I Was the First Black Graduate of UGA, and I Was Treated Like a Trespasser

Mary Frances Early, 90, became the first Black person to earn a degree from the University of Georgia in 1962 when she graduated with a master’s degree in music education. Born and raised in Atlanta, she attended segregated public schools throughout her childhood and in 1953 graduated as valedictorian from Turner High School. Four years later, she again graduated as valedictorian from Clark College with a bachelor’s degree in music education. Despite her stellar academic record, Early was treated as a burden by UGA administrators and a pariah by her white classmates. This is the story of a day she decided to fight back.

This account has been condensed and edited for clarity.

There were lots of things that happened while I was there. I try not to think about those things, because they make me sad. Once, I was going to the post office on campus, and I was walking down the street, and these young men started throwing rocks at me. 

At first they called me names, and I never let that bother me, because I don’t let other people define me. The N-word is not something that I like to hear, but I didn’t think that it applied to me. So I ignored them, and when I did, that’s when they started throwing rocks, and one of them hit me under my eye.

I thought they could have put my eye out, and I picked up a rock, and I threw it back.

I didn’t hit anybody, and they ran down the street laughing. But that’s just one of the incidents. When I went home that next weekend, I went to Dr. King’s church because he had come to Ebenezer as his father’s co-pastor, and I was able to talk with him.

In fact, I have a letter, a personal letter, that he wrote to me after I had graduated. He was not at the graduation, because I think he was in jail in Albany at the time. But he wrote this letter to me, saying that I had brought Atlanta and Georgia closer to the American dream. I treasure that letter because it was very personal. 

He also said that he almost looked upon me as part of his congregation, rather than a visitor, because I went so often. I went because I needed to hear his philosophy of love and brotherhood, and the fact that we were equal, but we had to do it in a nonviolent way.

I told him I had not been nonviolent that day when that happened, and he just laughed and said, “Mary Frances, I would have done the same thing.”

I didn’t believe him, because I didn’t believe he would have thrown rocks back, but it did make me feel better.