The integration of the University of Georgia and the University of Mississippi placed added pressure on the remaining hold-outs among southern segregated universities. The University of Alabama and its extension campuses at Birmingham and Huntsville remained all-white, despite the enrollment of Autherine Lucy in 1957. When Lucy was suspended on grounds of personal safety, Alabama officials hoped that the action would stall further attempts to integrate. The state’s experience with university desegregation followed divergent paths. In Tuscaloosa, the “schoolhouse stand” of Gov. George Wallace exhibited the demagoguery that marked Massive Resistance to desegregation; however, in Huntsville, the quiet integration of the University of Alabama at Huntsville (UAH) demonstrated that federal economic pressure, combined with a moderate racial climate, could result in limited gains with broader community acceptance.
Summer 1963: Integrating the University of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Huntsville7/25/2013
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Becoming Alabama:
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