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PA&E 6—MARCH 1956—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
First Alabama Negro Enrollment Brings 3-Day Demonstration
Mobs rallied around the home of the president of the University of Alabama during three days of rioting over
admission of a Negro student Not until Dr. O. C. Carmichael (upper right) and the board of trustees suspended the
student, Autherine Lucy (upper left), was order restored to the campus.
MONTGOMERY, Ala.
he admission of Miss Autherine
Lucy to the University of Ala
bama Feb. 3 precipitated a three-day
demonstration which reached such
violent proportions that university
officials, expressing the fear that the
26-year-old Negro’s life was im
periled, excluded her from classes
indefinitely.
Miss Lucy’s appearance on the
campus as the first Negro student in
the 125-year-history of the school and
also the first Negro in any publicly
supported all-white school in Ala
bama climaxed a three-year court
fight. (See “In the Colleges.”)
Later in the month Miss Lucy’s
attorney, Arthur Shores, obtained an
order from Judge Grooms in Birm
ingham that the university trustees
should show cause why they should
not be held in contempt for disobey
ing the court’s order that his client
be admitted. Shores also filed a suit
demanding living accommodations
for Miss Lucy.
Hearing on both actions was set
for Feb. 29.
In Montgomery, Feb. 10, more than
10,000 jammed into the Alabama
Agricultural Coliseum to hear Sen.
James O. Eastland of Mississippi
address a pro-segregation rally. The
West Alabama Citizens Council
packed the Tuscaloosa County court
house Feb. 17 and the university
situation was the focal point of heated
oratory. The same day a state asso
ciation of Citizens Councils was
organized in Montgomery, with an
announced goal of 200,000 members
by the end of the year.
OTHER NEWS
Other significant action in February
included:
1. ) Gov. James E. Folsom called
a special conference of Alabama edi
tors and publishers Feb. 24 to discuss
ways of easing rising racial tension
in the state. The governor proposed,
and the newspapermen endorsed, a
plan to create a bi-racial commission
to help settle disputes growing out
of the integration controversy.
Gov. Folsom, in the first statement
of the kind he has made, said:
“Anybody with any sense knows
that Negro children and white child
ren are not going to school together
in Alabama any time in the near
future ... in fact, not for a long
time.”
2. ) The House approved a “Free
dom of Choice” school plan previous
ly endorsed by the Senate (Southern
School News, February). The meas
ure, if ratified by the voters in a
special election Aug. 28, would pro
vide for three school systems, accord
ing to interpretation—all-white, all-
Negro and mixed for those who want
to attend integrated classes. The
amendment would also pave the way
for abolition of public schools if
necessary to preserve peace and
order.
3. ) A nullification resolution en
dorsed by the legislature last month
(Southern School News, February)
became law without the governor’s
signature. Folsom has yet to sign a
single pro-segregation bill. He has
vetoed several, permitted others to
become law without signing.
Following is a chronology of Miss
Autherine Lucy’s registration at the
University of Alabama and the events
that ensued.
JANUARY 31:
Notified that she could register Feb.
1 and begin classes at the university
Friday, Feb. 3, Miss Lucy began
preparations to enter the institution.
Her co-complainant through the
three-year court action, Mrs. Polly
Ann Myers Hudson, was notified that
her application had been turned
down on the orders of the board of
trustees “on the ground that the
evidence before the board shows her
conduct and marital record have been
such she does not meet the admis
sions standard of the university.”
•
FEBRUARY 1:
At 10:15 am. Miss Lucy and Mrs.
Hudson arrived on the university
campus. Mrs. Hudson was turned
away, but Miss Lucy was hurried
through registration ahead of white
students. In Dean of Women Sarah
Healy’s office, Miss Lucy was given
a statement informing her that she
would not be given a room or allowed
privileges of the cafeteria.
Miss Lucy said the statement was
“somewhat pathetic, unreasonable
and certainly not expected.” She said
she would consult her lawyer, Arthur
Shores, in Birmingham.
There were no indications of viol
ence during registration although
many white students were irritated
by the special registration treatment
granted the Negro student as they
waited in line for hours.
•
FEBRUARY 2:
Attorneys for Miss Lucy and the
University of Alabama were notified
that the U. S. Circuit Court of Ap
peals in New Orleans had refused to
grant the university a new hearing on
the court’s decision opening the school
to Negro students. This action left
the university with an appeal to the
U. S. Supreme Court as a last resort,
but the university had no immediate
comment on appeal plans (see Feb.
13, below).
•
FEBRUARY 3:
At 8:50 a.m. campus police took up
stations throughout the corridors of
Smith Hall and near the entrances.
Miss Lucy arrived at 9:08 and took a
seat in the first row center of her
geography class. The row remained
vacant. No particular notice was
taken of her presence, though one
freshman was reported to have left
the class, after it was dismissed, with
fists clenched exclaiming, “For two
cents I’d drop the course.”
At 9:30 she left the building in a
cold, steady rain to cross the campus
to her next class at Graves Hall. A
policeman followed her, as some stu
dents stared curiously. The other
policeman went ahead by automobile
to take up stations at Graves Hall.
In this class, she sat on the same row
with other students and none gave
any sign of objecting.
After this second class, one co-ed
wished her luck and expressed the
hope that “everything turns out all
right.” Miss Lucy returned to Birm
ingham. (After being denied living
facilities on campus, she had planned
to commute to and from Birmingham,
60 miles away.)
Reaction to her presence the first
day can be summed up in a word—
curiosity.
Late Friday night a crowd of stu
dents (no outsiders were reported in
this group) attracted by a burning
cross, began to assemble on Univer
sity Avenue. The group, estimated at
about 1,200, exploded firecrackers,
sang “Dixie,” shouted “Keep Bama
White,” marched on the president’s
mansion, left when told by Mrs.
Carmichael he was away.
Then, in a spirit of undergraduate
fun, they marched through the wom
an’s dormitory area and later dis
persed. No damage was done and
observers likened the display to many
another spontaneous rally: less boist
erous than a panty raid, some said.
•
FEBRUARY 4:
The interpretation of Friday night’s
demonstration seemed borne out
Saturday when Miss Lucy, without
police escort or classroom guards, at
tended class without incident.
Saturday night, however, signs of
trouble began to appear. In a drizzling
rain students began massing before
the Student Union Building. The
crowd, led by what the University
News Bureau described as “a few in
ebriated fraternity men,” started
chanting “Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho Authe
rine Must Go.”
Also in evidence, for the first time,
was a number of outsiders, some of
whom took an active part in whipping
the crowd into action. University
News Bureau director Ed Brown
afterwards said three or four outside
groups were in evidence—high school
students, Tuscaloosa townspeople in
cluding workers, and members of ex
treme pro-segregation organizations
from Birmingham.
Members of a North Birmingham
group calling itself the “Nomads”
distributed two sets of literature,
according to reports. One set con
tained anti-integration material, in
cluding pictures of a movie actress
with a Negro man. The other was
identified as Communist literature
signed by Paul Robeson. Purpose of
the handouts was to enrage the crowd,
Brown believes.
STUDENT HEARD
The mob moved from the Union
Building to downtown Tuscaloosa
where 19-year-old Leonard Wilson,
a pre-law student from Selma (where
the state’s first White Citizens Coun
cil was organized) climbed to a flag
pole and addressed the crowd urging
a “protest without violence,” as he
later recounted his speech.
Police re-routed traffic because of
the mob, but made no arrests. On the
way back to the campus, demonstra
tors rocked a Greyhound bus, beat
their fists on a Negro car and
stopped another car. One student
climbed to the roof of the car and
jumped up and down, denting it.
After returning briefly to the Union
Building, the mob proceeded to the
home of President Carmichael. Using
a public address system, Dr. Car
michael attempted to persuade the
crowd to disperse but was heckled
and booed. Some threw firecrackers
beneath the balcony on which the
president stood. Others tossed hand
fuls of gravel at him. Finally, at 1:10
a.m., the crowd dispersed in a
drizzling rain.
CHIEF’S STATEMENT
Tuscaloosa Police Chief W. C.
Thompkins and University Police
Chief A. O. Rayfield said they did
not plan any arrests.
The university student newspaper,
Crimson-White, in a Feb. 7 review
of the incidents leading up to the
violent Monday, said of the Saturday
night demonstrations:
“. . . Several incidents proved that
the group had ceased its ‘peaceful
demonstration’ and resorted to mob
violence.”
•
FEBRUARY 5:
Dr. Carmichael announced that
disciplinary action was being con
sidered against those responsible for
demonstrations on the two previous
nights. Calling the demonstrations
“regrettable,” Carmichael said steps
were being taken to avoid “any fur
ther displays which might lead to
disorder of any sort and of course to
protect the welfare of all students
committed to its [the university’s]
charge.”
Walter Flowers, president of the
University Student Government, said
that many cars “that didn’t belong
here” were in evidence Saturday
night. “We saw several that were
loaded with grown men,” he said.
•
FEBRUARY 6 (Monday):
8:40 a.m.: A crowd of 40 to 60 per
sons had gathered at Smith Hall,
where Miss Lucy’s first class of the
day was scheduled. University offi
cials and others present say the first
arrivals were almost all non-students
—night shift rubber workers from the
Goodrich Tire Plant and workers from
Holt Foundry near Tuscaloosa. Also
present were members of the football
team and other students from nearby
Holt High School, university officials
said.
9:00 a.m.: When Miss Lucy entered
Smith Hall, the crowd somehow did
not notice her.
10:00 a.m.: By the end of Miss
Lucy’s first class period, the crowd
had swelled to 200 or 300. Still, offi
cials say, outsiders predominated, but
more students, many of them curious,
were joining.
OBJECTS THROWN
Dean of Women Sarah Healy and
Assistant to the President Jeff Ben
nett escorted Miss Lucy out the rear
of Smith Hall because the bulk of
the crowd was out front. As they
stepped outside, eggs and rocks were
thrown and the mob began yelling
obscene epithets—“Nigger-loving —
,” etc.
As they got into Dean Healy’s car,
the windshield was cracked by a rock
and a side window broken. Across the
campus at Graves Hall, Miss Lucy,
Dean Healy and Bennett entered the
rear door. The crowd spotted them
and began throwing more eggs. Later,
the rear window of Dean Healy’s car
was bashed in.
11:00 a.m.: By the end of the second
class period, the crowd had grown
by several hundred, with students now
in the majority, apparently. The
crowd continued to grow during the
next hour, screaming and chanting.
Several observers on the scene said
there were definitely many adults
present, deliberately agitating the
crowd. One was seen writing notes
which he passed to a confederate who
would then whip up another chant.
While Miss Lucy was in class the
mob continued to mill around the
building. Some peered in windows
shouting “Where is the Nigger?”
“Lynch her!” “Kill her!” and “Keep
’Bama White.”
Noon: The crowd had swollen to
1,000 and Miss Lucy refused to leave,
fearing for her safety.
1:15 p.m.: After being in Graves
Hall for three hours, Miss Lucy was
spirited out by highway patrolmen.
She lay on the floor of the car while
a patrolman drove the car through
the mob. She was taken to the office
of a Tuscaloosa Negro newspaper,
where friends met her and took her
back to Birmingham.
ACTIVITY CONTINUES
Demonstrations continued as mem
bers of the mob threw eggs and toma
toes at passing cars and buses,
shouted at Negro passengers and de
manded that car occupants declare
their feelings on the segregation issue.
Demonstrations continued through
the afternoon. At a 5 p.m. faculty
meeting officials again said that the
“hard core” of the mob was composed
of outsiders. Carmichael said the
number included “men from the rub
ber plant, the foundry at Holt and the
Holt High school football team, and
men known to have taken part in
labor disputes.” Unions later denied
the charges.
CARMICHAEL WARNS
Dr. Carmichael, obviously shaken
by the experiences of the day, told
faculty members that the incidents
would bring disgrace to the school.
The issue was no longer segregation,
he said, but “something more basic,
more fundamental ... it involves
the question of whether anarchy or
law will rule here.”
He indicated it might be necessary
to close the school.
Later Monday night, as 1,00®
demonstrators staged a final gravel-
throwing, firecracker-exploding.
shouting demonstration, the Univer
sity Board of Trustees met and de
cided to exclude Miss Lucy “until
further notice.”
SOME FACTORS
All the factors in the demonstra
tions may never be fully known, bn
some of them as gleaned from opin
ions of those close to the chain 0
events are these: .
1) The demonstrations began Fri
day with an innocent “social hour,
as one student put it, hardly diff e [® n
from those which have occurred often
in the past. ^
2) Students who had no interns
in Miss Lucy’s enrollment were^ir
ritated by her appearance for c
in a Cadillac, by her “too osten ^
tious” action in sitting on the fr
row in her first class. As one
wise sympathetic faculty member P
it: “Her arrival seemed to have >,,
planned for maximum publicity ■
3) Town toughs, outsiders i 11 "^
ing possibly members of groups .
out of town and out of state, fa ^
the spark of racial intolerance v/
had been subdued in the Friday rd
demonstration.
These, and what some faculty
bers called the “ineffectiveness
police.”
•
FEBRUARY 7: . ^ty
As peace returned to the umve ^
campus with Miss Lucy exc
Atty. Shores in Birmingha 111 j
nounced he would take further -
(Continued at top of next pas