Stand in the schoolhouse door
Someone died today...............................
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June 11, 1963.
For nine long, agonizing years, the State of Alabama had refused to desegregate. The Supreme Court of the United States had ruled in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas that the long national sin of "separate but equal" and was not longer the law of the land. African Americans were able to take advantage of their inalienable right to liberty. In higher education, there was one holdout: Alabama. Every other state in the Deep South had integrated, except Alabama.
But Governor George C. Wallace was committed to racism. Blacks and whites simply should not mingle, he said. This was not a matter of state's rights (a thin, torn, ugly veil for racism). This was not a matter of "educating the Negro" until the Black Race had achieved the same level of civilization and moral righteousness that white folk had. Blacks were inferior, and blacks should not and could not and would never mix with white people. Wallace was a former member of the Alabama House of Representatives and former state circuit court judge. He had opposed racial integration his entire life, even as a judge. He ran for governor in 1958 and was defeated. He roused his racial hatred to new heights, and was elected in a landslide in November 1962. He took the oath of office standing on the gold star marking the spot where, 102 years earlier, Jefferson Davis had been sworn in as President of the Confederate States of America. In his inaugural speech, Wallace announced: "In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." (His speechwriter had bastardized Hebrews 13:8 in order to give Wallace this line of heresy.)
Wallace had a particular interest in education. He pushed for and won legislation establishing a community college system throughout the state, one which allowed graduates to continue their education at the state's four-year universities. He also pushed for the creation of the University of South Alabama, a new state university in Mobile.
It was ugly in Alabama. On April 6 and 7, police in Birmingham let loose packs of attack dogs on peaceful African American marchers. Police blamed the blacks for kicking the dogs, and jailed 42 marchers -- including the blind singer, Al Hibbler. Still the marchers came. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led another protest march in Birmingham, and 350 blacks were jailed. On April 24, racists shot dead a white mailman from Baltimore, William Moore, who was making a solitary anti-segregation protest march. On May 3 and 4, 500 blacks were arrested after Birmingham police charged into a peaceful protest march using attack dogs and horses trained to rear and kick at people's heads. Blacks in the city rioted; another 1,000, and then another 3,000, blacks were jailed. On May 11, the city's downtown department stores agreed to integrate -- ending the crisis temporarily. Nonetheless, President John F. Kennedy began stationing federal troops near Birmingham on May 12, fearing the worst. On May 20, the Birmingham city schools expelled 1,100 black students who had participated in the protests.
Then on May 20, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a city that makes segregation a policy by ordinance or official statements could not prosecute a black person for seeking service in a privately-owned business.
And then came the hammer blow: On May 21, Federal District Judge Hobart H. Grooms told the University of Alabama that it must admit two black students -- Vivian Malone and James Hood -- on June 10.
Governor George Wallace announced he would permit no nigger to enter the doors of the sacred University of Alabama. The U.S. Department of Justice Department sued the state to prevent Wallace from interfering with the desegregation of the university. U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, attempting to defuse the situation, secretly met with black leaders from around the nation on May 25. Kennedy begged them to call off the protests, to allow things to cool off. The black leaders said no. They would continue to protest, march, and picket until the university capitulated. The following day, U.S. marshals attempted to serve Governor Wallace with a federal injunction requiring him to let the university integrate. Steel-helmeted Alabama State Troopers shamefully surrounded a leering Wallace -- preventing the writ of the court from being served on the former judge. But the U.S. Supreme Court would not be denied: Wallace had petitioned the court to order the removal of the federal troops from Alabama, but the Court refused his request. On June 1, Governor Wallace declared that no nigger would enroll at the University of Alabama -- the U.S. Supreme Court be damned. He declared he would "stand in the schoolhouse door" and physically prevent Malone and Hood (whom he described as "pawns of the NAACP") from entering.
On June 6, the University of Alabama said it would enroll Malone and Hood on June 12. A third black student, Dave McGlathery (a graduate student and mathematician working for NASA), would enroll at the University of Alabama at Huntsville two days later.
On June 7, the federal government ordered the long-scheduled summer-time training call-up of the Alabama National Guard and the Mississippi National Guard. Guard troops were ordered to report their bases. Although some in the Deep South saw this as a plot to deprive the states of their trooops, the Pentagon reminded these conspiracy-theorists that the troop training had been scheduled for six months, and the fact that it was occurring on the eve of the University of Alabama's integration was coincidence. What was not coincidence, however, was that 2,000 members of the 2d Infantry Division were moved from Ft. Benning, Georgia, to Ft. McClellan, Alabama, and ordered to stay on high alert. Another 50 members of the Army Signal Corps were moved to Ft. McClellan as well, along with a number of U.S. Marine Corps helicopters.
Determined to resist, Wallace ordered 750 Alabama State Troopers into Tuscaloosa on June 7. The University of Alabama campus was sealed, with only students, faculty, and a few authorized personnel allowed onto the grounds. On June 10, Wallace himself arrived in Tuscaloosa. He called up 500 Alabama National Guardsmen to assist the now 850 State Troopers who were sealing off the university grounds. In Washington, D.C., President Kennedy stood by -- ready to sign an order federalizing the 31st (Dixie) Division of the Alabama National Guard. Pentagon officials were on alert too, with instructions to order the 31st Division to open the school grounds to the two students. As the afternoon wore on, Alabama National Guardsmen played war-games -- one platoon pretending to be rioters throwing pine cones and shouting "Yankee go home!", while the others drilled with bayonet-tipped M-1 carbines, pushing them back. Wallace laughed as he watched.
On June 11, civil rights activist Medgar Evers was murdered in Mississippi. That night, President Kennedy delivered a nationally televised address in which he said the nation faced a "moral crisis" as a result of rising racial tension.
Then came June 12. It was stiflingly hot. At 11:00 A.M., Deputy U.S. Attorney General Nicholas deBelleville Katzenbach came to the campus of the University of Alabama in a tan government-owned sedan. Katzenbach, who had arrived in Tuscaloosa the day before, was deeply worried. Wallace sent Kennedy a telegram on June 10 demanding that federal troops withdraw from Alabama. Kennedy refused, and demanded that Wallace leave Tuscaloosa and allow the campus to integrate peacefully. Wallace replied tersely that he would not do so. Although the University of Alabama campus had allegedly been sealed, a crowd of more than 300 angry white people -- some of them clearly armed -- had gathered at the entrance of Foster Auditorium, the university's main building and the site of the univesity's registrar's office. Katzenbach believed it would be a horrible media spectacle for Wallace to stand his ground while two black students, humiliated, turned away. Even if federal troops seized the campus the following day and admitted the students, the damage would have been done. Katzenbach resolved, therefore, to keep Malone and Hood in the car. He would confront Wallace alone -- white privilege to white privilege. There would be no violence, no humiliation. And he would do what he would have to do the following day.
Wallace stood in the main entrance of Foster Auditorium at a small lectern. He was flanked by a large number of Alabama State Troopers. To either side of the sidewalk stood a number of angry whites, newspapers reporters, and more troopers.
Katzenbach go out of his car. The television cameras began whirring. Flanked by a U.S. marshal and a United States attorney, Katzenbach walked up to Wallace.
Wallace yelled "Stop!" He held out a hand, like Nazi or a traffic cop. The 6'2" tall Katzenbach stood about three feet in front of the lectern. He read a presidential proclamation ordering that the students be admitted. He lowered the paper, and then asked Governor Wallace to step aside.
For the next five minutes, the 5'7" tall Wallace read a statement attacking the federal government and blasting the suppression of "states' rights." Wallace finished, and looked at Katzenbach.
Wallace sniffed. "I'm not interested in this show," he said. He asked Wallace a second time to step aside. Wallace refused. He asked a third time, and again Wallace refused. Katzenbach asked a fourth and final time, and still Wallace refused.
Katzenbach returend to his car. President Kennedy signed the legislation federalizing the Alabama National Guard.
What Katzenbach did not know was that Alabama's clergy, political leaders, businessmen, and educators had been frantically lobbying the governor over the past several days to stand down. They were terrified of a repeat of the bloody violence and rioting which had occurred at the University of Mississippi when it had integrated. They let Wallace know that if that happened in Tuscaloosa, George C. Wallace could kiss the next gubernatorial election goodbye. Wallace hesitated. He was, above all things, power-hungry. Wallace was convinced that the public was behind him, but he worried that such united opposition from the state's political and business elite would deny him the governorship. Around 1:00 P.M. on June 12, Wallace was told that Brigadier General Henry V. Graham was on the phone. Graham led the 31st (Dixie) Division. Wallace took the call. Graham informed Wallace that the Alabama National Guard had been federalized, and that Graham would follow the orders given to him by the President of the United States. Graham and Wallace talked briefly some more. Then Wallace hung up.
At 3:00 P.M., Nicholas Katzenbach returned to the entrance of Foster Auditorium. Again Wallace stood in the doorway. This time however, Katzenbach was escorted by several Alabama National Guardsmen and General Graham. Katzenbach told him that the Alabama National Guard was now under the control of the federal government. He asked Wallace to step aside. Wallace hesitated. General Graham then asked Wallace to step aside.
George C. Wallace condemned the federalization of his troops as "illegal usurpation." Then he stepped aside.
Malone and Hood were escorted into Foster Auditorium through a side entrance, where they registered for classes without incident. Both attended classes and lived in the dormitories, without incident.
Wallace returned to the state capital in Montgomery, where he seethed in his office. He sent a message to President Kennedy, informing him that the federal government was now responsible for protecting the University of Alabama campus. Kennedy swiftly replied that Wallace would be held responsible for any disruption of the peace. Wallace was furious, but he had little choice now. State troopers stayed on duty in Tuscaloosa, ensuring that there were no disturbances. One hundred troopers patrolled the university campus for several weeks. When severeal renegade Alabama National Guardsmen set off explosions on the campus and in a nearby black neighborhood a few weeks later, the state police prosecuted them vigorously.
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Vivian Malone received a Bachelor of Arts in business management from the University of Alabama in 1965. She joined the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice. She retired in 1996 as Director of Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, and as Director of Environmental Justice for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The University of Alabama bestowed a doctorate of humane letters on her in 2000. She died in 2005 of a stroke. Her brother-in-law was Eric Holder, the current U.S. Attorney General.
James Hood left the University of Alabama after attending classes there for only two months. He enrolled at Wayne State University in Detroit, where he received a bachelor's degree. He earned a master's degree from Michigan State University, and then returned to the University of Alabama in 1995 as a doctoral student. He received his Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration on May 17, 1997.
Dave McGlathery was one of the first African American professionals ever hired by NASA. He is the the great-grandson of a slave, and the great-greatgrandson of a white slave owner. He enrolled at the University of Alabama at Huntsville without incident, after George Wallace, in a fit of pique, refused to stop him. McGlathery failed his first graduate-level mathematics class at the University of Alabama, but received an "A" the second time around. He received his master's degree in systems engineering management from the Florida Institute of Technology. By 2003, he had been promoted by NASA to senior aerospace engineer in configuration and data management in the Engineering Directorate. In that capacity, he was the lead configuration and data management auditor at the Marshall Space Flight Center. As of 2003, McGlathery was the longest-serving black professional at Marshall -- with more than 40 years of service with NASA and 45 years in the federal civil service.
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So who died?
Nicholas deBelleville Katzenbach died Tuesday night at his home in Skillman, N.J. He was 90 years old.