‘Amen, praise God, and Roll Tide;’ Hundreds gather for prayer breakfast commemorating UA desegregation (photos, video)
Al.com – June 8
Sellers Auditorium in the Bryant Conference Center was full of fresh food, hot coffee and prayerful people Friday morning during the University of Alabama’s interfaith prayer breakfast commemorating the 50th anniversary of the desegregation of the school. The breakfast was part of the university’s Through the Doors series, a number of activities and events held to remember the school’s past, celebrate its progress and plan for its future. Specifically, Friday’s event recognized the role that churches and ministers played in both the desegregation of the Capstone and the civil rights movement as a whole.
Tuscaloosa News (gallery) – June 8
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – June 8
KBSI-Fox (Paducah, Ken.) – Jun 8
WRBL-CBS (Columbus, Ga.) – June 7
WSET-ABC (Roanoke, Va.) – June 7
WTVM-ABC (Columbus, Ga.) – June 7
WAAY-ABC (Huntsville) – June 7
WBBJ-ABC (Jackson, Tenn.) – June 7
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – June 7
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – June 7
WDHN-ABC (Dothan) – June 7
WHNT-CBS (Huntsville) – June 7
NBC 13 (Birmingham) – June 7
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – June 7
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UA to hold events commemorating 50th anniversary of desegregation
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – June 9
This week will be an emotional and significant one for the University of Alabama. Tuesday marks the 50th anniversary of Governor George Wallace’s infamous “Stand in the schoolhouse door” and the school is planning a series of events to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the school’s desegregation. Tomorrow morning, high school students who were nominated by their schools to participate will take part in an educational program about effecting change. Then, on Tuesday night, a public event at Foster Auditiorium will recognize and honor the courage and dedication of Vivian Malone and James Hood. It will be 50 years to the day after the first African-American students enrolled in UA.
WMRK-FM (Montgomery) – June 9
The Stand in the Schoolhouse Door: An iconic moment of shame, courage and change
Al.com – June 9
By the time the hot sun rose above this iconic university town on June 11, 1963, history was already playing out nearby and far away…June 11, 1963, has been remembered most often as the day Wallace fulfilled a campaign promise made more than a year earlier as he kicked off his run for governor…But Wallace’s stand in front of Foster Auditorium was not how Vivian Malone, later to become Vivian Malone Jones, wanted history to remember those events. Jones, who died in 2005, said 10 years ago, on the 40th anniversary of their successful enrollment, that she hoped people would remember doors opened, not blocked. “For so long, it’s gone down in a negative way, it’s gone down in the way we portray that event as a ‘stand in the schoolhouse door.’ The press picked it up that way, which to me was a negative,” said Jones. “What I was hoping and hoping will happen …. is that we celebrate the opening of the door, not the stand, not the attempt to close the door.” E. Culpepper “Cully” Clark, whose 1993 book “The Schoolhouse Door: Segregation’s Last Stand at the University of Alabama” is the definitive account of the history of the event, said that in the long run Jones’ hope has been realized. “There is no debate that because of what Vivian and Jimmy Hood did that June day fifty years ago that Alabama – the state and ‘The University’ – became better places to live and learn,” said Clark, who spent 30-plus years at UA teaching and in senior administrative positions before leaving in 2007 to become dean of the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. “We celebrate what Vivian and Jimmy did that day, not what George Wallace did that day, although we certainly remember what he did,” said Clark. “I believe today you will find at the university places named in honor of Vivian and Jimmy and Autherine Lucy, but not George Wallace, and that is as it should be.”
What did integration at the University of Alabama mean for those who followed?
Al.com – June 9
Five decades ago, Vivian Malone Jones and James Hood broke the color barrier, opening the University of Alabama for thousands of black students to follow in their footsteps. Those who would follow include Joffre Whisenton, the first black student to earn a Ph.D., and Kathy Elmore Sawyer, a charter member of one of the first black sororities who would go on to become the commissioner of the Alabama Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation.fAL.com spoke to just a few of those graduates this week to get their take on the Stand in the Schoolhouse Door and what the University of Alabama has meant to their lives.
List: Who are the University of Alabama’s most prominent black graduates?
Al.com – June 9
Fifty years ago, Vivian Malone Jones and James Hood broke the color barrier, opening the University of Alabama for thousands of black students to follow in their footsteps. Here is a list of some of the university’s most prominent black graduates.
50 Years Later: UA Graduates Remember Meaning Behind The ‘Stand In The Schoolhouse Door’
CBS 8 (Montgomery) – June 9
“The Stand in the Schoolhouse Door” was a pivotal time in Alabama history when Governor George Wallace tried to stop black students from enrolling at the University of Alabama in 1963. Nearly five decades later, we ask graduates what they remember from that historical moment and how it’s changed their lives… It’s a story Roslyn Cook has told her children dozens of times… It’s known as “The Stand in the Schoolhouse Door.” It happened June 11, 1963 when Vivian Malone and James Hood set the stage for a very momentous year. Malone and Hood were the first two black students to enroll at the University of Alabama in an attempt to desegregate it. A moment Cook says paved the way for thousands of black students, like her, to enroll at the university. “I don’t know in that magnitude if I would’ve been able to just stand there and take some of the abuse and some of the things they had to do,” Said Roslyn. But as a freshman engineer student in 1977, she says it was still tough. “I did get harassed because I was female, a black female in a predominantly white male area… but it was just something to go there and to persevere and to study and to graduate!” Said Roslyn.
More than 1,000 students to attend Boys State, Girls State conventions starting Sunday in Tuscaloosa
Al.com – June 8
More than 1,000 high school seniors will arrive on campus at the University of Alabama this weekend, as the Boys State and Girls State politics and community service conventions begin. This is the first year the two events, sponsored by the American Legion and the American Legion Auxiliary, will be held in the same location. Throughout the week, participants from across the state will learn about leadership, government and civic processes. Activities, including mock elections and community service, begin Sunday and continue through June 15. According to a UA news release, Gov. Robert Bentley will address the boys at 2 p.m. Sunday in Morgan Auditorium, and Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey will speak to the girls at 2 p.m. in the Ferguson Center. UA President Judy Bonner will welcome both groups. Guest speakers include former Alabama Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb and Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox.
CBS 12 (Chattanooga, Tenn.) – June 8
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – June 9
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – June 9
New Miss Alabama is UA student
NBC 13 (Birmingham) – June 9
This morning, there’s a new “Miss Alabama.” Last night at Samford University, Miss Leeds area, Chandler Champion was crowned Miss Alabama 2013. Champion beat out 50 other girls to take home the crown. Champion is a junior at the University of Alabama. She will represent the state this September in the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City. And coming up at seven this morning on Today in Alabama you’ll meet the new Miss Alabama. Chandler will have her first official appearance on our show this morning.
Habitat for Humanity renovation led by Alabama student helps veteran of WWII, Korean War
Al.com – June 8
Zach Boyd’s sawdust-covered T-shirt reads “They served us…Now we serve them” as he stands in the middle of a Habitat for Humanity renovation in Alberta Saturday. Boyd, a University of Alabama student and president of the Campus Veterans Association, has pulled together fellow students and veteran friends to help with the sorely-needed renovations of Willie Bishop’s home. Bishop, an 85-year-old Tuscaloosa native, served in the Army during both World War II and the Korean War before coming back home, where he worked at a local lumber mill and hardware store. The renovations, sponsored by Habitat for Humanity, gutted Bishop’s home, keeping only the frame and siding to build back on. Volunteers installed a new roof earlier in the week, and the house is ready for new insulation, siding, wiring and floors.
Tannehill Ironworks museum hosts meteorite exhibition
Al.com – June 7
The Iron and Steel Museum of Alabama at Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park is home to McCalla’s industrial past…But in addition to the museum’s historical theme, a temporary scientific exhibit was recently added, called “Meteorites!” Open through May 12, 2014., the exhibit contains several pieces of meteorites, including two from Alabama. These pieces appear small, but they have a big history. The odds of being hit by a meteorite are pretty slim … But in 1954 the odds were not in favor of Ann Hodges of Sylacauga, who is the only recorded person to ever be hit by one. Hodges survived the hit and the meteor was named after her. The remains of the meteor can be seen at the Alabama Museum of Natural History at the University of Alabama.
What was the Civil War about, anyhow? Valor.
Tuscaloosa News – June 8
My wife asked me the other day, “what was the Civil War about anyhow?” This caught me a bit off guard, since historians have written about the causes of the Civil War ever since the Civil War broke out and still battle over interpretations. How does one answer a loaded question, whose answer spans monumental issues like slavery, states’ rights, constitutions and the invariable role of individuals who don’t always behave predictably? We are in the midst of commemorating the 150th anniversary of that war, which spanned from 1861-1865. More men were killed — 625,000 — in the American Civil War than in any other conflict the United States has been in since the American Revolution. (Larry Clayton is a professor of history at the University of Alabama.)