UA’s ‘Through the Doors’ Series Continues with Film Screening, Panel Discussion

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Keith Dunnavant, sports author and former adjunct professor at The University of Alabama, invites the public to a viewing and panel discussion of his groundbreaking film, “Three Days at Foster: How Integration Turned the Tide,” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17, in the Ferguson Center Theatre on campus. Admission is free.

The event is sponsored by the UA National Alumni Association, College of Continuing Studies and the Office of Community Affairs.

The one-hour film tells of  athletes and coaches who navigated a minefield of social change to integrate sports at UA in the time of Gov. George Wallace’s 1963 stand in the schoolhouse door.

The athletes, some of whom have never before spoken publicly about their experiences, include: Danny Treadwell, a one-time civil rights protester who integrated the state basketball tournament 33 months after Wallace’s stand; Dock Rone, Andrew Pernell and Arthur Dunning, who tried to walk on to the 1967 UA football team; Wendell Hudson, UA’s first African-American scholarship athlete; and Wilbur Jackson, the first black man signed by Paul “Bear” Bryant’s football program.

Following the film screening, former athletes, administrators and faculty who were at UA during those days of change at the Capstone will join Dunnavant in discussion.

The event is part of “Through the Doors,” a year-long series of activities and events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the desegregation of UA in 1963. The series honors the courage and dedication of the two African American students who enrolled in the University on June 11, 1963, as well as the University’s ongoing commitment to change over the past 50 years and its commitment to continued progress.  For more information, visithttp://www.throughthedoors.ua.edu/index.html.