Interview with Ken Dious, March 11, 2020

Kenneth Dious was born in Athens, Georgia and attended Athens-Clarke County public schools. After graduating from high school, he attended Savannah State College and later transferred to the University of Georgia. At UGA he earned a degree in Business Administration in 1968. After a brief stint in the United States Army, and receiving an honorable discharge, Ken returned to the University of Georgia to pursue a Masters Degree in Math Education. Dious then took a position as a cost accountant with the Georgia Lockheed Martin Corporation in Marietta, Georgia. He returned to school a year later, entering the University Of Georgia School Of Law where he earned his Juris Doctor in 1973. In 1974 he opened a law office in Athens as a sole practitioner, becoming the first African American to do so in Northeast Georgia. In this interview Dious discusses his experience as one of the first African Americans to attend the University of Georgia. He shares details about his time as the first African American to wear a UGA football uniform, his experience as a young civil rights protester, and the benefits of starting the Black Student Unions at UGA as both an undergraduate as well as a student of the law school.

2020-03-11

har-ua20-002_0004

85 minutes