Chief Justice Harold Melton stands in front of the Auburn University Student Center named in his honor with his wife, Kim, and son, Julian.
Atlanta, Nov. 20, 2020 – In a ceremony today, Auburn University formally renamed its student center after Harold D. Melton, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia. In 1987, as an undergraduate at Auburn, Melton was elected the university’s first black Student Government Association president.
“In 1987, this young kid comes over here, he gets the whole student body excited, and they elect him their president,” Auburn University President Jay Gogue said. “Chief Justice Melton, you honor Auburn by allowing us to honor you today.”
Officials unfurled a banner at the top of the building to reveal its formal new name, the Harold D. Melton Student Center, the first building on Auburn’s campus named after an African American. “You know, when you show up at school your first year of college, you really don’t know what you’re getting into,” Chief Justice Melton said, standing in front of the building and surrounded by family members. He said he never imagined becoming the student body president, becoming the Chief Justice of Georgia’s highest court, or having a building named after him. “I never imagined this kind of honor,” he said.
Melton said that when Elizabeth Huntley of Auburn’s Board of Trustees called him in August to tell him they were thinking of naming the building after him, “I was shaking.” Melton said that as a student at Auburn, his path was a different, easier path than that taken by Harold Franklin, who in 1964 became the first African American admitted into Auburn. “What he had to do here was basically endure; he had to suffer,” Melton said. “Mine was a path that existed with friendship, camaraderie, and fun.”
“I am so honored to play a continued role in Auburn’s journey, even beyond when I am long gone.”