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H. 3913

STATUS INFORMATION

House Resolution
Sponsors: Reps. Garvin, Dillard, King, Simrill, B. Newton and Huggins
Document Path: l:\council\bills\rm\1076sa21.docx

Introduced in the House on February 18, 2021
Adopted by the House on February 18, 2021

Summary: Delores Hurt, Winthrop University trailblazer

HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS

     Date      Body   Action Description with journal page number
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   2/18/2021  House   Introduced and adopted (House Journal-page 56)

View the latest legislative information at the website

VERSIONS OF THIS BILL

2/18/2021

TO HONOR DELORES JOHNSON HURT, A 1968 GRADUATE OF WINTHROP COLLEGE, AS THE FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDENT ACCEPTED INTO THAT VENERABLE INSTITUTION.

Whereas, the versatile Delores Johnson Hurt, a civil rights, journalistic, and entrepreneurial trailblazer, has served during her career as a professional news reporter/anchor, nonprofit administrator, business owner, and educator; and

Whereas, as a young woman seeking to further her education, Delores came to Winthrop College as the first African American student accepted into that institution. In April 1964, the president of Winthrop informed its trustees that the college had received three applications from African American women. One of the applicants, Delores Johnson of Columbia, not only had met Winthrop's entrance requirements but also had earned test scores well above Winthrop's average. That fall, she enrolled for classes; and

Whereas, Delores finished Winthrop in 1968 as the first Black undergraduate with honors. Her four-year stay was funded by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. She acclimated herself well at Winthrop: She was a marshal, vice president of the school's Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society, and an inductee into Who's Who Among Students in American Universities & Colleges; and

Whereas, following graduation, she attended the University of Nice in France on a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship. Further, she earned a master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City; and

Whereas, early in her career, she worked as a journalist in New York City at radio stations WRVR and WBAI, The National Black Network, and CBS Radio Network. She also wrote articles for Black Enterprise and Encore American & Worldwide News in New York. Returning to Columbia, she taught journalism at Benedict College and was hired as WIS Radio's second Black journalist; and

Whereas, this businesswoman founded Nefertiti, Inc., a nonprofit arts organization that brought Broadway plays to South Carolina. She also served on the executive committee of the Columbia Chapter of the NAACP and on the boards of the Richland County Township Auditorium and the City of Columbia Action Council. Delores worked at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York City providing scholarships to doctoral candidates and co-owned a restaurant in Florida and a wholesale bakery in Columbia; and

Whereas, moving to Charlotte, North Carolina, she returned to her first love, French language and culture, and taught high school students in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School system. Because of her civic activities in Charlotte, in 2011 she was inducted into the Women's History Hall of Fame at the Levine Museum of the New South. In addition, she was honored with the Winthrop University Alumni Association's Distinguished Service Award in 2017; and

Whereas, as Winthrop approached its 125th anniversary in 2011, Delores urged the university to acknowledge its desegregation in the 1960s, in which she and others took part. In 2014, the university produced a well-received celebration of the school's fiftieth anniversary of the desegregation of the university; and

Whereas, Delores Johnson Hurt retired from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools in 2012 and joined the League of Women Voters Charlotte Mecklenburg two years later. In 2016, she became its president and has continued serving in that post, being only the second Black individual to lead the organization in its nearly one hundred years of existence. Now, therefore,

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives:

That the members of the South Carolina House of Representatives, by this resolution, honor Delores Johnson Hurt, a 1968 graduate of Winthrop College, as the first African American student accepted into that venerable institution.

Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to Delores Johnson Hurt.

This web page was last updated on February 19, 2021 at 11:17 AM