Autherine Lucy Attends Bama: Fifty Years Later

Fifty years ago today, Autherine Lucy began classes on the campus where I teach. She was the first black student at the University of Alabama, attending seven years before George Wallace's infamous stand in the schoolhouse door.

Soon after she started classes, hundreds of whites formed into a mob to drive her out. They carried Confederate Battle Flags and sang Dixie. They chanted slogans like “Lynch the nigger,” “Keep Bama White,” and “Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, Autherine’s gotta go.” As Lucy walked to classes, members of the mob splattered her with eggs and attacked blacks in Tuscaloosa.

In the face of this violence, university administrators acted like administrators usually do. They caved. They expelled her for “own safety.” She had attended only three days of classes.

In 2002, it was my pleasure as president of the Alabama Scholars Association (ASA) to invite Autherine Lucy (now Autherine Lucy Foster) to speak at the University of Alabama in 2002. She was delight to work with in every way. Although the ASA persuaded the university to pay her a modest honorarium, I have little doubt that she would have done it for free.

She gave one speech each at Stillman College (in an event arranged by Linda Royster Beito) and at the University of Alabama. She attracted overflow and enthusiastic audiences at each event. They were won over by a down-to-earth style that was refreshingly free of the ideological jargon favored by current civil rights activists. Instead of the typical “multicultural” themes, for example, she focused on the Wright Brothers to illustrate the importance of initiative and creativity