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Mary Frances Early discusses breaking barriers
March 2, 2021
On Feb. 25, 2020, the entire University of Georgia community celebrated the naming of the College of Education for one of its most esteemed graduates, Mary Frances Early. (Photo by Andrew Davis Tucker/UGA)
Reflections shared on the one-year anniversary of college naming
One year after the College of Education was
, Mary Frances Early celebrated virtually on a Zoom call with her friends and family along with Dean Denise Spangler and UGA President Jere W. Morehead.
On Feb. 25, she joined Phaidra Buchanan for a virtual conversation to celebrate the end of the University of Georgia Press’ Campus Read event. The conversation, moderated by Cynthia Dillard, Mary Frances Early Endowed Professor of Teacher Education, brought together the university’s first African American graduate and the university’s first African American Rhodes Scholar to discuss the past, present and future of a desegregated UGA.
Last October, I sat nervously awaiting the email that would decide the trajectory of the next two years of my life. My phone buzzed. I picked it up, squeezing my eyes shut and whispering to myself one last time, âYouâll get in.â
The words âCongratulations on your acceptance to Grady College!â flashed across my screen. I was exhilarated; the fact that I had been accepted to one of the top journalism schools in the country filled me with pride.
At the time, I wasnât thinking about the fact that I was now a student in a college named after a white supremacist. It did not occur to me that if Henry W. Grady, the white supremacist after whom Grady College is named, was still around, I might not have been accepted due to my Asian heritage.