Morning Reads for Friday, January 22, 2021

NEW YORK/ LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Walmart Inc is preparing to offer COVID-19 vaccinations in seven more states, as well as in Chicago and Puerto Rico, this week and next, a company spokeswoman told Reuters, expanding beyond the two states where its pharmacists are offering inoculations.

The move from the world’s largest retailer comes as U.S. President Joe Biden races to accelerate a frustratingly slow vaccination campaign that has stranded about half of 38 million shots in freezers.

This week and next, Walmart will start providing inoculations in Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, South Carolina and Texas as well as in Chicago and Puerto Rico, the spokeswoman said. The shots will only be available to specific populations decided by each state and only at a handful of stores in each state.

Walmart is already vaccinating healthcare workers in New Mexico and its home state of Arkansas.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-vaccine-usa-walmar/exclusive-walmart-expands-vaccinations-in-boost-to-u-s-covid-19-program-idUSKBN29R1F9

History was made on Jan. 6, 1961, when U.S. District Judge William Bootle ordered the University of Georgia to admit Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter, the first two Black students in UGA’s then 176-year history.
A Georgia law enforcing segregation in colleges and universities stated white institutions would lose their state funding if they chose to integrate.

In September 1960, Holmes and Hunter’s legal team filed an injunction to prohibit UGA from denying their admissions. A full trial was held in Athens that December, and Bootle stated in his Jan. 6 ruling that Holmes and Hunter “would have already been admitted had it not been for their race and color.” Holmes and Hunter enrolled in classes three days later.

Other institutions followed in UGA’s footsteps in the coming years, including Mercer University and Georgia State University…
The first day of classes for Holmes and Hunter on Jan. 11, 1961, was initially considered a success. Yet, that night, a group of over 1,000 Athens residents and UGA students showed their hostility toward the decision by gathering outside Hunter’s dorm in Myers Hall to shout racial insults and throw firecrackers, bricks and bottles at her window.

Holmes and Hunter were suspended and sent home to Atlanta for their safety, but Bootle ordered their readmission on Jan. 16. State officials then reversed the law that prohibited state funding for integrated schools.

Mary Frances Early became the third Black student to attend UGA and the institution’s first Black graduate. Early watched Holmes and Hunter face discrimination while she was a master’s student at the University of Michigan. Despite threats of lost credit hours and racially-biased admissions procedures, she transferred to UGA in 1961 with the goal of desegregating the university’s graduate school.

Early became the target of racial discrimination as well. White students threw lemons at her at the dining hall, and she was pelted with rocks on her way to the post office. Another time, male students attempted to block her from entering the library while hurling cruel comments at her.
After graduating from UGA in 1963, Holmes continued his education at the Emory University School of Medicine, where he again broke the color barrier. Holmes eventually opened a private practice and became Grady Memorial Hospital’s medical director.

Hunter, who later married and took the name Hunter-Gault, graduated from UGA in 1963 and has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, NPR and other major news organizations. As a successful domestic and international reporter, she’s won two Peabody Awards, a high honor in broadcast journalism.

Early graduated in 1962 with a master’s degree in music education. She became a music teacher and director for Atlanta Public Schools, and she also became the Georgia Music Educators Association’s first Black president.

In 1985, UGA created the annual Holmes-Hunter Lecture to honor the bicentennial anniversary of UGA. It brings students and the community together for an address from a guest speaker chosen by the university.

In 2001, the university named the academic building on North Campus after Holmes and Hunter-Gault. The university named the College of Education after Mary Frances Early in February 2020.”

https://www.redandblack.com/uganews/reflecting-on-the-pioneers-who-desegregated-uga-60-years-ago/article_8a29bcfc-5b9a-11eb-8f7e-f3c954916c4e.html