• Home
  • Archive
  • Media Kit
  • Contact Us
  • May 8, 2025

The Madison Times

The Paper That's More Than Black and White

  • News
    • Local News
    • National News
    • International News
    • Sports News
    • Education News
  • Columns
    • Columnists
    • Editorials
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Life Lessons with Alex Gee
  • Events
  • Health
  • Finance
  • Lifestyle
  • Classifieds
  • Community
    • Middle Spread
  • Milwaukee

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print

To Africa and Back: Remembering Charlayne Hunter-Gault’s Career

February 27, 2015

By Ariele Vaccaro
February 27, 2015
 
Charlayne Hunter-Gault
Charlayne Hunter-Gault
 
 
Charlayne Hunter-Gault makes radio and television look easy. Some might call even her a natural. Since the 1960’s, her syrupy-sweet and silken vocals have been sliding along airwaves, carrying with them the daily news from Johannesburg, South Africa to the states.
 
Hunter-Gault didn’t begin as a high-profile foreign correspondent. The South Carolina native began her journalistic career at the University of Georgia after graduating third in her high school class. She and Hamilton Holmes became the first African American students at the college when they enrolled in 1961. In an interview with National Public Radio, she recalled her second day of school as less than typical.
 
A crowd of anti-segregation rioters began to form around her dorm room. One of the rioters threw a brick through her window. Authorities used to gas to disperse the crowd. Hunter-Gault as well as the other students in the dormitory were instructed to exit their rooms and stand in a foyer. There, they were told to later change their sheets, in case any tear gas had touched them.
 
“Just as I walked past the semi-circle of girls there, one threw out a quarter and said ‘Here, 
 
Charlayne. Go upstairs and change my sheets’. That was sort of indicative of most of the attitudes there at the time,” said Hunter-Gault to NPR.
 
That day, the school advised that Hunter-Gault and Holmes leave the school for their own safety. However, with some work by the two students’ lawyers, they were able to finish out their degrees at the university.
 
In 1963, Hunter-Gault graduated with a degree in journalism.
 
Later on, Hamilton Holmes would become the first African American pupil to attend the Emory University School of Medicine, then a practicing orthopedic doctor.
 
Hunter-Gault did not only experience racial injustice in the heat of the Civil Rights Movement in her school life. She married a white schoolmate, Walter Stovall, to the dismay of the Georgia governor who labeled the multi-racial matrimony “a shame and a disgrace”. The couple would later marry again in Michigan, fearing Georgia law might make the first marriage illegitimate. Later, the couple would have one child, and ultimately divorce.
 
By 1967, she would already be anchoring at a television station, WRC-TV, in Washington D.C.. Only a year later, Hunter-Gault began reporting for The New York Times. There, she covered urban news, especially news regarding New York’s African American population. This would only be the beginning of a career at a number of large-market media outlets. 
 
Following the Times, she worked for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and National Public Radio. During the late nineties, she spend much of her time covering the South African beat in Johannesburg for CNN.
 
A number of awards confirmed the impeccable quality of her work. Among her achievements, she’s received a Peabody award, the 1986 Journalist of the Year award from the National Association of Black Journalists, and many more.
 
Today, Hunter-Gault is 73-years-old. She is remarried to Ron Gault, a businessman whom she met in Johannesburg. Together, the two have one child together. They reside in Massachusetts.

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print

Popular Interests In This Article: Charlayne Hunter-Gault, FEBRUARY 27 2015, Johannesburg, Journalist, Journalist of the Year, National Association of Black Journalists NABJ, Peabody, South Africa, VOL. 25 NO. 7

Read More - Related Articles

  • The ANC Battle for South Africa’s Presidency Heats Up
  • Special Find in South Africa for African-American Museum
    Special Find in South Africa for African-American Museum
  • VOICES: A Relentless Crusader for Diversity is Lost
    VOICES: A Relentless Crusader for Diversity is Lost
  • Wisconsin Right To Work Law Divides State
    Wisconsin Right To Work Law Divides State
  • May Day: Union de Trabajadores Inmigrantes (UTI) Organizing March on May 1st
    May Day: Union de Trabajadores Inmigrantes (UTI) Organizing March on May 1st


Connect With Us

Become Our Fan On Facebook
Find Us On Facebook


Follow Us On Twitter
Follow Us On Twitter

Editorials

Karma Chavez
Amanda Zhang
Julianne Malveaux
Benjamin Chavis
George Curry

Journalists

Jacklin Bolduan
Brianna Rae
Aarushi Agni
Rob Franklin
Claire Miller

Topics

Brown Girl Green $
Young Gifted & Black
Universally Speaking
Ask Progress
Civil Rights

Topics

Police Shooting
Police Brutality
Black Lives Matter
NAACP
Racism

Politicians

Barack Obama
Hillary Clinton
Gwen Moore
Paul Soglin
Scott Walker

Contact Us

Phone:
414-449-4860

Copyright © 2025 Courier Communications. All Rights Reserved.
We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.