A Timeline of Black History at Georgia Tech

1970

One year after McAshan arrived at Georgia Tech, Gregory Horne became the second Black player to receive a football scholarship, and Karl Barnes, a transfer student, joined the team as a walk-on at the invitation of Coach Bud Carson. Despite facing adversity in his first quarter, Barnes would become the first Black student-athlete and letter winner (football and track) to graduate from Georgia Tech, being placed on the Dean’s list along the way. The defensive back is a double Jacket, earning a bachelor’s degree in industrial management in 1973 and a master’s degree in architecture in 1977.

In the 1980s, Barnes returned to Georgia Tech following the completion of a second master’s degree from the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania to serve in numerous capacities as the first Black member of several Georgia Tech National Alumni Boards. This included stints as the president of the Minority Affairs Committee, the Georgia Tech Athletic Association Board, the Georgia Tech Foundation Board, and the Georgia Tech Athletic Association’s Alexander-Tharp Fund Board.

Women were first admitted to Tech in 1952, but it wasn’t until 1970 that Adesola Kujoure Nurudeen, Tawana (Derricotte) Miller, Grace Hammonds, and Clemmie Whatley became the first Black women to enroll at the Institute.

An Atlanta native who dreamed of attending Georgia Tech, Milton Woodward found his way here as a graduate student after earning his undergraduate degree from Howard University. Working toward his degree in electrical engineering, Woodward didn’t realize he would become the first Black student to earn a master’s at Tech until one of his professors told him shortly before graduation.

1972

Before founding the architectural firm Love-Stanley along with his wife, Ivenue, Bill Stanley became the first Black student to graduate from Georgia Tech with a degree in architecture in 1972. Together, the couple designed the Olympic Aquatic Center, which hosted swimming, diving , and water polo during the 1996 Summer Olympics. It was later enclosed and renamed the McAuley Aquatic Center.

1973

After completing their undergraduate degrees at Clark University, Clemmie Whatley and Grace Hammonds pursued master’s degrees in mathematics at Georgia Tech and became the Institute’s first Black alumnae.