The University of Georgia has named a new residence hall in honor of three alumni, the first Black freshmen to enroll in the state’s flagship university and earn their undergraduate degrees.
The six-story, $50 million building, which opens this fall and is located on Baxter Street in Athens, bears the name Black-Diallo-Miller Hall.
It pays tribute to Harold Alonza Black, Mary Blackwell Diallo and Kerry Rushin Miller, who sixty years ago began their freshman years at UGA.
“The three alumni we are honoring today faced challenging circumstances when they were here as students in the 1960s, but each of them persevered and went on to earn their degrees and make significant contributions to our society throughout their lives and careers,” said President Jere W. Morehead in a written statement.
UGA held a Thursday ceremony to dedicate the dorm, which will house 525 first-year students.
In 1966, Miller became the first African American to earn a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from UGA. She retired from BellSouth and has served in numerous community groups in Charlotte.
Diallo earned bachelor and master’s degrees in French literature from UGA and a doctorate from Emory University. She taught at Morehouse College and Florida A&M University.
Black, who graduated from UGA’s Terry College of Business and earned graduate degrees from Ohio State University, retired as a professor emeritus from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
In a written statement, Black said it’s been nearly six decades to the day that he entered his freshmen residence hall on UGA’s campus.
“I can guarantee you one thing: the atmosphere will be a lot warmer, a lot more welcoming than it was 60 years ago,” he said. “It was an interesting time, an interesting experience, and I want to thank everyone past and present who helped make that possible.”
The dorm is the university’s first new hall in nearly a decade.
In recent years, UGA has paid tribute to several of its early Black graduates through campus names. They include: the Shirley Mathis McBay Science Library, the Mary Frances Early College of Education and the Holmes-Hunter Academic Building, named for Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter-Gault.
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