James A. Hood, First To Integrate Alabama Univ., Dies at 70

He and fellow student Vivian Malone were first blacks to challenge college’s segregation

James A. Hood, one of two black students to integrate the University of Alabama in 1963, died on Thursday in Gadsden, Ala, his daughter Mary Hood confirmed. He was 70. On the morning of June 11, 1963, Hood and fellow student Vivian Malone, backed by a federal court order, became the first African Americans to successfully pursue a degree at the university. (A black woman, Autherine Lucy, had been admitted in 1956 but was suspended three days after, when the university was hit by riots.) Then-Gov. George C. Wallace infamously declared “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever,” and blocked the entrance to the university’s Tuscaloosa campus. President John F. Kennedy federalized several hundred national guardsmen to the campus to ensure Hood and Malone were able to begin their college careers that day. (New York Times)

Below, view video of an interview Hood gave to the Gadsden Times:

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