- School
- Segregation
- 1956–1959
- City of Atlanta
- General area only
Georgia State and Hunt v. Arnold (1959)
Three Black women, Barbara Hunt, Iris Mae Welch and Myra Elliott, sued after the Georgia State College of Business Administration refused them. On January 9, 1959 a federal judge struck down the admission rules used to keep them out.
The record
In Hunt v. Arnold, Judge Boyd Sloan found the state's requirement of recommendations from alumni unconstitutional but discredited two of the plaintiffs 'on moral grounds', which limited the ruling's immediate effect (NGE). The NAACP-backed win still counted as a federal court order to integrate the downtown college. In 2022 Georgia State awarded honorary degrees to all three women; Hunt's and Welch's were posthumous (WABE).
Today: Georgia State University's downtown campus.