‘Quiet Trailblazer’ Mary Frances Early to speak at writers museum
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From staff reports
EATONTON — Officials with the Georgia Writers Museum here say they are “humbled” and “inspired” by the opportunity to meet a national icon.
Mary Frances Early, a soft-spoken troublemaker — of good trouble, as late civil rights leader and congressman John Lewis described it — was the first African American graduate of the University of Georgia in 1962. Her courageous path to that important “first” is the subject of her book, “The Quiet Trailblazer.”
The book will be the subject of her Meet the Author event at Georgia Writers Museum on March 1 at 7 p.m. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free, and the event also will be available on Zoom. A key feature of this event will be a short interview with Early by local retired educator Sandra Parham.
Contact Georgia Writers Museum for reservations to this educational evening, or visit www.georgiawritersmuseum.org.
Early was born in Atlanta. Her father owned a restaurant (with a public library right across the street), and her mother was a public school teacher in Monroe. She learned to play the piano to accompany her father’s singing and developed a love for music. Encouraged by the band teacher at Henry McNeal Turner High School, she attended Clark College, majoring in music education. She completed a bachelor’s degree from Clark and continued graduate work at the University of Michigan.
African Americans Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes, who enrolled in UGA in January 1961, were evicted from campus for their own safety after a riot, which inspired Early to pick up a torch for civil rights. She elected to shift her graduate studies from Michigan and applied to UGA to pursue a Master of Education degree in music education. Her book describes the blunt truths of her struggles against raw racial abuse.
After completing her master’s degree in 1962, she completed an Ed.S. degree in music education in 1967. Early worked for three decades in the Atlanta public school system, serving as a teacher and system music director. When she retired, she chaired the music department at Clark Atlanta University and was an adjunct professor at Spelman and Morehouse Colleges.
In 2013, Early was awarded an honorary Doctor of Law degree by UGA. In 2018, UGA President Jere Morehead presented Early with a presidential medal. And in 2019, the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia approved changing the name of the UGA School of Education in her honor.
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