Makiba Foster interviews Julie Hunter on October 15, 2021 at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center. Julie Varner Hunter was born on April 5, 1937 in Summerville, South Carolina to parents John Varner, welder and grocery store owner, and Mildred Collins, a homemaker. She was one of eight children. Hunter experienced racism and Ku Klux Klan activities as a young girl such as cross burnings in neighborhood yards and KKK parades through town. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Mathematics with a minor in English from Claflin College (now Claflin University) in Orangeburg, SC. She joined the student chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and served as president. After college, she worked as a Field Director for the NAACP and organized youth groups in the South from 1960 to 1963. In 1964, Mrs. Hunter attended library school at Atlanta University (now known as Clark Atlanta University). In Atlanta, she met Roy Hunter a professor of Biology at Morehouse College. They married in 1966.
