On June 11, 1963 an infamous incident took place at this spot. In many ways, the University of Alabama is still trying to emerge from the shadows of Governor George Wallace's "stand." In fact, in the mid-2000s, the University planned to demolish Foster Auditorium, but grass-roots efforts to get the National Park Service to recognize Foster as a National Historic Landmark were successful in 2005. The University then renovated and expanded Foster, moving the women's basketball and volleyball programs from Coleman Coliseum to Foster, and created this clock tower and plaza to honor the African-American students who bravely began the work of integrating the University of Alabama.
Autherine Lucy
In September 1952, Autherine Lucy, an African-American college graduate from Shiloh, Alabama, and a friend, Pollie Myers, a civil rights activist with the NAACP, applied to the University of Alabama. Lucy later said that she wanted a second undergraduate degree, not for political reasons but to get the best possible education in the state. Although the women were accepted, their admittance was rescinded when the authorities discovered they were not white. Backed by the NAACP, Lucy and Myers charged the University with racial discrimination in a court case that took almost three years to resolve. While waiting, Lucy worked as an English teacher in Carthage, Mississippi, and as a secretary at an insurance company.
On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down its decision regarding the case called Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, in which the plaintiffs charged that the education of black children in separate public schools from their white counterparts was unconstitutional. Brown v. Board of Education meant that the University of Alabama had to be desegregated.
On June 29, 1955, the NAACP secured a court order preventing the University from rejecting the admission applications of Lucy and Myers (who had married and was then known as Pollie Myers Hudson) based upon their race (Days later, the court amended the order to apply to all other African-American students seeking admission). Lucy was finally admitted to the University but it rejected Hudson on the grounds that a child she had conceived before marriage made her an unsuitable student.
Even though Lucy was officially admitted, she was still barred from all dormitories and dining halls. At least two sources have said that the University board of trustees hoped that without Hudson, the more outgoing and assured of the pair and whose idea it originally was to enroll at Alabama, Lucy's own acceptance would mean little or nothing to her, and she would voluntarily choose not to attend. But Hudson and others strongly encouraged her, and on February 3, 1956, Lucy enrolled as a graduate student in library science, becoming the first African American ever admitted to a white public school or university in the state.
Lucy attended her first class on Friday, February 3, 1956. On Monday, February 6, 1956, riots broke out on the campus and a mob of more than a thousand men pelted the car in which the Dean of Women drove Lucy between classes. Threats were made against her life and the University president's home was stoned. The police were called to secure her attendance. These riots at the University were what was, to date, the most violent, post-Brown, anti-integration demonstration. After the riots, the University suspended Lucy from school because her own safety was a concern.
Lucy and the NAACP filed contempt-of-court charges against the trustees and president of the University; against the dean of women for barring her from the dining hall and dormitories, and against four other men (none connected to the University) for participating in the riots. On February 29th, the Federal Court in Birmingham ordered that Lucy be reinstated and that the University must take adequate measures to protect her. The University trustees then expelled her permanently on a hastily contrived technicality. The University used the court case as a justification for her permanent expulsion, claiming that Lucy had slandered the University and they could not have her as a student.
The NAACP, feeling that further legal action was pointless, did not contest this decision. Lucy acquiesced.
The Stand
In the years following, hundreds of African-Americans applied for admission, but all were denied. The University worked with police to find any disqualifying qualities, or when this failed, intimidated the applicants. But in 1963, three African-Americans —Vivian Malone Jones, Dave McGlathery and James Hood—applied. In early June a federal district judge ordered that they be admitted, and forbade Alabama's then-governor George Wallace from interfering.
On June 11, Malone and Hood arrived to register. Wallace, attempting to uphold his promise as well as for political show, blocked the entrance to Foster Auditorium with the media watching. Then, flanked by federal marshals, Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach told Wallace to step aside. However, Wallace cut Katzenbach off and refused, giving a speech on States' rights, claiming that "The unwelcomed, unwanted, unwarranted and force-induced intrusion upon the campus of the University of Alabama ... of the might of the Central Government offers frightful example of the oppression of the rights, privileges and sovereignty of this State by officers of the Federal Government."
Katzenbach called President John F. Kennedy, who federalized the Alabama National Guard. Guard General Henry Graham then commanded Wallace to step aside, saying, "Sir, it is my sad duty to ask you to step aside under the orders of the President of the United States." Wallace then spoke further, but eventually moved, and Malone and Hood registered as students. The incident is seen as one of the seminal events in the Civil Rights Movement in America.
Aftermath
Vivian Malone received a B.S. in Commerce and Business Adminstration from the University of Alabama two years later in 1965, becoming the first African-American to graduate from the University of Alabama. James Hood left the university after only two months but returned in 1995 to begin earning his doctorate degree. On May 17, 1997 he received his Ph.D. in interdisciplinary studies. In April 1988, Autherine Lucy's expulsion was officially annulled by the University of Alabama. She enrolled in the graduate program in Education the following year and received an M.A. degree in May 1992. In the course of the commencement ceremonies, the University of Alabama named an endowed fellowship in her honor.
To solve the coordinate for the final, you must answer the following questions from your observations and the information I have provided. There are six bronze plaques in the immediate area of GZ (two on the building and four on the clock tower). Some of the questions will reference these as well.
The final coordinates are in the form N 33° 12.ABC W 087° 32.DEF
A - The final digit in the year that the Brown v. Board of Education was enacted by the Supreme Court.
B - Subtract the first digit from the second digit in the date that the plaque titled "Site of the Stand in the Schoolhouse Door" was placed.
C - The day in November 2010 when the University of Alabama dedicated the Autherine Lucy Clock Tower and the Malone-Hood Plaza.
D - The total number of African-American students who applied to the University named in the story (1952 and 1963) MINUS the number of times President John F. Kennedy's name is mentioned on all of the plaques.
E - The last digit in the year that Autherine Lucy's expulsion was finally officially annulled by the University of Alabama.
F - The number of faces displayed on the plaques on the clock tower.
You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.