Mayor Reed will deliver the 2012 Holmes/Hunter lecture, an annual address which honors Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Hamilton Holmes. Holmes and Hunter in 1961 became the first African American students to enroll at the University of Georgia.
The Holmes/Hunter Lecture series is delivered by a distinguished public figure, and it focuses on race relations, aspect of higher education with implications of race relations, or black history. Previous lecturers have included Vernon Jones, Constance Baker Motley, Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson, Shirley Franklin, John Lewis, Deborah Roberts, Nikki Giovanni, Ron Clark, Harold Ford, Jr. and Charlayne Huter-Gault.