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Leah Ward Sears Delivers Holmes/Hunter Lecture at UGA

by Kathryn Boyd
04/19/2009

January 9, 1961 marks a historical day in UGA’s past when diversity became a reality in the midst of a racist and reluctant society. Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter-Gault became models for the development and inclusion of diversity on campus in beginning their first day of classes as the first African American students to attend the University of Georgia.

Since 1985, the Holmes/Hunter Lecture Series has brought many prominent and influential figures to speak about race relations and educational issues. April 9, 2009 marked the 24th annual lecture given by Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court Leah Ward Sears, whose speech filled the Chapel with students, professors and active supporters of racial equality and diversity awareness.

Chief Justice Sears regards Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter-Gault as “trailblazers,” acknowledging their fortitude and courage.

“I understand the joy and pressure of having to blaze your own trail,” Sears said. “As a result of their efforts, my climb to success has been easier.”

As the first African American to serve on the Georgia Supreme Court, Sears has overcome challenging racial standards and established a name for herself in the world of law. However, race was not the main focus of her speech. Sear spoke of family. She addressed the consequences of household brokenness and instability and blamed these harsh circumstances as the “source of society’s misery.”

While she is the first to divulge the fact the she experienced a previous divorce, Sears praised her husband and children and had an air of fulfillment about her and the stability in her life. She described the perils of family fragmentation, a possibility even in the midst of marriage, and the adverse effects on the children involved.

Sears went on to say, “Marriage is in deep danger of becoming about class structure and privilege.”

She described how somewhere between her youth and adulthood the family focus has seemingly switched from children to parents. All of a sudden, childhood happiness is thought of as inevitable and parental happiness is at stake and therefore needs tending to.

Sears emphasized the need to again focus family energy on children and stressed “building a strong marriage culture and discouraging unnecessary divorce, family abandonment and wedlock children.”

“I know hope exists,” Sears exclaimed. “We must save our kids and country from our own destruction.”

Minimal references to race, gender and societal standing were made, as the lecture analyzed the implications of family disintegration and childhood insecurity, perhaps contributing to the message of diversity overall.

In taking the stage to comment on the issues at hand, UGA President Michael Adams exclaimed, “let the record show that as a university that prides itself on the diversity of speakers, within the last year, at this podium, Leah Sears, Newt Gingrich and Jane Fonda have all (spoken).”

A copy of the Red and Black printed on the day Holmes and Hunter began attending the university was displayed on stage. The contents showed the administration’s efforts to keep the on-campus atmosphere peaceful, acknowledging the collective support of segregation but urging students not to resort to violence. Who would have thought that almost 50 years later, the administrative building where class registration is conducted would be named the Holmes-Hunter Building after the very students who incited the protests to begin with.