How racial desegregation changed Georgia State University

How racial desegregation changed Georgia State University

A look back at the racial demographic changes the have occurred, since 1962, at Georgia State University. Georgia State is Georgia’s largest public university by enrollment.

Georgia State University has evolved from an evening school of commerce to a major state research urban university in Atlanta.

Georgia State University began in 1913 when it was founded as the Georgia Institute of Technology’s “Evening School of Commerce.” Holding classes in rented space in downtown Atlanta, the School moved its location several times to surroundings that could accommodate the increasing enrollment.

The economic circumstances of the state and the nation in the 1930s brought about Georgia State’s first period of independence. When the reorganization of state government created a Board of Regents to govern the University System of Georgia, the Regents decided that the Georgia Tech Evening School of Commerce should be an independent college in the new System. Independent throughout the Depression and World War II, the Tech School of Commerce in 1947 was incorporated by the Board of Regents into the program of the University of Georgia. At that time the institution became the “Atlanta Division of the University of Georgia.”

By 1955 the Board of Regents came to realize that the Atlanta Division was acquiring a destiny and a unique identity of its own. The Regents separated Georgia State from the University of Georgia; and because its specialty was to be business, it was given the title “the Georgia State College of Business Administration.” By 1961, as the functions of the institution had enlarged its mission, the Board of Regents changed the name to “Georgia State College.”

1961
The school’s name changed to Georgia State College. Following the increase in advanced degree programs, new colleges were added.

1962
Annette Lucille Hall, a social studies teacher from Lithonia, GA became the first African American student admitted to Georgia State College when she enrolls in the summer session of the Institute on Americanism and Communism, a course of study required of all social studies teachers by the 1962 Georgia legislature.

1969
By 1969 the Ph.D. degree was available in many business school departments and in psychology, English, history, and political science. New schools and programs opened in education, the health sciences, and urban and general studies.
Georgia State College was renamed Georgia State University.

Georgia State University applied for a law school after Emory University in the early 1970s closed its evening program for part-time students. The law school finally opened for classes in fall 1982.

The University System of Georgia Board of Regents voted to consolidate Georgia State University and Georgia Perimeter College (originally a public community college) at its January 6, 2015 meeting. The consolidated university will be named Georgia State University and Georgia State President Mark Becker will lead it.

An implementation committee has been formed, including students, faculty and staff from Georgia State and Georgia Perimeter, who will spend the next year examining and working through all aspects of the consolidation. The work of the committee will be submitted to the Board of Regents for its consideration in January 2016, with implementation finalized by the beginning of the fall semester in 2016.

Today, Georgia State University has 6 campuses throughout the metropolitan Atlanta area with 12 colleges and schools.

Andrew Young School of Policy Studies
Byrdine F. Lewis College of Nursing & Health Professions
College of Arts & Sciences
College of Education & Human Development
College of Law
College of the Arts
Honors College
Institute for Biomedical Sciences
J. Mack Robinson College of Business
Perimeter College
School of Public Health

Perimeter College at Georgia State University
Georgia Perimeter College was founded in 1964, as DeKalb College by the citizens of DeKalb County and the DeKalb Board of Education. In 1986 it was Acquired by the Board of Regents and the University System of Georgia. In 1998 it was renamed Georgia Perimeter College. In 2016 the Board of Regents approved the consolidation of Georgia Perimeter College and Georgia State University, making Georgia State the largest university in the University System of Georgia. The college brought its 5 locations in metro Atlanta, and the largest online program within the University System of Georgia into Georgia State University.

Today, Perimeter College is the major provider of associate degrees and student transfer opportunities in Georgia and a gateway to higher education, easing students’ entry into college-level study. The college offers more than 30 guided pathways leading to associate of arts and associate of science degrees, including career pathways in Dental Hygiene, Nursing and Radiologic Technology.

The campuses are:
Alpharetta
Clarkston
Decatur
Dunwoody
Newton/Rockdal
Distance Learning

June 21, 1962

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October 4, 1962

Setpember 11, 1969

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Georgia State University Enrollment 2015 (a 4 year and above degree institution)
before it merged with Georgia Perimeter College (a 2 year associate degree public community college)
Black African American enrollment in Fall 2015 was 12,168 (38.0%)

Georgia State University Enrollment 2020
after it merged with Georgia Perimeter College (a 2 year public community college). This includes associate degree students.
Black African American enrollment in Fall 2020 was 22,082 (41.1%)

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Georgia State University campus in downtown Atlanta

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North Carolina A&T State University Enrollment 2020
NC A&T is the nation’s largest historically black 4 year and above degree granting university 

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