlayne Hunter-Gault y su compañero Hamilton Holmes caminaron con decisión hacia el campus de la Universidad de Georgia para ser los primeros estudiantes afroamericanos en esta institución pública hasta entonces para personas blancas. No habían pasado 48 horas cuando ya los estudiantes opuestos a su admisión estaban amotinados frente al dormitorio de Hunter-Gault, lanzando ladrillos y botellas a su ventana. Hunter-Gault y Holmes fueron suspendidos, presumiblemente para garantizar su seguridad. Pronto regresaron gracias una nueva orden del tribunal, “decididos más...
Type:
Image
Format:
Oil On Canvas
Rights:
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Charlayne Hunter-Gault
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Record Contributed By

National Portrait Gallery

Record Harvested From

Smithsonian Institution