May 29, 1956

On May 29, 1956, Fannie Motley graduated from Spring Hill College, becoming the first African-American student to graduate from a previously all-white college in Alabama. Her graduation drew national media attention, with a photograph of Motley wearing her cap and gown published in The New York Times, Time, Jet and many other media outlets. Motley graduated with honors from the college in Mobile and later had a scholarship named in her honor at her alma mater. She attended all-black Selma University from 1944 to 1946 but her education was interrupted by the birth of two sons. At Spring Hill, she was the only African-American student and often the only female in her classes but her time there was described as peaceful. The year of Motley’s graduation, her brother, Nelson Smith, co-founded the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. After a career in teaching, she died on May 18, 2016.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Fannie Smith Motley (1927-2016) in her graduation garb. Motley was the first African-American graduate of a previously all-white college in Alabama. She graduated with honors from Spring Hill College in Mobile in 1956 and went on to a teaching career in Mobile and later in Cincinnati, Ohio. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Spring Hill College Archives)

Spring Hill College, Main Building, Mobile, May 7, 1936. (Photograph by E.W. Russell, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

Spring Hill College, Main Building, Mobile, Feb. 27, 1934. (Photograph by W. N. Manning, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

Fannie Smith Motley’s brother Nelson Smith was a co-founder, with Fred Shuttlesworth, of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights in Birmingham. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Birmingham Civil Rights Institute)

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