Leah Ward Sears Delivers Holmes/Hunter Lecture at UGA

January 9, 1961 marks a historic day in UGA’s past when diversity became a reality in the midst of a racist and reluctant society. Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter-Gault became the first African Americans to attend the University of Georgia. Despite resistance to their presence, both graduated.
Years later, Leah Ward Sears found their example inspiring, as she overcame racial precedents and became the first African American to sit on Georgia’s highest court.
“I understand the joy and pressure of having to blaze your own trail,” Sears said in her lecture at the UGA Chapel on April 9. “As a result of their efforts, my climb to success has been easier.”
Sears was this year’s guest speaker at the 24th annual Hunter-Holmes lecture. Established in 1985, the lecture series has brought many accomplished people to the UGA campus to speak of racial issues and diversity awareness.
“A whisper is sometimes better than a roar,” Sears said in crossing racial barriers. “To get your point across you don’t always have to carry a big stick.”
After recapping the steps she took to success and honoring the historic legacy of those who fought for the rights of minorities before her, Sears took her lecture in a different direction as she chose to emphasize the importance of family solidarity and the consequences of family brokenness.
Having experienced a previous divorce, Sears is not blind to the difficulties of family life. She described the perils of family fragmentation and unmarried parents.
“Family breakdown is the source of our society’s misery,” Sears maintained. “And marriage is in deep danger of becoming about class structure and privilege.”
She described how somewhere between her youth and adulthood the family focus switched from children to parents. All of a sudden, childhood happiness was thought of as inevitable, and parental happiness became something that needs tending to, she said.
Sears emphasized the need to again focus on children and stressed “building a strong marriage culture and discouraging unnecessary divorce, family abandonment and having wedlock children.”
Jennifer Eve Geller, a third year UGA law student gave Sears’ introduction.
“Leah Ward Sears’ lecture surprised me,” Geller commented. “I was not expected her to speak of the importance of family values and address growing infectious problems such as children who don’t have positive role models and no basis for family foundation.”
“I know hope exists,” Sears continued. “We must save our kids and country from our own destruction.”
Upon closing with a final emphasis on bringing America back to “a marriage culture to improve the lives of children,” Sears took a seat to let UGA President Michael Adams address the importance of diversity at UGA and how each Hunter-Holmes lecture strives to flourish that diversity.
“Let the record show that as a university that prides itself on the diversity of speakers, within the last year, at this podium, Leah Sears, Newt Gingrich and Jane Fonda have all (spoken),” Adams said.
The Holmes-Hunter Administrative building on campus represents the changes UGA underwent from segregation advocacy to almost 50 years later, hosting a 24th annual lecture to spread awareness of diversity, advocate acceptance and promote diversity appreciation.

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