28 November 1916: See Georgia Play Alabama!

On this day in 1916, the Seaboard Railroad advertised this round-trip deal to see the University of Georgia football team take on the University of Alabama football team in their last game of the season on Thanksgiving Day: 

(click to enlarge image)

Georgia won 3-0 in a game that ended on a last-minute turnover when a Georgia player scooped up an Alabama fumble from inside the 5-yard line. Alabama had won its first six games of the season, but ended 6-3 after the loss to Georgia, who also ended the 1916 season at 6-3.

By the time the next season would have begun, most of the Georgia football players, as well as Coach Cunningham and Assistant Coach Dave Paddock, were engaged in World War I; five would not survive the war, and only two of the lettermen, Owen Gaston Reynolds and Arthur Pew, Jr., would return to the gridiron.

The 1917 and 1918 seasons were cancelled, and Georgia did not play football again until October 4, 1919, in a win over the Citadel. Coach Cunningham returned in 1919 to coach Georgia to a 4-2-3 season, but then left college athletics to pursue a career in the United States Army, where he reached the rank of General.

When Memorial Hall was opened in 1929, it was dedicated to the 47 University of Georgia men who died in the Great War.


Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Nov. 1916 - Mar. 1917 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• The Ghosts of Herty Field: Early Days on a Southern Gridiron by John F. Stegeman in the Heritage collection.
• The Red & Black Historic Newspaper Archive collection on the University of Georgia Libraries website.
• The Atlanta Constitution in the Fold3 database via GALILEO.
• A Walking Tour of the University of Georgia by F. N. Boney in the general collection.
• The University of Georgia: A Bicentennial History by Thomas Dyer in the general collection.
• Between the Hedges: 100 Years of Georgia Football by Loran Smith in the general collection.
• University of Georgia Football History web pages on the UGA Athletic Association website.
• University of Alabama Football Archives web pages on the UA Athletic Department website.

25 October 1892: "There has always been too little interest in Athletics among Southern colleges..."

On this day in 1892, the Banner newspapers advocated for the students who were "very desirous of entering into collegiate games of football."

 

Football was a relatively new sport, and was seen as a way to ensure young men did not become soft while gaining their education. Physical strength was seen as the basis for mental and moral strength as well. 

Adapted from rugby, football was primarily a running game (the forward pass was not implemented until 1906, as a safety concession), and players wore little padding or other protection during the course of the game.

At the time, Georgia had club and fraternity teams that participated in a variety of sports, including a campus Field Day with races, but also such events as "greased pig chases." Sports had faculty advisors, similar to the way high school sports often operate today. There was a football team that had played two games in the winter of 1892, beating Mercer College 50-0 at what is now Herty Field on North Campus, and losing to Auburn 0-10 at Piedmont Park in Atlanta. 

In 1893, the school had its first real football season with a five-game schedule that ran from November 4th to December 9th. Georgia went 2-2-1.


Learn More:

• Weekly Banner, Jul. 1892 - Dec. 1893 on Microfilm in the Heritage Collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• The Ghosts of Herty Field: Early Days on a Southern Gridiron by John F. Stegeman in the Heritage collection.
• The Big Scrum: How Teddy Roosevelt Saved Football by John J. Miller via PINES.
• Between the Hedges: 100 Years of Georgia Football by Loran Smith in the general collection.
• What It Means to Be a Bulldog by Tony Barnhart  in the general collection.
• A Whole New Ball Game:  An Interpretation of American Sports by Allan Guttmann in the general collection.
• A Very Different Age: Americans of the Progressive Era by Steven J. Diner in the general collection.
• Walter Camp biography on the Walter Camp Football Foundation website.
• History of Athletics at the University of Georgia page on the Georgia Athletic Association website. 

17 October 1914: Georgia Tech Band Plays for Georgia Game

On this day in 1914, Georgia Tech provided both a marching band and the location of Grant Field for Georgia football game with North Carolina in Atlanta. The Yellow Jackets, as they were already known, were playing Alabama in Birmingham, and did not need the field.

Kickoff was at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and admission cost $1. At the time, Grant Field seated approximately 800 people with no seats in the endzones. Both teams had won the previous week, and in their meeting in 1913, Georgia had won, 19-6.

However, it was not to be Georgia's day, losing 41-6 to the Tar Heels; Georgia even lost the coin toss. The Atlanta Constitution noted that North Carolina "have a 'real' football team. There is no getting away from that fact. They have a machine that looks far superior to any football team that has performed in Atlanta in the past six or seven years." 

In the Athens newspaper, it was noted that while Georgia fans appreciated the efforts of the Georgia Tech band, and therefore sympathized with them for their 13-0 loss to Alabama, their rendition of "Glory" wasn't so much a fight song as "a dirge." And that from now on, maybe going without a band at all is a better option than using Georgia Tech's.

Georgia would not win another game that year, losing their next four games (including to Tech) before tying Auburn 0-0 in the season closer, to end 3-5-1. Tech ended the season 6-2. North Carolina went 10-1, losing to Virginia by 17 points in their last game.


Learn More:

• Athens Daily Herald, Jun. 1914 - Nov. 1914 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Atlanta Constitution, 1868 - 1923 in the Fold3 History and Genealogy Archives via GALILEO.
• The Ghosts of Herty Field: Early Days on a Southern Gridiron by John F. Stegeman in the Heritage collection.
• Georgia vs. Georgia Tech: A Gridiron Grudge Since 1893 by John Chandler Griffin via PINES.
• Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate by Bill Cromartie via PINES.
• Schedules Archive on the Georgia Tech Official Athletic Department website.
• Georgia Football History page on the University of Georgia Athletic Association website.

21 June 1901: Paving Milledge Avenue

On this day in 1901, the Athens Banner reported that paving of Milledge Avenue would happen that summer, after delays of wet weather and a city full of alumni, friends, and family of graduates from the many schools in the Athens area.

MILLEDGE PAVING BEGINS MONDAY.

The Work Will be Pushed Rapidly to an Early Completion.

     The city authorities were unable, after all, to begin the paving of Milledge avenue before the commencement season.     First, the continued rains some time before prevented the beginning of the work, and when it became dry enough to start work, it was decided that inasmuch as it was so close to the commencencements, that the work be postponed until the visitors had left Athens.     Work will be started on Milledge avenue by the city next Monday morning. There is not much time left to complete the work by next winter, but the paving will be rushed as much as possible. A large force of hands will go to work at that time.

--Athens Daily Banner, 21 June 1901, p. 3, col. 5.

The work was scheduled to begin on Monday, June 24th, during a heat wave of two days that the Banner reported "brought most forcibly to mind the tales that Rudyard Kipling relas of the heat in India." Both days reached into the 90s by noon, until a strong overnight thunderstorm calmed the heat. 


This was the initial paving of Milledge, and was not completed until November. Rather than the more industrial block paving used downtown, Milledge was macadamized,  which means layers of broken stone were spread across the leveled road surface, then sealed with a binder. It was much cheaper to pave with this system, and repairs were not as expensive, as well. 


The entire length of the street was not paved, but the paper still declared it "one of the prettiest streets in the South." It was repaved in 1906, with the Athens Electric & Railway Company paying for part of the work, as they laid rail to Lumpkin Street. The costs were split between the city, the railway company, and the property owners. 


By 1914, Milledge was paved from Hill Street to Henderson Avenue. Two years later, 75 property owners petitioned to have the street paved from Springdale to Lumpkin. It was only paved to Woodlawn Avenue, so the following year, after complaints from residents about a Milledge Avenue that was "ankle deep in mud for the past three or four weeks," the city finally paved the road two blocks past Lumpkin Street. The longer paving was likely due to the new residences that had started to develop in the Five Points area on University Drive.


By 1923, Athens had spent nearly $1 million to have 105 miles of paved streets, and spent approximately $100,000.00 per year in maintenance and improvements. More than 50 miles of these streets had sidewalks, such as the brick ones recently restored along Hancock Street.




Learn More: 

• Athens Daily Banner, Feb. 1901 - Oct. 1901 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• A Postcard History of Athens, Georgia by Gary L. Doster in the Heritage and general collections.
• History of Athens and Clarke County, Georgia by H. J. Rowe in the Heritage and general collections.
• Minutes of the Mayor and Council of the City of Athens, Georgia on Microfilm in the Heritage collection. 
• A Place to Remember: Using History to Build Community by Robert R. Archibald in the general collection.
• Asphalt Nation by Jane Holtz Kay in the general collection.
• The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways by Earl Swift in the New Books collection.
• Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling in the fiction collection.
• The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling in the fiction collection.

12 June 1901: Summertime in Athens Means Talking About Football

On this day in 1901, less than a decade since the introduction of football to Athens, the Banner ran the following story about prospects for the Georgia football team in the coming season, which would not begin for another four months:

Despite high hopes published throughout the summer and early fall, Georgia's final record in 1912  1901 (thanks for the correction!) would be 1-5-2. The game schedule would also be altered by the time the season rolled around in mid-October, including replacing the Tech game in Atlanta with a meeting versus South Carolina in Augusta that would be Georgia's only win (10-5) that season. 


Georgia traveled next to Tennessee, where "the red and black" played two games in three days, losing both 0-47, first to Vanderbilt on Saturday, then again to Sewanee on Monday. The Banner started its story about the road trip with "The Georgia boys got it in the neck again yesterday," before pointing out later in the story that "Three of Sewanee's touchdowns were made by pure luck."


The first game in Athens that season came against Clemson on the 26th, and spirits were high until Georgia lost, 5-29. The headline the next day simply stated that "Clemson Won Football Game." Though daily papers exist through the month of October, the Banner seems to have mostly exhausted its enthusiasm for reporting on football in 1901 at this time. Even in the weekly papers, there is little talk of football of any kind, not just Georgia, but even for teams in the region. The Atlanta Constitution, however, continued to follow the team.


In the days leading up to the November 2nd meeting with North Carolina in Atlanta, UGA alumni in Atlanta sent a letter to the University requesting Georgia cancel the game. This request was refused, with the "physical director of the University," Professor A. H. Patterson noting that the three losses had come to teams that were "heavier" than Georgia, and the newspaper said that "the Atlanta alumni may yet see some good playing that they evidently do not expect to see." The alumni did not; Georgia lost to North Carolina, 0-27.


Georgia's next two games received no notice in the Athens newspapers, even those weekly editions published the day of or the day after a game. November 9th, Georgia tied Alabama 0-0 in Montgomery, then fell again in a 6-16 loss in Athens to Davidson College. 


The last game of the season was against Auburn on Thanksgiving Day in Atlanta.  The days leading up to the meeting had students showing up to cheer the team at practice, and energy and spirits were high. According to John F. Stegeman, however, "Georgia fans gasped" upon seeing an Auburn team take the field that was so much taller and heavier than the Georgia players. Georgia played hard, but was unable to score, including having a touchdown called back near the end of the game because the player's foot stepped out upfield. 


The game ended in a 0-0 tie, and both the team and the fans felt victorious since Auburn never crossed midfield. Spectators celebrated in Atlanta, and in Athens, "The chapel bell has been kept ringing, and the entire campus is aglow from three bonfires."  The team was met at the railroad depot that night by "a huge crowd and escorted by torchlight up College Avenue , through the town, and to the campus arch." The party continued until dawn, and ringing the chapel bell became a Georgia tradition.




Learn More:

• Athens Daily Banner, Feb. 1901 - Oct. 1901 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Atlanta Constitution archive in Fold3 database via GALILEO.
• The Ghosts of Herty Field: Early Days on a Southern Gridiron by John F. Stegeman in the Heritage and general collections.
• Georgia Bulldogs Football History pages on the UGA Athletic Association website.
• UGA Chapel Bell public service announcement from 2011 football season.
• Echoes of Georgia Football: The Greatest Stories Ever Told by Ken Samelson in the general collection.
• Between the Hedges: 100 Years of Georgia Football by Loran Smith in the general collection.

3 June 1923: Most University Boys Live on $1 per Day

On this day in 1923, the Athens Banner-Herald published the results of a questionnaire the University of Georgia Alumni Record sent to 1,200 UGA male students about their expenses and habits. Enrollment at the time was 1,585, and included women, but the report frequently refers to "the boys" as the responders to the survey. 


At the time, the average net income in the United States was $3,226.70 per year. The Alumni Record came to the conclusion that "A boy can go to Georgia a year for $350.00 or $375.00." At the time, the average net income in the United States was $3,226.70 per year. 


From the 592 replies, the following details of information were gleaned:

• Not including the cost of school itself, most students lived on an average of $30.00 per month. Tuition at the time was $90.00 per year.
• 86% of students spent between $16.50 and $25.00 per month on their boarding costs. The lower end price reflected the cost to use the campus Denmark Dining Hall, while the higher end reflected typical costs for those who ate at their fraternity houses.
• 71% of students spent between $4.00 and $10.00 per month on their rent. Again, the lower end prices reflected the cost of campus dormitories.
• 80% of students went to the movies no more than twice per week.
• 42% of students play sports on teams associated with their dormitory, fraternity, or take regular exercise at the gym; 17% took no regular exercise, and another 30% got all their exercise from military drills on campus.
• 52% of the students used tobacco.
• 86% of the students attended religious services other than University chapel exercises.
• 62% of the students "stated they know how to dance," but only 52% attended dances.

The relative value of the 1923 annual tuition in today's dollars is $2,380.00; students were paying a relative cost of $424.00 - $662.00 per month for boarding costs, and $106.00 - $265.00 for rent. At the time, a college education was not required for most employment.

Current tuition and fees for a nine-month academic year at the undergraduate level at the University of Georgia are $9,472.00 for in-state students, and $27,682.00 for students from outside the state. The "typical residence hall" costs $4,916.00 per academic year, and a seven-day meal plan is $3,792.00. 

Learn More:

• Athens Banner-Herald, Apr. 1923 - Aug. 1923 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Measuring Worth website.
• Statistics of Income from Returns of Net Income for 1923 (pdf) by the Statistical Division of the Income Tax Unit in 1925 on the Internal Revenue Service website.
• The University of Georgia Under Sixteen Administrations, 1785-1955 by Robert Preston Brooks in the Heritage collection.
• College Life in the Old South: As Seen at the University of Georgia by E. Merton Coulter in the Heritage and general collections.
• The University of Georgia: A Bicentennial History, 1785-1985 by Thomas G. Dyer in the Heritage and general collections.
• College Financing Information for Teens by Elizabeth Magill in the general collection.
• The College Majors Handbook, with Real Career Paths and Payoffs by Neeta P. Fogg, et al, in the general collection.
• Planning for Your Education by James Fischer in the young adult collection.
• How to Pay for College: A Practical Guide for Families by Gen S. Tanabe in the general collection.
• Big Man on Campus: A University President Speaks Out on Higher Education by Stephen J. Trachtenberg in the general collection.

25 May 1901: County Donates Convict Labor to UGA

On this day in 1901, the Athens Daily Banner reported that work had begun on the University of Georgia campus for two new buildings, a dining hall and a dormitory, using convict labor provided by the Clarke County Commission to grade the land.

The dining hall would open in the fall as Denmark Hall, named for prominent Savannah attorney and business executive Brantley A. Denmark (UGA Class of 1871), who had died just days before the cornerstone for the building was laid on June 14th. 


The dormitory was completed in January, 1902, as Candler Hall, in honor of Georgia Governor Allen Daniel Candler. It was the third dormitory built on campus, along with Old College and New College. Residents of Candler called it "Buckingham Palace" and referred to themselves as the "Buckingham Barons." Rivalries between dormitories often went beyond mere athletic contests on Herty Field between the buildings.


Convict labor was a common solution to the need for cheap workers in the post-war South. Prisoners were often leased to private individuals to work on the farm, in their factories, or do other labor, such as railroad infrastructure, at a far cheaper rate than workers hired from the unincarcerated labor force. Convict laborers were disproportionately African-American, and it was not unusual for men to be literally worked to death. 


Though outlawed in 1908 in Georgia, chain gangs to work on public roads and other projects still existed. Clarke County often required labor when fines for misdemeanors such as disorderly behavior could not be paid, sentencing the convicted to work on the paving of the streets or installation of the city's sewer system at a rate of 50 cents per day. 


Governor Ellis Arnall instituted comprehensive prison reform during his term in the 1940s, and chain gangs were no longer permitted. Today, some prisoner work is still done on state and county levels, including basic building maintenance and litter clean-up along major roads.




Learn More:

• Athens Daily Banner, Feb. 1901 - Oct. 1901 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• The Red and Black Archive on the University of Georgia Libraries website.
• A Walking Tour of the University of Georgia by F. N. Boney in the Heritage and general collections.
• A Historical Sketch of the University of Georgia by Augustus Longstreet Hull in the Heritage collection.
• Slavery by Another Name: The Re-enslavement of Black People in America from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon in the general collection.
• I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang! by Robert Elliott Burns in the biography collection.
• Convict Lease System in the New Georgia Encyclopedia.

22 May 1990: UGA Bans Over 700 from Campus

On this day in 1990, 680 students and 60-80 campus employees were suspended and not allowed to attend classes or go to work on the University of Georgia campus because they had not yet provided proof of a current measles vaccination.


The University was acting under orders of the State Department of Health, which had declared  a state of medical emergency at UGA two weeks after measles cases started to be reported on campus. In 1989, the entire state of Georgia had reported just 19 cases, but by May 22nd, 1990, the University had reported 38 cases in the previous month. The outbreak was traced to a Clarke Central high school student and St. Joseph's School student who had attended the April 21st G-Day game events at the Tate Student Center.


The first two campus cases were reported on April 24th, both residents of Lipscomb Hall. New cases showed up regularly, and on May 7th, the State Department of Health declared a state of medical emergency on the campus, requiring all employees and students born after 1956 and lacking proper documentation of having received a booster after 1980 to receive vaccinations. 


Originally, the University had a voluntary immunization plan, but only 6,000 students were inoculated. At that point, the administration made vaccination mandatory: those who did not meet the May 18th deadline for vaccination were banned from campus. Faculty and staff would be suspended without pay; students would not be able "to attend class, receive class credit, pre-register for future classes, or complete graduation requirements." 


Employees who could not receive the vaccination, for health or religious reasons, were suspended from campus with pay; students in similar situations were given "Incompletes" for their coursework and allowed three quarters to finish their assignments to gain their grades. Neither group could return to campus until two weeks after the last case of measles had been reported. 


The University Health Clinic set up vaccination sites at the Tate Student Center and Memorial Hall, offering measles boosters to students from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. In the Tate Center, long lines of students snaked through the building and down the stairs to where inoculations were being given. 

On the last day of classes, June 8th, the state of emergency was declared over, as the last reported case was May 25th. By the end of the outbreak, approximately 193 students had been banned from campus for the last three weeks of the quarter. The University provided 21,000 vaccinations to employees and students. Starting Summer quarter, however, proof of inoculation or a $25 fee to cover a measles shot that could be given at registration was required of all University of Georgia enrollees.

During the outbreak, the Red Cross had to cancel their scheduled blood drives at the University, putting Athens blood supply at risk. According to the Red Cross, their campus blood drives provided "about 40% of the Athens area's needs." The Red Cross would not return to campus until June 21st.




Learn More:

• Athens Observer, Mar. 1990 - Jun. 1990 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Banner-Herald, May 1, 1990 - May 31, 1990 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• The Red and Black Archive on the University of Georgia Libraries website.
• Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver by Arthur Allen in the general collection.
• The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear by Seth Mnookin in the general collection.
• Men and Microbes: Diseases and Plagues in History and Modern Times by Arno Karlen in the general collection.
• Vaccinated: One Man's Quest to Defeat the World's Deadliest Diseases by Paul A. Offit in the general collection.
• The Good Old Days--They Were Terrible! by Otto Bettmann in the general collection.

17 April 1976: Boy Scouts Host Open House at Franklin Hotel

On this day in 1976, Boy Scout Troop 76 hosted an open house at the old Franklin Hotel on Broad Street. The building had been left empty since 1972 when the Athens Hardware Company, formerly the Childs-Nickerson Hardware Company, moved from the site after 107 years at the same location.


The Franklin Hotel was built in 1845 by William L. Mitchell*, a trustee of the University of Georgia who purchased the property from UGA in 1843. On the first floor were retail businesses while the upper levels, which were built later, were used as hotel space. For many years, one of the stores in the Franklin Hotel served as the local post office. In 1974, it was named to the National Register of Historic Places.


Two members of Troop 76, David Griffin, who was looking for an Eagle project, and Greg Curtis, who was looking for a Life project decided to team up to clean up the mess left behind in the building. At the time of the Open House, the Franklin Hotel was for sale by the Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation, which had bought and stabilized the structure through fundraising from citizens and a grant from the National Park Service. There were no plans in place to renovate or restore the space, but the work of the Scouts had peaked the interest of residents. The Scouts felt the Open House would be an opportunity to tell people about the Franklin Hotel's significance to Athens, as well as show some of the old items found inside.


In 1977, the Franklin Hotel was sold to Hugh Fowler, then later to a business property company. The space was restored as office spaces, and won recognition for the work by the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation. Today, businesses such as general contractors and advertisers occupy the building, as well as SunO Desserts.


* CORRECTION: The William Letcher Mitchell who owned the Franklin Hotel was the less illustrious cousin of the William Letcher Mitchell who was a University of Georgia trustee. The two led very different lives, but are often confused in histories of the University and city of Athens. The blog apologizes for the mistake, as it is aware this confusion is often an issue, yet succumbed to the common error anyway.


Learn More:

• Athens Observer, Jan. 1976 - Jun. 1976 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Annals of Athens, 1801-1901 by Augustus Longstreet Hull in the Heritage collection.
• Antebellum Athens and Clarke County, Georgia by Ernest C. Hynds in the Heritage and general collections.
• A Postcard History of Athens, Georgia by Gary L. Doster in the Heritage and general collections.
• History of Athens and Clarke County, Georgia by H. J. Rowe in the Heritage and general collections.
• Franklin House page on the Vinson Institute of Government website.
• Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation website.
• The Georgia Trust website.
• Historic American Buildings collection on the Library of Congress website.
• National Register of Historic Places website.

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.

21 February 1913: "Electric Hatched" Chicks

On this day in 1913, this vision of the future of poultry production was published in the Athens Banner:

Now, of course, the use of electricity-powered heat and air conditioning as part of poultry production is standard. According to the University of Georgia Extension Service, when brooding new chicks in a backyard  coop or on an industrial scale, newly hatched chicks require a 90-degree Fahrenheit ambient temperature, which can be lowered by five degrees per week until reaching 70 degrees, the ideal temperature for chickens.


The State College of Agriculture became part of the University of Georgia in 1932, and has continued to assist Georgia farmers state-wide improve their yields in everything from crops to livestock, but poultry farming has been Georgia's greatest agricultural success. 


In 2009, 54% of Georgia agriculture production came from poultry, with 26 million pounds of chicken being produced daily by the state. The industry brings $18.4 billion into the Georgia economy each year, employs over 100,000 people, and 105 of the state's 159 counties, including Clarke and Oconee counties, produce over $1 million in poultry-related revenue each year.



Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Feb. 1913 - Jun. 1913 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Department of Poultry Science at the University of Georgia.
• History of the College of Agriculture of the University of Georgia by Calvin C. Murray in the Heritage collection.
• Georgia Poultry Facts (pdf) from the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences website.
• Poultry Tips from the Department of Poultry Science Extension Service at UGA.
• Management Guide for the Backyard Flock from the Poultry Extension Service at UGA.
• The University of Georgia College of Agriculture: An Administrative History, 1785-1985 by Stephen J. Karina in the Heritage collection.
• The University of Georgia: A Bicentennial History, 1785-1985 by Thomas G. Dyer in the Heritage and general collections.
• A Century of Georgia Agriculture, 1850-1950 by Willard Range in the Heritage and general collections.
• Problems of Plenty: The American Farmer in the Twentieth Century by R. Douglas Hurt in the general collection.
• Keeping Chickens with Ashley English: All You Need to Know to Care for a Happy, Healthy Flock by Ashley English in the New Books collection.
• The Joy of Keeping Chickens: The Ultimate Guide to Raising Poultry for Fun or Profit by Jennifer Megyesi in the general collection.

31 January 1861: Julia A. Flisch, Author and Women's Education Advocate, Is Born

On this day in 1861, Julia Anna Flisch was born to Pauline and Leonard Flisch in Augusta, Georgia. While Julia was still an infant, her family moved to Athens, where her parents, German immigrants, ran a sweets shop across the street from the University of Georgia, selling cakes and ice cream to college students. Julia grew up in Athens; her family lived above their store, and were active in the community, including the First Presbyterian Church, where her father was an Elder. She later noted that "the history and traditions of my childhood were the history and traditions of the University of Georgia."


After graduating with honors from the Lucy Cobb Institute in in 1877, Julia wanted to attend UGA, but her application was rejected because she was female. Her family returned to Augusta  a few years later (according to Augustus Longstreet Hull, college boys who bought on credit and never paid made the business unprofitable, and the move was "self defense"). 


In 1882, she wrote a letter to the Augusta Chronicle titled "Give the Girls a Chance," calling for more educational and occupational opportunities for women in the South to "work out their own sense of independence" and "to be of some active use in the world." She signed the letter only, "A Young Woman." The subject stirred the Augusta population, and two weeks later, the paper published that Julia Flisch was the author. 


Over the next few years, she wrote frequently on the subject of women's education, and criticized the common education provided to girls at the time--with a focus on sewing, music, and decorative arts--as "defective education" that denied women the ability to properly support themselves.


Julia herself went to Coopers Union in New York to study secretarial skills, such as shorthand and typewriting in 1883 and 1884. She returned to Augusta and worked as a bookkeeper while writing and publishing articles, stories, and her first novel, Ashes of Hope. She also covered 1887 commencement season in Athens for the Augusta Chronicle, bemoaning that the school was for the "sons of Georgia" alone. 


She urged women to pressure the state to provide more opportunities for women's education, and in 1889, after more overwhelming pressure via petitions and letters from the women of Georgia, the legislature passed a bill approving the first women's industrial college. Despite the widespread support of many prominent women in the state, only Julia Flisch was part of the official program for laying the cornerstone for the Georgia Normal and Industrial College (now Georgia College and State University) in Milledgeville in 1890.


Julia joined the school's faculty, teaching the secretarial skills she had learned in New York and later ancient and medieval history. She continued to write for newspapers, and spent her summers studying at the University of Chicago and Harvard. In 1899, 22 years after she had first applied to study there, the University of Georgia granted her an honorary degree, the first degree UGA ever gave to a woman; 19 years later, the first women students were admitted to UGA.


In 1905, Julia left her position to attend the University of Wisconsin. In 1908, she earned her Master's degree in history, and was offered positions at universities around the country. She chose, however, to return to Georgia, and took a position at the Tubman High School for Girls in Augusta. In 1925, she published her second novel, Old Hurricane and took the position of Dean of Women for the newly established Augusta Junior College, the first junior college in Georgia (now Augusta State University). Julia Flisch retired from teaching in 1936 due to her failing vision. She died in 1941, and is buried at Magnolia Cemetery in Augusta.


Georgia Women of Achievement honored Julia Anna Flisch, as well as Margaret Mitchell, Emily Thomas Tubman, Ruth Hartley Mosley, and Carson McCullers, as one of the important women in Georgia's history.




Learn More:

• Annals of Athens, 1801-1901 by Augustus Longstreet Hull in the Heritage collection.
• Higher Education for Women in the South: A History of the Lucy Cobb Institute, 1858-1994 by Phinizy Spalding in the Heritage collection.
• Lucy Cobb Institute Messenger 1876 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• The Georgia Historical Quarterly, Volume LXXX, Number 3, Fall 1996 in the (stored) Heritage collection.
• Confederate Athens by Kenneth Coleman in the Heritage and general collections.
• College Life in the Old South by E. Merton Coulter in the Heritage and general collections.
• Women in the South: An Anthropological Perspective, edited by Holly F. Mathews in the general collection.
• Julia A. Flisch collection at the Georgia College and State University library.
• All-American Girl: The Ideal of Real Womanhood in Nineteenth-Century America by Frances B. Cogan in the general collection.
• Torches of Light: Georgia Teachers and the Coming of the Modern South by Ann Short Chirhart in the Heritage collection.
• America's Women: Four Hundred Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines by Gail Collins in the general collection.
• Smart Choices: A Woman's Guide to Returning to School by Anne Bianchi in the general collection.
• Georgia Women of Achievement Honorees web page.