On this day in 1956
by Jerry Mitchell, Mississippi Today
March 1, 2024
March 1, 1956
The University of Alabama expelled Autherine Lucy, the first Black student ever admitted. Thousands of students rioted.
Lucy charged in court that university officials had been complicit in allowing the disorder, as a means of avoiding compliance with the court order. The trustees expelled her for making such 鈥渙utrageous, false and baseless accusations.鈥
In 1980, the university overturned her expulsion, and a dozen years later, she earned a master鈥檚 degree in elementary education at the university, which endowed a scholarship in her name. The institution also hung a portrait with this inscription: 鈥淗er initiative and courage won the right for students of all races to attend the university.鈥
When the university honored her with a monument in 2019, she looked at the huge gathering and said, 鈥淭he last time I saw a crowd like this, I didn鈥檛 know what they were waiting for.鈥
She told the students, 鈥淚f you don鈥檛 know your history, you will forget your past.鈥 She recalled the hate she was showered with when she enrolled and the scripture that gave her strength: 鈥淭he Lord is with me; I will not fear: What can man do to me?鈥
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