Interested in journalism since her adolescence, Hunter wanted to attend a college with a strong journalism program. The Desegregation of the University of Georgia Elected homecoming queen her senior year, Hunter graduated in 1959, third in her class. During her junior year, she surprised her Methodist family by converting to Roman Catholicism. Once again at Turner High School, Hunter was active in numerous clubs and student organizations, including the school newspaper, the student council, and the honor society. After nine months in Alaska, her parents separated, and Hunter returned to Atlanta with her mother and brothers. She left halfway through the year, when her family relocated to Alaska with her father. In 1954 Hunter began the eighth grade at Atlanta’s most prestigious Black public high school, Henry McNeal Turner High. She and her brothers, Henry and Franklyn, were brought up primarily by their mother and their maternal grandmother, an avid reader and an early influence on Hunter’s interest in newspapers. Although her family lived together briefly during her father’s postings in California, Ohio, and Indiana, Hunter spent most of her childhood in Covington and Atlanta. Hunter Jr., Hunter moved frequently during her childhood as her father, an army chaplain, was transferred from one base to another. The oldest child of Althea Ruth Brown and Charles S. Childhood and FamilyĬharlayne Hunter was born on February 27, 1942, in Due West, South Carolina. Also known for her career as an award-winning journalist, Hunter-Gault is respected for her work on television and in print.

Charlayne Hunter-Gault holds a place in Georgia civil rights history as one of the first two African American students admitted to the University of Georgia.

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