June 11, 1963

Gov. George Wallace temporarily blocked the enrollment of African-Americans Vivian Malone and James Hood to the University of Alabama by positioning himself at the entrance of Foster Auditorium. Known as the “stand in the schoolhouse door,” the incident was meant to symbolically oppose federal integration of schools and to make good on a campaign promise that Wallace would block any attempts at integration. Wallace delivered a speech denouncing the federal government and refused to move until Brig. Gen. Henry V. Graham arrived from Washington under President John F. Kennedy’s authority. The event received national coverage, and Wallace used the recognition to launch four unsuccessful presidential campaigns.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

George Wallace blocks the entrance to Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama in 1963 as a National Guardsman asks him to step aside. Wallace symbolically blocked the entrance of the first registered African-American students after mandatory school desegregation was enacted by the federal government. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, Photo courtesy of the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, University of Alabama Libraries)

Barbour County native George C. Wallace (1919-1998) dominated Alabama politics from the 1960s to the 1980s, serving four terms as governor. He also campaigned four times for the U.S. presidency. Wallace is best known for his virulent defense of segregation. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, Photo courtesy of the Alabama Department of Archives and History)

Photograph showing Gov. George Wallace standing defiantly at a door while being confronted by Deputy U.S. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, June 11, 1963. (Photograph by Warren K. Leffler, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.