Breaking Point

Hardy left the school immediately after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King in 1968. She was in sociology class when news of King’s assassination came. White students erupted in celebration, disrupting the entire class.

Hardy recalled:

“I started crying, and the instructor escorted me out of class… I remember his name, because he was so kind.”

She dropped out that day, but finally completed her degree at The W in 1996.

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Commercial Dispatch, April 5, 1968
John Clayton Fant Memorial Library, Special Collections.
Used with permission of the Commercial Dispatch.

Diane Hardy Thompson Oral History.
Billups-Garth Archives, Columbus-Lowndes Public Library.