Charlayne Hunter-Gault grew up wanting to be a journalist after reading comic strips featuring a fictional Black reporter, and in 1961 she became, alongside Hamilton Holmes, one of the first two Black students to integrate the University of Georgia, enduring a riot outside her dormitory on her first night on campus. She went on to graduate with a degree in journalism, launching a career that would place her at the centre of American reporting for decades.
Hunter-Gault worked at The New Yorker and The New York Times before joining PBS's national news programme in 1978, where over nearly two decades as a correspondent and anchor she became one of American television's most respected journalistic voices, known for her incisive interviewing and extensive coverage of civil rights, poverty, and international affairs, including reporting from South Africa during the transition from apartheid.
She later served as CNN's Johannesburg bureau chief, continuing her reporting on the African continent for major American and international outlets. Across a career spanning more than five decades, Hunter-Gault has received two Peabody Awards and two Emmy Awards, and her 1961 integration of the University of Georgia remains commemorated on campus, including through an academic building named in her and Holmes's honour.
I never regarded it as brave to go and get an education I was entitled to.
Charlayne Hunter-Gault's 1961 integration of the University of Georgia and her subsequent five-decade journalism career made her both a civil rights pioneer and one of American broadcast journalism's most respected voices, particularly for her sustained, deeply informed coverage of Africa across changing political eras.
- 1942Born in Due West, South Carolina.
- 1961Becomes one of the first two Black students to integrate the University of Georgia.
- 1963Graduates from the University of Georgia with a degree in journalism.
- 1960s–1970sWorks at The New Yorker and The New York Times.
- 1978Joins PBS's national news programme as a correspondent.
- 1990sReports extensively on South Africa's transition from apartheid.
- 1999Becomes CNN's Johannesburg bureau chief.
- ★ One of the first two Black students to integrate the University of Georgia (1961)
- ★ Nearly two decades as a correspondent and anchor on PBS's national news programme
- ★ Served as CNN's Johannesburg bureau chief, reporting extensively on Africa
- ★ Two Peabody Awards and two Emmy Awards across a five-decade journalism career