The words of Martin Luther King Jr. reverberated through Dawn Bennett-Alexander’s mind as she contemplated whether she would leave her newly built home and tenure-track position at the University of North Florida for a job she didn’t even want at the University of Georgia.

“If not you, who? If not now, when?”

During the late 1980s, there were few black professors. The University did not begin actively recruiting minorities until then-President Charles Knapp assumed office, Bennett-Alexander said.

She became the first University faculty member hired under the affirmative action policy in 1988.

“The University had really not made an effort to have any black faculty,” she said. “Knapp was willing to fund tenure-track hires. Departments started doing whatever they could to encourage colleagues of color to come to UGA,” she said.

“(Knapp) opened that dialogue … He made it a priority and everything grew from that. The area just grew, and the commitment just grew,” she said.

Tom Jackson, the University’s vice president for public affairs, said Knapp led an effort to better reflect Georgia’s population by attracting minority faculty members and students.

“It’s been carried on by additional presidents and provosts,” Jackson said.

When Bennett-Alexander was asked to interview to teach at the University, she initially refused, but after further thought changed her mind.

“I thought, it’s ridiculous this place has been in existence 200 years and has so few black faculty,” she said. “Let’s talk about this elephant on the table. Why don’t you have more black folks here by now?”

“I had to go because I criticized them,” she said.

After agreeing to come to the University, Bennett-Alexander said she was asked to teach a course in employment law, a new and more unexplored area.

“The idea of somebody black and female teaching a course on discrimination didn’t sit well with me. It was such a bromide, so predictable,” she said.

But Bennett-Alexander began to write about race and gender, “things at the time no one was looking at,” she said, and went on to write a best-selling textbook on employment law.

“I made the right choice. The research was respected, people now see it’s an important area of law,” Bennett-Alexander said.

For years she was the only black professor in Terry College. Although she was never overtly targeted or excluded by her peers, she said, being different was a challenge.

During the past 20 years, the University’s diversity hiring practices have changed. According to the 2007 UGA Factbook, there are 95 black full-time faculty members. The administration also includes a black vice president and dean, and the Office of Institutional Diversity was founded in 2002.

“I find her as one of the most renowned scholars, researchers and instructors,” Cheryl D. Dozier, associate provost and chief diversity officer, said of Bennett-Alexander. “She’s contributed immensely to this institution.”

Dozier said Bennett-Alexander always is willing to speak to current and prospective students about diversity and issues of inclusion.

She has the “ability to use herself as an example of someone who thrived and survived in an atmosphere that was not always as welcoming as it is now.”

Dozier views Bennett-Alexander as a significant asset to the University.

“She is one of those we can probably point to as being a true success,” Dozier said.

Dozier said the Office of Institutional Diversity is “working very hard” to increase the number of minority students and faculty members.

Though things are “moving in the right direction,” Dozier said, “it’s a slow process.”

“There’s so much misinformation about affirmative action,” Bennett-Alexander said.

She said the purpose of affirmative action is to recognize groups traditionally underrepresented.

“Unless you make a concerted effort to change, nothing will,” she said.

The University’s affirmative action policy gained notoriety in 2003 after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the policy unconstitutionally favored males and minorities.

Bennett-Alexander said she tries to incorporate real life scenarios into her classes so students have the opportunity to see what life is like for different people.

“I’m not putting forth an agenda, but life doesn’t happen in a vacuum,” she said.

Paige Jackson, a senior from Locust Grove, took Bennett-Alexander’s employment law class and said she benefited.

“As a minority student it’s especially important to me” to have a diverse faculty, she said. “Everybody will bring something different to the table, make my education more thorough and complete.”

Jackson expressed how willing Bennett-Alexander is to talk to students.

Today Bennett-Alexander is in the process of writing more textbooks.

“I have never regretted the decision to come here.”