June 8, 1963 - Governor George Wallace took steps today to defy Federal court desegregation orders and yet avoid violence at the University of Alabama. Approximately 825 law enforcement officers under Col. Albert Lingo, State Commissioner of Public Safety, established rigid security measures in Tuscaloosa, a city of 63,944 persons. Yellow barricades sealed off entrances to the 132-year-old university. Some 425 state troopers and 400 revenue agents, game wardens, and others deputized by Col. Lingo maintained a watch on the campus and patrolled the area for miles around. Gov. Wallace ordered a 600-man military police unit of the Alabama National Guard to prepare to move into the Tuscaloosa area to assist the law enforcement units. Aides to Gov. Wallace visited the university this morning to survey the area at Foster Auditorium, where his confrontation with Federal authorities is expected to take place Tuesday. Vivian Malone and James Hood are scheduled to enroll at the university then, the first Negroes to attend a white public education institution in Alabama since 1956. Autherine Lucy was admitted to the university under a Federal court order that year. However, she left after three days, which were marked by sporadic rioting. She was later expelled after her lawyers had accused the university administration of complicity in the riots.
