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

3. Monday’s Misfortunes: February 6, 1956

chapter 3 Monday’s Misfortunes Feb­ru­ary 6, 1956 I asked the Lord to give me strength—if I must give my life—to give it freely. Afew minutes before her 9:00 a.m. Monday class, Autherine Lucy rode in the passenger side of African Ameri­can businessman Henry Nathaniel Guinn’s Cadillac, entering into an unsettlingly silent campus. The ghost town atmosphere seemed greatly at odds with the weekend’s excitement, though the silence wouldn’t last. As Guinn turned the corner toward Smith Hall, he and Lucy witnessed an estimated two hundred to three hundred protesters blocking the building ’s entrance, though the crowd was contained by a number of local police and state patrolmen. “These precautions were taken,” Healy later explained, “after several messages were received stating that the girl would be physically harmed if she attended classes on Monday.” Yet Lucy remained mostly naive to the very real threats with which she was confronted, and in the morning’s excitement, somehow managed to slip inside the building without notice. “I just walked through and smiled and said, ‘Excuse me, please,’” Lucy recalled years later, “and I walked in the building. I took my seat on the front row again.” Monday’s Misfortunes 27 Justbeyondtheclassroomwalls,callsto“Lynchthenigger”eruptedthrough­ out the crowd—a rare spectacle, particularly on a Monday morning on a university campus. Through­out the South, vigilante justice had traditionally taken placeinruralareasundercoverofdarkness—notat9:00a.m. outsidethestate university’s geology building. As Lucy tried to stay focused on Professor Hays’s lecture, President Carmichael found himself struggling to maintain focus on his own difficult task. Dean Corson, Dean Healy, and assistant to the president Jefferson Bennett conferredwithCarmichaelontheLucysituation,notingthatwhiletheyfeared for the student’s safety, they were equally fearful of removing her from campus , thereby setting a dangerous precedent of caving to the will of the mob. As the crowd swelled, Bennett took one final look at the changing ground situation and whispered to Healy, “We are never going to be able to get her out of the front door. May we use your car?” WhatfollowedappearedmorefittingforaHollywooddramathanaMon­ day morning in academia. As the crowd simmered just outside of Lucy’s classroom , Healy hastened up the stairs of Smith Hall, calmly informing the new student of the change of plans. “Autherine, I think we are going to have to carry you down the back way here,” Healy explained, “because the crowd out there is waiting for you.” Lucy agreed, but as Dean Healy attempted to surreptitiously escort Lucy down the stairs to her car, an onlooker foiled their escape route, shouting, “There they go, there they go.” Thecrowdsurgedforward,burstingaroundthecornerofSmithHallwhile pelting Healy, Lucy, and Bennett with a hailstorm of eggs and small pebbles. With Bennett behind the wheel and the women sitting snugly beside him, thecarveeredontoHackberryLane,dodginganothervehiclethatthreatened to block their retreat. Fearing the mob had already positioned themselves at Graves Hall—the site of Lucy’s next class—Bennett took a more circuitous route,eventuallyscreechingtoahaltnearthebackentranceofGraves,though few were fooled by his maneuvers. Lucy and Healy entered the building unscathed while Bennett was left to deal with the mob. “I managed to get in [the car] and locked the doors,” he explained, but while he himself was protected, Healy’s car was not. The crowd began rocking the vehicle back and forth, smashing the windows with bricks. Fearing for his life, Bennett slammed the car into drive. As he sped through the crowd, he 28 The Mobs secretly “hoped that some of them would stand still,” though after his blood cooled he admitted it was best for all involved that his attackers had the good sense to move out of the way. % A glance in Bennett’s rearview mirror would have revealed a crowd estimated between two to three thousand strong, all of whom had gathered outside of Graves Hall to protest Lucy’s admission. Included in that crowd was a young Robert“DynamiteBob”Chambliss,aknownKlansmanwho,in1963,would be responsible for the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing that left four little girls dead. After viewing D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation years prior, a young Chambliss believed he had found his true calling: defending white power. After a brief time spent in the mines, Chambliss began schooling himself in explosives—a skill that would come in handy for a man who would more than earn his nickname in the years to come. Not only did Chambliss participate...