Integration of the University of Alabama

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The integration of the University of Alabama was a critical episode in the Civil Rights Movement, opening the University of Alabama to African-American students and faculty.

Autherine Lucy

After completing her bachelor's degree in English at Miles College in 1952, Autherine Lucy and a friend, Polly Anne Myers, determined to try to enroll in graduate school at the University of Alabama. They approached the NAACP for help in planning how to accomplish it. Thurgood Marshall, Constance Baker Motley, and Arthur Shores were assigned as their attorneys and court action began in July 1953.

On June 29, 1955, the NAACP secured a court order preventing the University from rejecting the admission applications of Lucy and her friend based upon their race. Days later, the court amended the order to apply to all other African-American students seeking admission. The Supreme Court of the United States upheld this on October 10, 1955. On February 3, 1956, Lucy enrolled as a graduate student in library science. Myers, however, had reconsidered the situation and withdrew her application.

On the third day of classes, a hostile mob assembled to prevent Lucy from attending classes. The police were called to secure her admission but, that evening, the University suspended Lucy on the grounds that it could not provide a safe environment.

Lucy and her attorneys filed suit against the University to have the suspension overturned. However, this suit was not successful and was used as a justification for her permanent expulsion. University officials claimed that Lucy had slandered the university and they could not have her as a student.

The University finally overturned her expulsion in 1980, and in 1992, she completed her masters degree in elementary education.

Stand in the schoolhouse door

The plaza in front of Foster Auditorium during George Wallace's "Stand in the schoolhouse door"

In 1963 Alabama A&M University student Vivian Malone, wished to transfer to the University of Alabama to study accounting. She and James Hood won permission to enroll by order of District Court Judge Hobart Grooms.

The impending enrollment provided Wallace with an opportunity to make a symbolic "stand" to prevent integration. The standoff was orchestrated in advance through negotiations between the governor's office and the office of the Attorney General of the United States.

On June 11, 1963, Governor George Wallace made his infamous "stand in the schoolhouse door" in defiance of the federal courts. He stood in the front entrance of Foster Auditorium in an attempt to stop the enrollment of two African Americans: Vivian Malone and James Hood. When confronted by U.S. Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach and federal marshals sent in by U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, Wallace stepped aside.

The peaceful resolution of the standoff inspired President John Kennedy to proclaim his commitment to Civil Rights in a televised address to the nation that evening.

Hood dropped out of school after two months, but subsequently returned and, in 1997, received his PhD in philosophy. Malone persisted in her studies and became the first African American to graduate from the University. In 2000, the University rewarded her bravery with a doctorate of humane letters. Later in his life, Wallace apologized for his opposition at that time to racial integration.

Integration of Crimson Tide athletics

In 1969 newly-hired Crimson Tide basketball coach C. M. Newton recruited Wendell Hudson, the first African American athlete to accept an scholarship to the University of Alabama.

John Mitchell and Wilbur Jackson were the first African-American athletes to play for the Alabama Crimson Tide football team, beginning with the 1971 season. In 1973 Bryant offered Mitchell the job of defensive ends coach, making him the first black assistant coach in the program's history.