Opening the Doors: The Desegregation of the University of Alabama and the Fight for Civil Rights in Tuscaloosa

Introduction: Setting the Stage for Desegregation

Introduction Setting the Stage for Desegregation OnthemorningofJune11,1963,twoAfricanAmeri­canstudents—twenty-­ year-­ olds James Hood and Vivian Malone—attempted to register for classes at the University of Alabama, only to find their state’s chief executive, GovernorGeorgeCorleyWallace ,remainingfirmonhiscampaignpledgetostand in the schoolhouse door in an effort to block desegregation. While the governor ’s actions resulted in little more than a symbolic gesture—one that some initially argued propelled him to national prominence—historians later confirmed that his defiant stand against the federal government ultimately damaged his reputation rather than improved it. While white students at the University of Alabama registered for classes with ease, for Hood and Malone, their attempt to enroll demanded the support of a newly federalized unit of the Alabama National Guard, a sweat-­ soaked deputy attorney general, an equally nervous attorney general, and a president so invested in the day’s outcome that for a full afternoon he pushed aside Khrushchev and the Cold War to give his rapt attention to the events transpiring in a small, south­ ern town called Tuscaloosa. It was not the first time the city had made headlines. Seven years prior, in Feb­ru­aryof1956,AfricanAmeri­canAutherineLucyfirstattemptedtodesegregatetheUniversityofAlabama ,aneffortthatculminatedinunprecedented violence on a college campus, the likes of which would not be repeated until 2 Introduction James Meredith’s desegregation of Ole Miss in Oc­ to­ ber of 1962. Lucy’s valiant attempt—while disastrous for the university’s reputation—­emboldened otherAfricanAmeri­canstorisetotheoccasion,reframingtheuniversity’sdesegregation question from an “if ” to the inevitable “when.” Running parallel to the university’s desegregation battles were the battles fought by local African Ameri­ cans to integrate their town. Through­ out the summer of 1964, Tuscaloosa Citizens for Action Committee (TCAC) made great strides to integrate the city’s courthouse, lunch counters, movie theaters , and buses—each action the result of in­ di­ vidu­ als willing to risk their personal safety for the good of the collective. Local movements such as theirs of­ten received some support from nationally recognized civil rights advocacy groups—most notably the South­ ern Christian Leadership Conference— though in many instances these local communities were left carrying the bulk of the burden. While national strategies were of­ten successfully carried out by local civil rights foot soldiers, theAlabama cities that received the most attention were those most directly linked to the star power of Dr. Martin Luther KingJr.,citieslikeBirmingham,Selma,andMontgomery.WhileKingplayed but a minor role in Tuscaloosa’s civil rights movement, his primary contribution was not what he did, but rather, whom he sent to do it in his stead. ReverendT.Y.Rogers—ofwhomlittleiswrittenbuttowhommuchcredit isowed—wasnamedassistantpastorofDexterAvenueBaptistChurchinthe midst of the 1955–56 Montgomery bus boycott, a time in which King’s ever-­ expanding responsibilities demanded a capable assistant pastor to oversee the church’s daily operations. Rogers accepted the post, not only to serve King through­ out the early stages of his mentor’s meteoric rise to fame, but also to allowhimselftheopportunitytoobserveKing’stactics,awaitingthedaywhen he, too, could put them into practice. Rogers’s opportunity presented itself in 1964, when King recommended hisformerassistantforaministerialpositionatTuscaloosa’sFirstAfricanBaptist Church, a staple within the city’s African Ameri­can religious community. At King’s urging, Rogers—who at the time was fulfilling his pastoral duties at Galilee Baptist Church in Pennsylvania—returned home to Alabama, preparing to serve as an agent of change for a city in need of a leader. % WhiletheUniversityofAlabama’s1956and1963desegregationattemptshave beenwelldocumented(particularlyinE.CulpepperClark’sall-­encompassing Setting the Stage for Desegregation 3 The Schoolhouse Door), it is my goal to look beyond the scholarly books and newspaperreportspreviouslyanalyzedandinsteadrelyheavilyontheprimary sources that remain in Tuscaloosa—the people, those who still recall the fervor and the fury and the smell of the quadrangle’s fresh-­ cut grass. By exploring the personal stories behind both the 1956 and 1963 efforts to desegregate the University of Alabama, I hope to provide a contextual framework for the events leading up to the height of the city’s civil rights movement in the summer of 1964. A sec­ ond though equally important goal is to offer exposure to the little-­ known history of a city’s civil rights movement. While there was a brief win­ dow of time in which the university’s desegregation attempts made front-­page news, these stories have long since receded to the footnotes of history—and, in the case of Hood and Malone’s efforts—a brief but memorable scene in Forrest Gump. Yet perhaps far more disheartening than...