George Wallace “Stands in the Schoolhouse Door” to Block Integration; Then Steps Aside
At the entrance of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama, Governor George Wallace on this day blocked entry of two African-American students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, who were attempting to enroll at the university.
The “stand” was essentially symbolic, however, designed to fulfill his promise to “stand in the school house door” to block the racial integration of schools and universities. Wallace soon moved away, and Malone and Hood registered as students. Earlier in the day, President John F. Kennedy had federalized the Alabama National Guard and ordered the Secretary of Defense to mobilize the Guard in preparation for any continued obstruction to the integration of the University of Alabama.
Malone graduated from the University of Alabama in 1965, the first African-American to graduate from the university. After not receiving a job offer in Alabama, she went to work for Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department. And in a strange twist of fate that was a sign of how America had changed, in 1996 she was the first recipient of the Lurleen Wallace Courage Award presented by the George Wallace Family Foundation.
James Hood dropped out of the university after only two months, but returned as a graduate student in 1996 and earned a doctorate in International Studies in May 1997, the 43rd anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education.
Vivian Malone married Mack Jones, and as a result her brother-in-law was Eric Holder, Attorney General under President Barack Obama, and the first African American to hold that position.
A BUSY DAY FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES: This day was filled with civil rights and civil liberties drama. Early in the day, President Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard and authorized the Secretary of Defense to use the unit in the event of further obstruction to the integration of the University of Alabama. In the evening, Kennedy delivered a nationwide television speech calling for a federal civil rights bill (see the separate event). One year later, the bill he introduced became the historic 1964 Civil Rights Act. Also on this day, Kennedy called for an immigration reform law (see the separate event). That idea became the historic 1965 Immigration Reform Act, which President Lyndon Johnson signed into law on October 3, 1965, in a ceremony at the Statue of Liberty.
Watch Wallace “stand in the schoolhouse door”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgbNc-9Di7k
Read Gov. Wallace’s “School House Door Speech”:
http://www.archives.state.al.us/govs_list/schooldoor.html
Watch the documentary film on the incident: Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (1963)
Learn more about Vivian Malone: https://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/vivian-malone-jones/
Visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture here