Charlayne Hunter-Gault Biography

Fast Facts

• Became the University of Georgia's first African American graduation speaker when she delivered the commencement address in 1988
• Created an academic scholarship for African American students at the University of Georgia in 1992 with Hamilton Holmes
• One of the first two African American students to be admitted to the University of Georgia
• Initially enrolled at Wayne State University in 1959 while applying to the University of Georgia every quarter, before finally being admitted in 1961 and graduating with a Journalism degree in 1963
• Started out as an editorial assistant the New Yorker magazine, where she worked her way up to staff writer
• Received a Russell Sage Fellowship after leaving the New Yorker and later became a reporter and evening anchor for WRC-TV in Washington, D․C
• Worked at PBS for 20 years, where she was the national correspondent at "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" and the anchor of "Rights and Wrongs․"
• Best known as a print and television journalist who worked as a foreign correspondent for NPR and PBS
• Wrote a memoir about her early life and years at the University of Georgia called "In My Place․"