As the first black woman to graduate from the University, Mary Frances Early said she was ostracized.

“They spray-painted my car with the n-word,” Early recalled.

Once, protestors lined the steps of the library and hurled insults at her, trying to prevent her from entering, she said.

Maurice Daniels, dean of the University’s School of Social Work, will speak today at an annual lecture honoring Early, who became the first African American to receive a University degree when she obtained her M.A. in music education in 1962.

“My decision to attend UGA was deliberate,” Early said. “I was self-selected.”

“When I decided to come to the University, it was because Charlayne and Hamilton had been ousted from campus.”

Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Hamilton Holmes were the first African American undergraduates to be admitted to the University in 1961.

Hunter-Gault and Holmes’ arrival was met with riots and protests, so they were temporarily suspended until the Georgia courts intervened.

Hunter-Gault, Holmes and Early – at the time, a graduate student – were at the forefront of the University’s desegregation efforts. But Early’s role has since been underplayed.

Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears, the first black woman to serve as a superior court judge in the state of Georgia, spoke at the 24th annual Holmes/Hunter Lecture Thursday.

By comparison, this afternoon’s Mary Frances Early Lecture is only the ninth in its annual series.

In 1992, while doing research for his book and documentary on the history of desegregation efforts at the University, Daniels was told by some, including Hunter-Gault and Holmes’ lawyer, that “Mary Frances Early’s brilliant achievements had been overlooked.”

Before 1992, Early received little recognition from the University of Georgia.

“It was as though I had never existed,” she said.

“Trailblazers get recognized and sometimes foot soldiers get uncovered,” said Associate Provost and Chief Diversity Officer Cheryl Dozier. “Dean Daniels is one of the researchers who uncovered her place.”

Holmes and Hunter-Gault are rightly held in the highest esteem, said Daniels.

“However, the achievement of unsung or lesser known foot soldiers such as Mary Frances Early is equally important in the civil rights struggle,” he said.

One of the University’s main desegregation questions was: “Could African-Americans make it at a place like this?” President Michael Adams said.

“One of the reasons Georgia said they were not accepting black students is they said they weren’t prepared and they weren’t intelligent enough to go to school,” Early said.

Her successful completion of a graduate degree from the University made a clear statement. “She not only proved that they could make it, but that they could succeed at a very high level,” Adams said.

Being ignored by the University for so long was hurtful, Early said.

“I felt betrayed,” she said. “I had been a good student and I had very good grades.”

But today, Early doesn’t feel invisible anymore. “When I go to campus, people recognize me,” Early said. “I don’t feel like a pariah like I did back in 1961 and 1962.”

The annual Mary Frances Early Lecture is sponsored by Graduate and Professional Scholars, a student organization dedicated to the needs of minority graduates, according to the GAPS Web site.

The theme of this year’s lecture was selected by GAPS to be “Unfinished Business: 21st Century Civil Rights Movement.”

The goal is for students to see the relevance of their place in the struggle for civil rights in the new millennium, said Daniels.

There is still some bigotry and many groups have unequal rights, such as women, immigrants, and poor children, Early said. “We have to work toward the new era, which is now, in the 21st century.”

Q and A with Mary Frances Early:

What does the “New Civil Rights Movement” mean to you?

Most people think of the civil rights as Dr. King and all of the people who worked for them in the 60s and 50s, as being completed. However, I don’t think that Dr. King’s dream has been fully realized. I think there are still a lot of places where there is bigotry. We have to work toward the new era, which is now, in the 21st century. We haven’t completed everything that had to do with the old civil rights movement. The education, the educational opportunities, improving the schools, improving our students, the universal healthcare are just as important because we cannot realize our dreams until those things are solved.

What is it like to be on campus now compared to what it used to be in the 1960s?

When I was here, it was not pleasant because I was essentially ostracized. There were a lot of things that happened, like when they spray-painted my car with the N-word. That kind of thing was very disturbing, because although I may have been a graduate student, I was also a human being. Now, there’s no comparison. I don’t feel invisible anymore. When I go on campus people recognize me. In my old age, I feel that’s really an accomplishment, and I’m so glad that’s happened.

Everybody is always very open, and I don’t feel like a pariah like I did back in 1961 and 1962. Although students of color may still not be thoroughly accepted by some students, when I look on campus and see students together, I see signs of hope and people who like each other because of who they are and not what the color of their skin is. The University of Georgia does not represent the demographics of the state of Georgia, in terms of numbers of students of color, and I am still very concerned about that, but the current president is trying hard to make things different.

What are your thoughts on the election of Barack Obama?

The inauguration was the one thing that has affected us as a people more than anything other than the 1954 Brown vs. The Board of Education desegregation demanded by the courts. It was a glorious day. I can’t imagine that anybody who is of color could not have felt a sense of pride, and also a sense of this is our battle, and he should not have to go it alone. I still fear for his safety, because there are people who would like to see him fail. But I think that it gives all of us hope and gives all of us a responsibility to try and help him to improve things and get what Dr. King was talking about when he talked about equal rights. I’ve heard this so many times, but I didn’t think that I would have lived to see the election of a black president, but I am so happy and feel blessed that I was.

How can graduate students of color become more deliberately active in the “New Civil Rights Movement”?

As far as civil rights is concerned, what they are doing, they are participating in civil rights because they are going to a predominantly white school. They’re showing that they are just as intelligent as anyone else. And doing their best in school is one of the best ways they can show there is no difference in people except for the color of their skin. They’re actually battling for civil rights as they do their best. A lot of students would like to be more confrontational maybe, but I come from a different era, and I don’t think that would bode well. I think that one can show with intelligence rather than one’s fist that we are all in this together and we’re all the same.

What is our unfinished business?

Unfinished business would have to do with the bigotry and discrimination that is still present. Although we have a black president, I fear for his life. There are places where there are still Ku Klux Klan groups, and all of them don’t call themselves Ku Klux Klan, but they call themselves The White Patriot Party or the Skinheads. I was surprised to see the number of places, even in Georgia, where there are still functioning groups. This is still unfinished. I’m not sure when people are actually going to realize that we are more alike than we are different. We still have a problem in terms of people accepting folks for who they are, and their character rather than the color of their skin. And I think that that’s part of the unfinished business.