UA’s W.S. Hoole Library Celebrates ‘Opening Doors’ with Two Special Exhibits

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library has coordinated two exhibitions as part of the 40th Anniversary “Opening Doors” celebration at The University of Alabama.

A three-day program, known as “Opening Doors,” is planned for June 9-11 on the UA campus to commemorate the events of June 11, 1963, when Vivian Malone (now Vivian Malone Jones) and James Hood enrolled at UA following then Gov. George Wallace’s infamous “stand in the schoolhouse door.” Wallace stood in the doorway of Foster Auditorium to block the two students’ entrance, but stepped aside following a confrontation with federal authorities.

An exhibition in the Hoole Library, “Opening Doors: From Both Sides of the Threshold, Segregation, Civil Rights, and Beyond at The University of Alabama” opens Tuesday, June 10 and features materials that document the turbulent and triumphant path of the UA and Tuscaloosa community from the 1950s to the present. The exhibition will remain on display through Sept. 26, 2003.

UA’s W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library is located on the 2nd floor of Mary Harmon Bryant Hall, on Hackberry Lane.

Included in the exhibition are photographs, published works, scrapbooks, artifacts and selected manuscript materials. Highlights of the exhibition include a never before exhibited group of photographs taken by Jim Oakley in 1956.

Oakley graduated from UA in 1958 and served as publisher of the Centerville Press for more than 30 years before returning to the University as placement director for the College of Communication and Information Sciences in 1985, a post he still holds. Oakley also has served as president of the Alabama Press Association.

Also on display in the exhibit will be selected materials from two of the 40 pioneers who will be honored as part of the Opening Doors celebration, Buford Boone and Hank Black.

Boone is the late former editor of The Tuscaloosa News who received a Pulitzer Prize for his 1956 editorials in support of desegregation and decrying mob rule. The “Buford Boone Collection” is part of the Hoole Library’s manuscript materials and features correspondence relating to his Pulitzer Prize winning editorials.

Black was editor of UA’s student newspaper, Crimson White, and facilitated articles that documented the story of UA’s integration. Today, Black is a media relations specialist for The University of Alabama at Birmingham. His materials are on loan to the exhibit.

A second exhibition “Opening Doors: Pioneers in Pictures” will be on display Tuesday, June 10 in the Bryant Conference Center and on the afternoon of the Wednesday, June 11 on the UA quad. The exhibit features photographs and biographical information on the 40 pioneers who are being recognized through the Opening Doors events.

Both exhibitions are curated by Jessica Lacher-Feldman, public and outreach services coordinator for the W.S. Hoole Library, and Marvel Maring, graduate student from the School of Library and Information Studies program, and the MFA program in the Book Arts.

For more information about the exhibitions, please contact Jessica Lacher-Feldman at archives@bama.ua.edu or at 205/348-0500. The W.S. Hoole Library is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Thursday evenings until 9 p.m.

For more information on the complete activities of the three-day program, visit the UA Web site at www.ua.edu/openingdoors/.