Charlayne Hunter-Gault

Journalist

• Born: February 27, 1942
• Birthplace: Due West, South Carolina

Journalist

Hunter-Gault was one of the first African American students to integrate the University of Georgia. She also was the first Black writer to work for The Louisville Times and The New Yorker. As a journalist, she has made significant contributions in both print and broadcast media.

Areas of achievement: Civil rights; Journalism and publishing; Social issues

Early Life

Charlayne Hunter-Gault was born February 27, 1942, to Charles and Althea Hunter. Her father, a U.S. Army chaplain, spent a great deal of time stationed away from the family. Hunter-Gault, her two brothers, and her mother moved from Covington, Georgia, to Indiana, back to Covington, and finally to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1951. Her father was able to return to the family around that time. As a child, Hunter-Gault attended segregated schools in the South. While she was in high school, her family moved to Alaska. Hunter-Gault was the only Black student in her school and faced discrimination. Out of frustration with life in Alaska, her mother moved the children back to Atlanta. Her parents later divorced.

Around the time Hunter-Gault was preparing to go to college, legislators were trying to desegregate the universities in Georgia. She applied to the University of Georgia but faced a number of barriers, so she began her college career at Wayne State University in Michigan. In January 1961, Hunter-Gault learned that she was one of two Black students who had finally been admitted to the University of Georgia. She and Hamilton “Hamp” Holmes headed to Athens only to be greeted by mobs of whites who made it clear that the university’s transition would not be easy. As a student at the University of Georgia, Hunter-Gault endured isolation and discrimination—not only from students but also from the school’s administration. In spite of these challenges, she earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1963.

While at Georgia, she fell in love with a white student, Walter Stovall. The two married shortly after her graduation and had a daughter, artist Suesan Stovall. The couple later divorced. In 1971, Hunter-Gault married investment banker Ron Gault. They have a son, Chuma.

Hunter-Gault’s journalism career also began during college. She was an intern at the Louisville Times and was the first African American to work there. After graduation, she was hired as a writer for the New Yorker and once again was the first Black writer to work for the publication. Over the course of her career, she worked for a number of media organizations and made an effort to shed light on racism and other important social issues through her journalistic work.

Life’s Work

Hunter-Gault’s career comprises both print and broadcast journalism. After working at the New Yorker, she was hired by WRC-TV as a news anchor. In 1968, she went back to print journalism with a position at the New York Times and eventually created the position of Harlem bureau chief.

Hunter-Gault did her highest-profile work as a correspondent and fill-in anchor for The MacNeil/Lehrer Report (later renamed The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour and eventually, PBS NewsHour) on PBS. She interviewed prominent figures from around the world, such as Desmond Tutu, Bill Cosby, and Margaret Thatcher. In 1990 she was one of the first journalists to interview Nelson Mandela after his release from prison. Hunter-Gault left PBS in 1997 to work for National Public Radio (NPR) and shortly thereafter moved to Johannesburg, South Africa, where she became NPR’s chief correspondent in Africa. In 1999, she shifted back to television and became CNN’s Johannesburg bureau chief. She left that post in 2005 when she returned to National Public Radio as a special correspondent and also worked on independent projects. In 2006 she published New News Out of Africa: Uncovering Africa’s Renaissance, in which she offers her perspective on current events that took place in Africa during the 2000s. In the book, Hunter-Gault’s experience as a veteran journalist enables her to challenge American assumptions that Africa is “a dark, hopeless continent ravaged by the ‘four D’s’: death, disaster, disease, and despair,” as a reviewer for Publishers Weekly wrote.

Hunter-Gault published her memoir for young adults, To the Mountaintop: My Journey through the Civil Rights Movement in 2012. In her memoir, she recounts what it was like to witness the presidential inauguration of Barack Obama, the first Black president in the United States, and uses the event as a frame from which to explore her personal involvement in the civil rights movement.

In 2013 Hunter-Gault’s remembrance of Nelson Mandela, whom she had interviewed several times since 1990, was aired on PBS NewsHour. In February 2015 she published Corrective Rape: Discrimination, Assault, Sexual Violence, and Murder against South Africa's L.G.B.T. Community in which she reports on the practice of South African men raping lesbians to "correct" their sexual identity. In 2016, she became a special correspondent for PBS NewsHour. Her periodic series for the show, Race Matters, focuses on Americans who are facing and addressing the ongoing problem of racism in the United States. In the 2020s, she continued to write articles and opinion pieces, including "I Made History, but It Didn't End There," for the New York Times in January 2021.

Hunter-Gault has received numerous awards and honors for her work. In 1986, she was named Journalist of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists and was inducted into the organization’s hall of fame in 2005. She received two Emmys and two Peabody Awards for her coverage of apartheid in South Africa. The University of Georgia also has recognized Hunter-Gault: In 1985, the university honored Hunter-Gault and Holmes for integrating the university by establishing the Holmes-Hunter Lecture Series. The annual lecture, focuses on race relations, higher education, and Black history, and in 2018, Hunter-Gault was selected as that year's lecture. For the 2021 Holmes-Hunter Lecture, she and Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. held an online conversation. In 1988 she became the first African American commencement speaker in the university’s history. In 2001, the academic building was named the Hunter-Holmes Academic Building in their honor. In 2015, she was inducted into the Atlanta Press Club Hall of Fame and the Washington Press Club Foundation honored her contributions to journalism with its Lifetime Achievement Award.

Significance

Hunter-Gault spent much of her life breaking barriers. She made her mark in civil rights history, journalism, and beyond. Perhaps because of her difficult experience as one of the first Black students at the University of Georgia, she has dedicated much of her career to giving voice to the voiceless. She has been recognized with numerous awards and more than twenty honorary degrees from universities across the country.

Bibliography

Baxter, Adelyn. “Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Former NewsHour Correspondent, Honored with Lifetime Achievement Award.” PBS NewsHour. NewsHour Productions, 28 Jan. 2015. Web. 25 Mar. 2016.

Chappell, Bill. “Integrating a Southern Giant: A Pioneer Looks Back.” NPR. NPR, 23 May 2012. Web. 25 Mar. 2016.

Hunter-Gault, Charlayne. In My Place. New York: Vintage, 1992. Print.

Hunter-Gault, Charlayne. News Out of Africa: Uncovering Africa’s Renaissance. New York: Oxford UP, 2006. Print.

Rev. of New News Out of Africa: Uncovering Africa’s Renaissance. Publishers Weekly 3 Apr. 2006: 54. Literary Reference Center. Web. 25 Mar. 2016.

Trillin, Calvin. An Education in Georgia: Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Hamilton Holmes, and the Integration of the University of Georgia. Athens: U of Georgia P, 1992. Print.