The “First Six”: The Students Who Integrated Georgia Southern

The “First Six”: The Students Who Integrated Georgia Southern

We often talk about the year 1965 as the year Georgia Southern College finally integrated. But integration wasn’t a paperwork change; it was a physical act of courage performed by real students. In 1961, Otis Johnson was the first African-American student at Armstrong University. While John Bradley was the first Black student to enroll (as a graduate student in January 1965), the undergraduate color barrier was truly broken that fall by six teen…