Spring Break
History maker suggests 'expanding comfort zone'
Family attends lecture
STEPHANIE PERRETT
Issue date: 1/10/08 Section: News
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Georgia Department of Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond shared this sentiment with about 150 high school students, University students and faculty members on Tuesday during the 23rd annual Holmes-Hunter Lecture.
The lecture is held annually on the anniversary of the University's desegregation to commemorate Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter-Gault, the first two black students enrolled at the University.
Thurmond said Holmes and Hunter never would have been admitted to the University without the help of a black janitor who cleaned the University's admissions offices.
"Back then, if you were a person of color, it was impossible to get your hands on an application," Thurmond said.
Hunter and Holmes received their undergraduate applications from the janitor who slipped the documents into his lunch pail during work.
Thurmond encouraged the audience to build alliances with people regardless of race, religion, creed or occupation.
"If you want this day to be successful, then commit yourself to expanding your comfort zone," he said.
With the help of many people, Holmes and Hunter pried open the doors of educational opportunity at the University, he said.
"Holmes and Hunter recognized they had a greater purpose - not just an education for themselves, but an education for many generations ahead of them," he said.
Thurmond said Holmes and Hunter would want University graduates to use their degrees to better their lives and the lives of others.
"I am the person I am today because of the people around me," Thurmond said. Present at the lecture was the Holmes' family, including his widowed wife, daughter, son and daughter-in-law.
About 40 students from Athens-Clarke County High School were also in attendance and spoke with Thurmond before the lecture. Thurmond, an Athens native, was in the first integrated class at the high school.
Thurmond is the first black to be elected to a state-wide office in Georgia. He also is working with a group of University students to recognize a man who may have been the first black University student around 1895.
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