Michael J. Bandler, Washington File, June 11, 2003

Washington -- On the morning of June 11, 1963, a scene played out on the campus of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa that immediately became permanently etched into American social and political history.

Standing in the door of the main campus' auditorium that Tuesday morning, the governor of Alabama, George C. Wallace, barred two African Americans from entering the building to enroll as undergraduates. This was a violation of U.S. law -- namely, the requirement for desegregation in public education.

The U.S. Assistant Attorney General, Nicholas Katzenbach, and other federal law enforcement officials were on hand to escort the two prospective students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, inside. Katzenbach, noting that he was speaking for President John F. Kennedy, asked Wallace for "unequivocal assurance that you or anyone under your control will not bar these students."

To this, Wallace answered, "No." Several hours later, though, following several rounds of heated give-and-take involving Wallace and U.S. Government representatives that included various planned and spontaneous maneuverings, Malone and Hood returned to the auditorium to register. That simple process took all of 15 minutes. The subsequent reverberations were resounding.

From June 9 to 11 this year, the University of Alabama, which -- like the United States as a whole -- has undergone a major change with respect to civil rights, marked the 40th anniversary of Wallace's "stand in the schoolhouse door," as the act of defiance has been known ever since. A program called "Opening Doors," with the subtheme "for all generations to come," is calling to mind evidence of that evolution, maturation and growth.

(The first African American to enroll at the school, whose founding was in 1831, was Autherine Lucy, who arrived in February 1956 to pursue a master's degree in library science. But after experiencing three days of threats, demonstrations and organized lawfulness on campus, she was suspended from classes by the university's board of trustees, ostensibly for her own safety. When civil rights lawyers brought suit against the school, the board used that suit as a pretext for expelling Lucy. More than 35 years later, she gained a master's degree in elementary education at Alabama, graduating at the same ceremonies at which her daughter was awarded her own bachelor's degree in corporate finance.)

Vivian Malone -- now Vivian Malone Jones -- is returning to Tuscaloosa for the commemoration, along with Lucy -- now Autherine Lucy Foster -- and Hood. Jones' portrait, in fact, hangs on a wall of a university building. After graduating from Alabama in 1965 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in management -- the first African American to receive a degree from the university -- she joined the U.S. Department of Justice as a staff member of its civil rights division. Over more than three decades, she served with distinction in Washington, particularly at the Environmental Protection Agency, where she was director of civil rights and urban affairs and director of environmental justice before retiring in 1996 to enter the private sector in the life insurance field. In 2001, her alma mater bestowed on her a doctorate of humane letters.

Vivian Malone Jones and George Wallace had one more meeting after their confrontation at "the schoolhouse door" -- in October 1996 -- when the Wallace Family Foundation selected the African-American woman to receive the first tribute named for the ex-governor's late wife -- the Lurleen B. Wallace Award for Courage. Jones said at the time that she had forgiven her former nemesis years before, but had never had a chance to speak with him about it. For his part, the ex-governor (who died two years later, in September 1998), said simply, "Vivian Malone Jones was at the center of the fight over states' rights and conducted herself with grace, strength and, above all, courage."

If Jones successfully withstood the tempest on campus, Hood did not. Two months after his tumultuous enrollment, James Hood transferred to Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, earning his Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and police administration. After that, he earned a master's degree in criminal justice administration from Michigan State University in Lansing.

After spending four years as a deputy police chief in Detroit, he joined the administration of a technical college in Madison, Wisconsin. He returned to his first campus in 1995 to work on a doctorate in higher education administration, which he received in 1997. In his honor, the university annually grants the James Hood Award to recipients who have demonstrated academic achievement, triumphing over formidable odds.

Wallace, who, by 1997, had apologized both to Hood and Jones, was prevented by ill health from attending the 1997 commencement and presenting the postgraduate degree to Hood. But that didn't dampen the significance of the moment in any way. As reported by the Associated Press, Hood described himself as "numb" as he experienced a milestone he had "looked forward to for a long time."

The commemoration the week of June 9 -- with its honored guests, its photographic and textual exhibition, and its various lectures on such subjects as the politics and reporting of the moment -- calls to mind, too, Washington's prompt response to Wallace's fleeting moment in the spotlight on June 11, 1963, when he tried to defy the law of the land. The reaction came in the form of a radio-television address by President Kennedy that same evening, hours after the unrest was gradually beginning to subside on the Tuscaloosa campus.

Speaking forthrightly about what he termed "a moral issue ... as old as the Scriptures and ... as clear as the American Constitution," the president maintained that it was the obligation of the Congress, state and local governments and private citizens to ensure "equal rights and equal opportunities" for all Americans.

Referring pointedly to the events of the day, he cited candidly the various inequities that existed between blacks and whites in U.S. society at the time. Emphasizing the fact that African Americans no longer could be "content with the counsels of patience and delay" with regard to the slow pace toward equality for all Americans, he announced that his administration would call upon Congress to use the legislative process to commit "to the proposition that race has no place in American life or law." One year later (about eight months after JFK's assassination), Congress enacted, and President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law, the first Civil Rights Act.

The commemorative celebration this week, in part, paid tribute to individuals designated as "pioneers." Some of these honorees are the men and women who facilitated the entry of Malone and Hood, the college deans, the residence hall director, and Donald Wilbur Stewart -- a future U.S. senator -- who, as a student leader on campus in 1963, invited Hood to join his lunch table. And then there are the other "pioneers," the beneficiaries of this selflessness -- African Americans who have gone on to prominent careers as judges, educators, businessmen and attorneys, among them Fred Gray, the current president of the Alabama State Bar Association.

The campus they are visiting contrasts sharply with the one whose paths they traversed regularly at one point or another over the past 40 years. Today, 13.3 percent of the overall student body -- undergraduate and graduate -- are African American, as are 14.3 percent of the undergraduates. In addition, 2002 figures show that 15.3 percent of faculty and staff members are African American.

In living their lives as they have, the "pioneers," along with millions of other Americans from across the spectrum of races, ethnicities and cultures, have taken to heart the words of George Washington Carver, the early 20th-century African-American scientist and educator: "When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world."

The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.