Nov. 23, 1962 - The prospective admission of a Negro to the University of Alabama has brought one of the South’s most extensive efforts to discourage racial violence. Many of the state’s prominent leaders have joined in a demand that there be no repetition of the riotous outburst that accompanied the university’s short-lived desegregation in 1956. They have drawn support from much of the press. The university’s administration under its president, Frank A. Rose, its faculty, trustees, and alumni council have figured prominently in the campaign. Their actions come in the face of a pledge by Governor-elect George C. Wallace that he will defy Federal authorities on the desegregation issue. The 131-year-old University of Alabama has had no Negro students since Miss Autherine Lucy (pictured in 1956), its first, was expelled in February 1956, after having attended classes for just three days.
