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Legendary Journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault Reflects on the Day She Desegregated the U. of Georgia (401 hits)

Legendary Journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault Reflects on the Day She Desegregated the U. of Georgia

Even as racial justice protests have swept the nation in recent years, a new report finds the gains of the civil rights movement have stalled—and in some cases lost ground—over the past half-century. Among the report’s findings: School segregation is on the rise, white supremacist movements are becoming emboldened and more violent, and child poverty has increased—from 15.5 percent in 1968 to 21 percent today. The report comes on the 50th anniversary of a report by the Kerner Commission, which was assembled by President Lyndon Johnson in the wake of uprisings by African Americans in Newark and Detroit. The commission concluded that the United States was “moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal.” For more on the civil rights movement’s legacy, the student movements for gun control today, and her own pivotal role in the student-led movement to desegregate U.S. public schools and universities, DN! talks to legendary broadcast journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault. She’s won numerous awards for her work at PBS, NPR and CNN, and she’s authored a number of books, including “In My Place,” a memoir of her childhood and her years at the University of Georgia. Her recent piece for The New Yorker is headlined “Surviving School Desegregation, and Finding Hope in #NeverAgain.”