Hark! Have You Subscribed to Our Newsletters?

On this day, we'd like to remind you about our two free Heritage Room newsletters. 

Our Genealogy and History Events newsletter covers everything from Christmas tours at state parks and plantations around Georgia to Census classes at the Atlanta History Center. We make sure you know about webinars that are coming up, such as Researching Your Irish Roots and lunch-and-learn series at the National Archives about using DNA for genealogy research. The events newsletter makes it possible to plan your schedule and ensure you don't miss a chance to learn, explore, and discover new things.

Our Genealogy News and Tips newsletter keeps you in the loop with the latest resources available for research, such as the expanded marriage records holdings by FamilySearch.org and primers on searching for your War of 1812 ancestors. It also includes tips on how to use general software apps for genealogy and lets you know about new sites for sharing what you find with friends and family.

Click here (or either of the above newletter links) to read the current newsletter and subscribe to have them delivered. It couldn't be easier, and is a great time saver, so sign up today!

Are You Reading Our Heritage Room Newsletters?

On this day we'd like to remind you to subscribe to our two fantastic Heritage Room newsletters. They will be delivered to your email Inbox, and are a great way to keep up with all that is going on in genealogy and history throughout the year, and especially during the busy holiday season.

Our Genealogy and History Events newsletter covers everything from Haunted History tours in Athens and Macon to free webinars about Irish ancestor brick walls and getting started with Native American genealogy. Find out where to hear historians talking about their latest books, or when the dedication ceremony for a new historical marker will be held. Autumn is a busy time for cemetery tours, and with the newsletter, you can take your pick of tours in Athens, Cartersville, Atlanta, and McDonough. The commemoration of the sesquicentennial of the Civil War continues apace, with a variety of symposia, lectures, programs, and book-related events. Don't regret not doing something because you didn't find out in time--just read our newsletter!

Our Genealogy News and Tips newsletter makes sure you will not miss out on the information you need for your research, even as everyone's schedule speeds up this autumn. We cover practical information, such as the increase in copying fees at all National Archives locations and updates about the status of the Georgia Archives, to new resources online such as Mercer campus newspapers from 1920-1970 and Scottish post office directories. We even include information on how to fit your research into a busy schedule, such as Family Tree magazine's list of "Weekend Warrior" genealogy projects.

Click here (or either newsletter link above) to subscribe. It couldn't be easier, so sign up today!

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Fantastic Scanner Demo on October 23rd!

On this day, we hope you will mark your calendar to come to the Athens-Clarke County Library's new Heritage Room space to see a demonstration of the incredibly cool ScanPro 2000 microfilm scanner and image processor on Tuesday, October 23rd. 

This machine is simple to use, and has powerful, automatic enhancement options for the image you are trying to scan. The Heritage Room staff saw an early demo of this new development in microfilm scanning a couple of years ago, and could not have been more impressed by the quality of the images created and the easy, intuitive interface. 

While no technology can fix every bad roll of microfilm, the improvements made by the ScanPro to your scanned images are something to see for yourself! A representative from Palmetto Microfilm Systems, Inc., will be here to demonstrate the ScanPro 2000, including information on how to copy microfilm and digitize the images.

We will have four demonstrations over the course of the day: 

12:30pm (lunch time)

 3:30 pm (after school)

 5:30 pm (after work)

 7:30 pm (after dinner)

The demonstration is free, but reservations are required, so please call the Reference Desk at (706) 613-3650, ext. 356  or email Laura Carter at lcarter@athenslibrary.org to sign up for the session you want to attend. (You'll also get a peak at the new Heritage Room space while you're here!)

We look forward to sharing this smart new development in microfilm reading and scanning with all of you, and hope to see you at one of the four demonstrations on the 23rd!

What You Can Do About the Closing of the Georgia Archives

On this day we'd like to offer some suggestions about what actions you can take in light of the news that the Georgia State Archives will be closed to citizens as of November 1. 

To start, you can write to our Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Secretary of State.

Though the Lieutenant Governor did not enact this budget cut, he may run for governor in the future, as may our current Secretary of State, Brian Kemp.  Write to them to ensure they all understand the importance of the Georgia Archives.

Governor Nathan Deal

Mailing Address:
206 Washington Street
Suite 203, State Capitol
Atlanta, GA 30334

Phone:
404-656-1776

Fax:
404-657-7332

Contact Us form:

http://gov.georgia.gov/contact-us-0

Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle

Mailing address:

240 State Capitol
Atlanta, GA 30334
Phone: 
(404) 656-5030
Fax: 
(404) 656-6739

Contact Us form (at bottom of the page below)

http://ltgov.georgia.gov/contact-lt-governor

Secretary of State Brian Kemp

Mailing address:
214 State Capitol
Atlanta, GA 30334
Phone: 
404-656-2881
Fax: 
404-656-0513

Contact Us form:

http://sos.georgia.gov/cgi-bin/email.asp

You can also contact your state representatives. To find the contact information for your State Senator and Representative, use this Find Your Legislator page. Our representatives must know that this budget cut is unacceptable.

This Saturday, September 15th, 2012, is the Annual Meeting of the Friends of the Georgia Archives & History at the Archives building in Morrow. The meeting is expected to end around noon, and a brainstorming session will take place afterwards. For more information, contact the organization via email, at FriendsofGeorgiaArchives@yahoo.com, or by phone, at 678-364-3732.

Please also sign the petition to keep the Georgia Archives open to the public, and follow events on the Facebook page, Georgians Against Closing the State Archives. 

PLEASE NOTE: Even if you aren't in Georgia, you are still encouraged to sign the petition and write to our Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Secretary of State. Many people had ancestors who came through Georgia and just because you don't live in Georgia, doesn't mean you will never need these Archives. It also sets a terrible precedent that other states may try to follow. Politicians need to know that citizen access to their government records is important.

Heritage Book Collection Reprieve!

On this day, we are happy to announce that during this last phase of construction, the available Heritage Room book collection will not be closed stacks, and you will have access to far more books than were noted in the last post.

The Heritage Room books are currently upstairs on two shelves that run along the far wall you'll see as you come to the top of the staircase. They are on the other side of the computer desks, on either side of the entrance to the new restrooms. The small cart for books that you are done using is next to the Athens-Clarke County books.

The temporarily smaller collection has a much closer focus on Georgia, including any Georgia county books that cover marriages, wills, cemeteries, deeds, or other abstracts taking priority in the collection. Some county histories have moved, if they provided this type of information. 

Also, all Georgia newspaper abstracts are available, as well as books with multiple counties of marriage or will records, land lottery books, the Pioneers of Wiregrass collection, Christian Index obituaries, U.S. Census indices, Georgia English Crown Grants, and Georgia Governor & Council Journals. 

For North Carolina and South Carolina, no county-focused books will be available for the time being, but there are U.S. Census indices, tax, will, marriage, deed records, as well as North Carolina Colonial Land Entries and South Carolina Royal Land Grants. 

For Virginia, you have access to Adventures of Purse and Person, Cavaliers & Pioneers, Colonial Abstracts, both sets of Genealogies of Virginia Families, Virginia Wills, and Wulfeck's Virginia Marriages. 

Still available for Civil War research are These Men Wore Grey, Rosters of Confederate Graves, Roster of Confederate Soldiers from the Official Records set, two rosters of Georgia Confederate Soldiers, and Sifakis's Compendium of the Confederate Armies. 

For the Revolution, we have Virgil White's collection of military pension and service record abstracts, Pierce's Register, the DAR Patriot Index, some Elijah Clark Chapter records, Helen Lu's Revolutionary War Period set, among other items. White's indices covering the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the Indian Wars are also available.

There are also some general genealogy books for those who are getting started, need to know where to look for out of state or county records, or are trying to figure out where the heck the marriage record they need could be, such as the Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources, and Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Census, 1790-1920. 

 
We are so happy we were able to make more available than anticipated, and in a way that allows you pursue your research at your own rate, picking the book you want or think you need from the shelf. If you find the book in PINES, we should have it available for you in the current Heritage collection. 


If you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to call us at the Reference Desk, at (706) 613-3650, ext. 356, or email us at Heritage.Room.Blog@gmail.com or heritageroom@arlsmail.org. We are still here to help you with your research! 

Heritage Room Newsletters: The Fun Doesn't Stop When Summer Ends!

On this day, we'd like to remind you that our two Heritage Room newsletters are great ways to find out what is happening and what resources are available, all from the cool comfort of your own home!

In our Genealogy and History Events newsletter,  you can find out how to get started researching your Civil War ancestors by signing up for a webinar by the Friends of the National Archives-Southeast, or take a trip to Columbus to learn about Civil War navies at the Civil War Naval Museum. Plan an evening in Atlanta with a love stories tour of Oakland Cemetery, or pick up a Georgia State Park pass here at the library to plan an afternoon at Smithgall Woods State Park in Helen, learning about the 1828 Georgia Gold Rush. There are all sorts of events that make fun family trips before the school year gets too hectic, and our Events newsletter makes sure you have time to plan ahead.

In our Genealogy News and Tips newsletter, you'll learn about not just new content but improved filtering options in Fold3, a database all Athens Regional Library cardholders can access from their own home. Be heartened by the news that Ancestry.com has a name index for the full 1940 Census, months ahead of schedule, and how to buy CDs of webinars by Legacy Family Tree. Read reviews of new genealogy software programs, about the Free Guide to London Ancestors by FamilySearch.org in honor of the Olympics, and the latest additions to collections by local genealogical groups around the world. It sometimes seems impossible to keep up with all the new resources available to the genealogy researcher, but our News & Tips newsletter gives you a great head start.

Click here (or any newsletter link above) to subscribe. It couldn't be easier, so what are you waiting for? Sign up today! 

 

28 July 1899: "The tradition is too well founded to be doubted..."

On this day in 1899, the Weekly Banner noted the start of the dog days of summer:

RAIN TODAY MEANS RAIN FOR 40 DAYS.

This is the First of the Celebrated "Dog Days."

     According to superstition, if it rains today we will have rain for forty days.

     "Dog Days" begin today. This is a critical period of the year for it means abundant showers or excessive drought. 

     Farmers who are anxious to secure good rains should start early with their prayers today. The tradition is too well founded to be doubted and this, the all-important first of the dog days should not be passed by unnoticed.

-- Weekly Banner, 28 July 1899, p. 1, col. 1.

"Dog days of summer" have a long history. The ancient Egyptians associated the heat of mid-summer with Sirius, the dog star, rising with the sun, and believed it foretold the annual flooding of the Nile. The Romans believed the bright star Sirius combined its heat with the sun to cause the hottest part of summer, calling this period "caniculares dies," the "days of the dog." 


At the time, the "dog days" fell from early July into the middle of August. Due to a phenomenon called the precession of the equinoxes, the date when Sirius rises with the sun moves later over time. Eventually, it will no longer rise during the heat of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.


Though there was no newspaper surviving from July 29th, later that summer, Athens had quite a few harsh storms, including one near the end of the dog days that included crop-destroying hail, flooded streets, and even a woman, Mrs. Mary Echols of John Street, killed by lightning in her own home.




Learn More: 

• Weekly Banner, Aug. 1898 - Oct. 1899 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• The Old Farmer's Almanac Book of Garden Wisdom by Cynthia Van Hazinga in the general collection.
• Hogs on Ice and Other Curious Expressions by Charles Earl Funk in the Reference collection.
• Partly Sunny: A Weather Junkie's Guide to Outsmarting the Weather by Alan Fields in the general collection.
• Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, 2nd edition, by William and Mary Morris in the Reference collection.
• Zoo in the Sky: A Book of Animal Constellations by Jacqueline Mitton in the children's collection.
• Loose Cannons and Red Herrings: A Book of Lost Metaphors by Robert Claiborne in the general collection.
• Night Has a Thousand Eyes: A Naked-Eye Guide to the Sky, Its Science, and Lore by Arthur Upgren in the general collection.
• Ask an Astronomer web page, by the Astronomy Department at Cornell University.

Important News about the Heritage Room Collection during the Last Part of the Library Renovation

On this day, we'd like to provide notice for some changes that are coming quite soon that could affect your research plans.


In the next few weeks, most of the library will be on the move to enable the last phases of construction. At the end of July, the Reference area is scheduled to move into the renovated side of the second floor, and, at that time, the Heritage Room book collection will become closed stacks through the end of the year. 


The books in this collection will still be available to patrons, but you will need to ask a librarian to retrieve the title or titles you wish to use. This situation is temporary, merely a side effect of space constraints while the other half of the second floor is being updated.
 
The Heritage Room microfilm, reader, and digital scanner will remain in the new Reference area until the end of construction. We still urge you to call to reserve the machine you want to use in advance, to ensure it is available when you arrive. All aspects of the microform collection will return to the Heritage Room space once the room reopens, with great fanfare, in early 2013. (It really is sooner than it sounds!)


Among the features of the new Heritage Room space will be 

• more microfilm readers and printers (plus the old dinosaurs with their loud mechanical Thu-THUNK! when you hit the Print button), 
• a conference room that will be used for classes but can also be reserved for use by local organizations for meetings, 
• more computers, 
• more individual work tables, 
• more shelves full of books, 
• lockers for you to stash your bags securely, 
• an easier-to-find location,
• a more accessible and browsable magazine area, 
• a more comfortable ambient temperature in the reading room,
• a larger vault, and 
• work spaces for staff so there will be fewer piles of boxes and papers and ledgers and maps in the room, which means more room for you to spread out while researching.

Here are some pictures of the room in progress, courtesy of our public relations guru, Rhiannon Eades:

(click to enlarge image)

In the picture above, you can see the light coming from the new meeting room doorway on the right that was once a window! And on the topic of windows, you can see we still have the large one at the end of the room that always filled the space with such gorgeous golden sunlight in late afternoon.

(click to enlarge image)

Hooray! Carpet padding! 

No, not really exciting, but it is the first step toward getting carpet in the new space. (All steps forward are to be celebrated.) You can also see new walls where the microfilm reader alcove used to be (but is now office space for Heritage Room and Information Services staff), and the knocked out wall where there used to be file drawers filled with microfilm and boxes filled with maps.

(click to enlarge image)

A nice low line of shelves with enough power to handle, according to the diagram of the new second floor layout, seven microform readers and reader-printers. At long last, the digital scanner will be at a comfortable height for long periods of research. 

Please let us know at the Reference desk if you have any concerns, or have questions about using the collection. We understand that having access to the materials you need is important, and we are here to make this temporary inconvenience as little trouble as possible. 

In the mean time, we appreciate your patience, and hope you are as excited about the prospect of a renewed Heritage Room as we are. We miss it, too!

Learn More:

• Athens-Clarke County Library Renovation blog.
• Renovation plans for the Athens-Clarke County library.
• Second floor layout of the renovated Athens-Clarke County library (.pdf file).

Heritage Room Newsletters: The Cool Way to Follow What's Hot!

On this day, we'd like to remind you that our two Heritage Room newsletters are great ways to find out what is happening and what resources are available, all from the cool comfort of your own home!


In our Genealogy and History Events newsletter,  you can find how to sign up for guided tours of the University of Georgia's new Special Collections library on Hull Street, or when the William Faulkner celebration at Ciné in downtown Athens on the 50th anniversary of his death. Discover the Women of Oakland Cemetery in a Twilight Tour in Atlanta, or how to use a Flip-Pal mobile scanner (the only one allowed by the National Archives) at family gatherings to enhance your family history through a webinar accessible from your home computer. Take a day trip to hear about Alabama and the War of 1812 at the Alabama State Archives, or to learn about "Historic District" designations for neighborhoods at the DeKalb History Center. There are so many interesting, new things to explore, and the Events newsletter ensures you know when and where they are.


In our Genealogy News and Tips newsletter, you'll learn when subscription databases are having sales or free access to their holdings, and how far along the name indexing of the 1940 has come. Click through our links to read the personal journals of Queen Victoria, or to peruse the City of Dallas's online collection of documents and images from the John F. Kennedy assassination. You'll learn which archives are cutting back their hours, and which ones have acquired or are exhibiting fascinating new collections. Links to stories about organizing your family research photos and the best way to preserve family documents for posterity are delivered to your computer so you don't need to search the web for it yourself.


Click here (or any newsletter link above) to subscribe. It couldn't be easier, so what are you waiting for? Sign up today!

Let the Athens Historical Society Know What You Think!

The Athens Historical Society is planning a major renovation of their website this year, and would like input from anyone who is interested in and cares about Athens history.  


Until June 18th, there will be an online survey available at this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/V9WPBF5


The survey is just 10 questions, and should take less than 5 minutes. Please click here (or the link above) to voice your opinions and offer your suggestions. 

This Day Flashback: What's New is Old

This summer, due to construction, the Athens-Clarke County Library's Summer Reading Performance Series will be having their programs at the Clarke Central High School auditorium.  

The weekly performances at Clarke Central reminded us of a story This Day in Athens featured in 2010 about a similar concert program for children hosted by the volunteer members of the Athens Library Association in February, 1915. At the time, Athens Library Association was a group of volunteers with donated books in a donated room in the Southern Mutual Building downtown. 

While they had Saturday morning storytimes for children in the corner of their library room, to host a larger, fuller concert program, the library volunteers used the auditorium at Athens High School on Wednesday afternoons. (Summer programs would be held outdoors, as the auditorium would be too warm.) The most popular books in the children's collection at the time were Beatrix Potter's tales, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Just So Stories, and The Little Princess.

The 2012 Athens-Clarke County Library programs programs will be held in the Clarke Central auditorium on Thursday mornings at 10:30am.  They will feature local storytellers, ventriloquists, puppeteers, music, stories, sing-alongs, poetry, and dancing.  The first program is this Wednesday, May 24th, hosted by the Children's Area staff.

To learn about each week's show, as well as other Summer Reading programs offered by the Athens-Clarke County Library Children's Area, go to the Dream Big--READ! 2012 Summer Reading Program website or pick up a purple flyer at the library.

Learn More:

• This Day in Athens, 27 February 1915: "The Pleasure and Privilege of a Story Hour."
• Dream Big--READ! 2012 Summer Reading Program at the Athens-Clarke County Library web page.
• Dream Big--READ! 2012 Summer Reading Program at the Athens-Clarke County Library brochure. (pdf)
• Athens-Clarke County Library Children's Area web page.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• The Story of the Athens Public Library by Susan Frances Barrow Tate in the Heritage collection.
• Books by Beatrix Potter in the children's fiction collection.
• The Little Princess by Frances Hodges Burnett in the children's fiction collection.
• Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling in the children's fiction and young adult collections.
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll in the children's fiction collection.

19 April 1912: Legislating Lifeboats "might save many others"

On this day in 1912, as Congress began its official inquiry into the Titanic disaster, the Athens Banner editorial staff came out in favor of lifeboat legislation:

(click to enlarge image)

Senator William Alden Smith of Michigan began to subpoena White Star Line executives and surviving crew members the day the Carpathia docked in New York with the survivors of the disaster. He would spend six weeks on the investigation, and regulations involving lifeboats, ship construction, ice monitoring, and the Radio Act of 1912 were the result. Similar regulations were passed by Great Britain, and later other nations around the world.




Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Apr. 1912 - Jun. 1912 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Building the Titanic: An Epic Tale of the Creation of History's Most Famous Ocean Liner by Rod Green in the general collection.
• Down with the Old Canoe: A Cultural History of the Titanic by Steven Biel in the general collection.
• Titanic Legacy: Disaster as Media Event and Myth by Paul Heyer in the general collection.
• Her Name, Titanic: The Untold Story of the Sinking and Finding of the Unsinkable Ship by Charles Pellegrino in the general collection.
• Lost Voices from the Titanic: The Definitive Oral History by Nick Barratt in the general collection.
• Titanic Survivor: The Newly Discovered Memoirs of Violet Jessop Who Survived Both the Titanic and Britannic Disasters by Violet Jessop in the general collection.
• Titanic: 100 Years on the National Georgraphic website.

Fourth Heritage Room Genealogy Class at the Athens Community Council on Aging

On this day, we'd like you to know that the Heritage Room's fourth class at the Athens Community Council on Aging will be on Wednesday, April 4th, 2012, from 1:00pm to 2:30pm in the Harris Room's ACCA Hoyt Street location. The title of the class is Finding Those Who Served: Military Records.

If you missed the first class, don't worry! Each class is independent, so if you are set on the basics, but want to know more about service records or using draft cards and pension records in your research, just sign up now for the April 4th class.  The class is free to members of the ACCA's Center for Active Living. Though free for members of CAL, pre-registration is required.

In our forth installment, we'll demonstrate the width and breadth of the war-related information available and useful for genealogical research. Our overview will cover what the records are, what sort of information they contain, and where they are located going back to Colonial times.

For more information about the classes, please call us at the library, (706) 613-3650, extension 356; to register, please call the Athens Council on Aging at (706) 549-4850 or consult their online program catalog, Senior Center Scene.

Third Heritage Room Genealogy Class at the Athens Community Council on Aging

On this day, we'd like you to know that the Heritage Room's third class at the Athens Community Council on Aging will be on Wednesday, March 21st, 2012, from 1:00pm to 2:30pm in the Harris Room's ACCA Hoyt Street location. The title of the class is The Genealogical Benefits of Bureaucracy: Government Records.

If you missed the earlier classes, don't worry! Each class is independent, so if you want to know more about court records or using wills in research, just sign up now for the March 21st class.  The class is free to members of the ACCA's Center for Active Living. Though free for members of CAL, pre-registration is required.

In our third installment, we'll discuss how to use for our own research needs the records created by local, state, and federal levels of government. We will cover the types of records available, how to use them, and where to find them, including tax records, deeds and land records, wills and estate records, other court records, and much more. 

For more information about the classes, please call us at the library, (706) 613-3650, extension 356; to register, please call the Athens Council on Aging at (706) 549-4850 or consult their online program catalog, Senior Center Scene.

27 February 1942: Charlayne Hunter-Gault Is Born

On this day 70 years ago, in Due West, South Carolina, Charlayne Hunter-Gault was born to Althea Ruth and Charles S. H. Hunter, Jr. Her father's position as an Army chaplain caused the family to move frequently, so Charlayne and her younger brothers Henry and Franklyn, spent much of their childhoods living with their maternal grandmother in Covington and Atlanta, Georgia.


Charlayne attended Henry McNeal Turner High School in Atlanta, where she graduated 3rd in her class in 1959. That year, she and class valedictorian Hamilton Holmes were approached by local civil rights leaders who wanted to challenge Georgia's segregated system of higher education. Both Charlayne and Hamilton applied to the  University of Georgia in 1959 and were denied admission based on their race. 


In Fall of 1959, Charlayne Hunter enrolled at Fort Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, and she and Hamilton Holmes continued to apply to UGA every quarter, with their attorneys in Atlanta challenging their denied admission in court. In January of 1961, Judge William Bootle ruled that Holmes and Hunter were qualified to attend UGA, and therefore entitled to be admitted to the University. Three days later, both students enrolled at UGA, becoming the first African-American students to attend the school.


In 1963, Charlayne Hunter graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in Journalism, and took a job as an editorial assistant at the New Yorker magazine. She would later work as a reporter and anchor for WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. In 1968, she joined the New York Times, and while there, married Ronald Gault. She left the Times in 1978 to be a national correspondent for the MacNeil/Lehrer Report on Public Television. In 1992, she wrote a memoir, In My Place.


In 1997, her husband was transferred to South Africa, and Hunter-Gault left PBS to become the Africa correspondent for National Public Radio. From 1999 to 2005, she was CNN's Africa correspondent, and still occasionally files reports for NPR. In 2006, she published New News Out of Africa: Uncovering Africa's Renaissance. She currently contributes to TheRoot.com.


Over her career, Charlayne Hunter-Gault has received more than two dozen honorary degrees and earned many journalism awards. She's won the New York Times' Publisher Award, the National Urban Coalition Award for Distinguished Urban Reporting, two National News and Documentary Emmy awards, and two Peabody awards.

Despite her experiences as a student at the University of Georgia, Hunter-Gault has stayed involved with her alma mater. In 1985, as part of UGA's Bicentennial Celebration, the Holmes-Hunter Lecture was created, and has been held annually ever since, focusing "on race relations, black history, and education with implications for inclusion and diversity." In 1988, Charlayne Hunter-Gault became the first African-American invited to speak at UGA commencement, 25 years after her own graduation.


In 2001, as part of the celebration of 40 years since desegregation, the Academic Building on North Campus was renamed the Holmes-Hunter Academic Building. In 2007, the Charlayne Hunter-Gault Distinguished Writer-in-Residence chair was created in the Grady College of Journalism, and in 2011, Hunter-Gault donated her papers to the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies.




Learn More:

• In My Place by Charlayne Hunter-Gault in the biography collection.
• New News Out of Africa: Uncovering Africa's Renaissance by Charlayne Hunter-Gault in the general collection.
• We Shall Not Be Moved: The Desegregation of the University of Georgia by Robert A. Pratt in the Heritage and general collections.
• An Education in Georgia: Charlayne Hunter, Hamilton Holmes, and the Integration of the University of Georgia by Calvin Trillin in the Heritage and general collections.
• Civil Rights Digital Library in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• New Georgia Encyclopedia: Charlayne Hunter-Gault.
• American Program Bureau Speakers: Charlayne-Hunter Gault.
• Crusades in the Courts: How a Dedicated Band of Lawyers Fought the Civil Rights Revolution by Jack Greenberg in the general collection.
• The University of Georgia: A Bicentennial History, 1785-1985 by Thomas G. Dyer in the Heritage and general collections.
• African-American Firsts: Famous, Little-Known, and Unsung Triumphs of Black America by Joan Potter in the general collection.
• Celebrating Courage: The 50th Anniversary of Desegregation at UGA website.
• WLTX (Columbia, SC) Interview with Charlayne Hunter-Gault.
• Atlanta Mayor to Deliver This Year's Holmes-Hunter Lecture announcement in UGA Columns online newspaper.