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James Hood Dies: Defied Wallace; Integrated U of Alabama

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A hero left us yesterday Thursday.

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Photo credit:  The Birmingham News/Tamika Moore

James Hood, one of two African American students determined to attend the whites-only University of Alabama, has died at age 70.

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In 1963, Mr. Hood and Vivian Malone defied Alabama’s racist governor George Wallace, and a racist power structure and populace, to avail themselves of the right to a public college education.

It was a time that people growing up today can’t even begin to imagine. It was the year of George Wallace’s rancid speech pledging fealty to “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

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Five months later, Mr. Hood and Ms. Malone would force Wallace to eat those words in a very public way. But their decision, on June 11, 1963, to stand up for their rights by registering for classes, sparked Wallace’s infamous declaration the he would “stand in the schoolhouse door” before he would allow African American students to enter.

As with Rosa Parks’s ultimate refusal to surrender her seat on the bus, this was not a spur-of-the-moment decision. It was carefully planned, and Mr, Hood and Ms. Malone were accompanied to the University by Assistant Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, in an effort to ensure both their success and their safety.

When Katzenbach confronted him, Wallace refused to budge and began filibustering with all the racist rhetorical bluster he could summon. President Kennedy, in another act of heroism, federalized and then mobilized the Alabama National Guard, led by General Henry Graham, to escort Mr. Hood and Ms. Malone to register for classes.  Upon finding Wallace still blocking the door, General Graham advised him:  “Sir, it is my sad duty to ask you to step aside under the orders of the President of the United States.” Wallace filibustered a while longer, but eventually stepped aside.

Mr. Hood and Ms. Malone crossed the threshold of the University of Alabama auditorium . . . and the rest is history.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, James Hood wound up leaving the university after two months, transferring to another university to earn his degree. The pressure must have been lethal.

However, he wound up proving that determination and moral justice are not bound by any schedule, and returned to the university in the late 1990s to earn a doctorate. Reportedly, George Wallace had planned to be the one to award that degree to Mr. Hood, but his ill health prevented him from doing so. Mr. Hood, however, made publicly clear that he was convinced of the truth and honesty of Wallace’s conversion – and publicly forgave Wallace for his earlier actions, even attending his funeral.

On November 3, 2010, a dedication ceremony took place at the University of Alabama: the Autherine Lucy Clock Tower and Malone-Hood Plaza at the Foster Auditorium. At the dedication, a photojournalist captured the meeting of Mr. Hood and Attorney General Eric Holder:

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Photo credit:  The Birmingham News file photo.

Today, on the wall of that auditorium, there hangs a plaque. Quoting James Hood, it says:  

“One person can make a difference if that one person is committed to making a difference.”

James Hood was an ordinary man, and a great man; he epitomized what it means to be a hero. His life was a testament to courage, and strength, and honor, and forgiveness. We are all poorer today for his loss . . . but we are all richer for having had him make such a seminal difference in our country and our society.

Diarist’s Note: Oh, the irony: The first link I opened was from a Tennessee news site, News Channel 9.  Prominently displayed in bright red and white on the left-hand sidebar next to the top of the main story, where it cannot be missed, is the title “Petition to Secede,” followed by a link to “Tennessee” (asking that Tennessee be allowed to secede from the union and create its own government), and then a link to the main White House petition site. The more things change . . . .

Time for the people of Tennessee – and all the rest of us – to be committed to making a difference . . . and then to make that difference.

Cross-posted from the GOS, where it was posted Friday evening.


Categories: General.

/ 42 Comments

42 comments

  1. Aji

    May we all be so committed to making a difference.

    [I’ll be in and out this afternoon.  Someone has demanded sweetly requested blue-corn frybread, so I’ll be periodically covered in dough.]

  3. Nurse Kelley

    I read it the other day – and was saddened to learn of James Hood’s death. His courage and tenacity helped change history.

    Blue-corn frybread? At your convenience, may we have the recipe? 🙂

  6. Susan from 29

    time, that we were going to actually make some progress. That someday with enough men and women willing to commit to making a difference we would learn to live together.

    James Hood was a man of rare courage, thank you for your diary.

  7. nomandates

    Love the way you summed up Mr. Hood’s life:

    James Hood was an ordinary man, and a great man; he epitomized what it means to be a hero. His life was a testament to courage, and strength, and honor, and forgiveness.

    And thanks for giving me an excuse to re-read your diary today.

  9. blue jersey mom

    One person can change the world. I remember this happening. I was in about 6th or 7th grade at the time.

  10. Peter Jukes

    …until I read your diary I knew shamefully little about.

    It seems my comment to you just now was irrelevant

    http://www.motleymoose.com/sho…

    The pace here is reliant on the community. Diaries have a half life of days rather than hours – so you wouldn’t be stepping on anyone’s toes. Often diaries get frontpaged by one of the editors, for discussion, or just because they’re good and look good.

    Major tip for those coveting an FP spot: a nice image above the fold is vital, and if you find one yourself you’ll be the apple of the editors’ eyes.

    You knew what to do implicitly before I’d even commented and… hey presto… you’re on the front page.

    Great job. I look forward to seeing more of your stuff my fellow Mooz*

    *Aji first told us about the native American origins of the name a year or so back.  

  11. Chris Blask

    And thank you, Mr. Hood, to you and a family who raised and supported you well.

    This half-century after the events that led to Mr. Hood’s deserved fame mark a quantum in time which – while arbitrary in length – are cause to reflect not only on where we have come from but how far we have traveled.

    It was a time that people growing up today can’t even begin to imagine.

    This is blessedly true. It was, in fact, the hopes of those like Mr. Hood at the time that there would come a day when this statement would be true. That people growing up would not be able to imagine the world they lived in, then.

    While the struggle for equal rights and respect is not over, it is important in any such struggle to note the changing shape of the effort. My brother, my wife and many of my friends were born in that same year that Gov. Wallace stood in a doorway publicly uttering vileness. Those our age were literally the infants born on the days the great moments of the civil rights movement occurred, we were the babies Mr. Hood and so many others hoped would grow up in a world which could not even being to imagine their own.

    But, in the fullness of time, even that same Governor came to see the error of his ways. I trust Mr. Hood, being in a much better position than I to judge the veracity of that fact.

    Mr. Hood, however, made publicly clear that he was convinced of the truth and honesty of Wallace’s conversion – and publicly forgave Wallace for his earlier actions, even attending his funeral.

    We have to allow those around us to change if we are to gain our own freedom. We have to let them attain their freedom from the walls they do not see.

    “I wear the chain I forged in life….I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.”

    Mr. Hood not only freed himself and those who were, like him, barred from equal participation in society. He freed those who stood against him from the cells they had imprisoned themselves in. He freed me, he freed Donna, he freed my brother and all of our peers from being bound into the chains of those who came before us.

    Dr. King in his seminal I have a Dream speech in Washington DC only two months later shared that vision. While he brooked no question that the fight for justice was for people of color, he made clear in that most contentious time that the ultimate goal would be the final freedom for all of us.

    …for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

    Thank you, Mr. Hood, for giving me and my children our freedom.

  12. suesue

    Born in 1957, this was all happening when I was a child. We watched it on television. It was frightening to me.  

  14. bubbanomics

    I’ve started and cancelled comments a number of times…

    these are the times and events of my adolescence, and they can even 30-40 years later be tough to face.

    When I was in college at Auburn, I saw George Wallace reelected (and I have his signature on a diploma). I went with a friend and school photojournalist to Wallace’s reelection party, and I was amazed at the number of African Americans cheering him on.

    Educational barriers were tough indeed.  Integration of public schools has helped: the younger generations are clearly more accepting.  On the other hand, that particular event (which sparked hostile protests not only in Nashville but also in Boston) seemed to have provided energy for private fundamentalist Christian schools (in the south at least) for the white suburban kids to avoid interaction with “the other.”  I’d like to see data on the growth of Christian education in the south and whether or not it correlates with GOP voting patterns therein.

    Just reading this fine tribute makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up a little.

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