As the University of Alabama prepares to commemorate 60 years since the institution officially desegregated, another milestone is being recognized.

Earlier this month, Ashlee Woods became the first Black woman to ascend to editor-in-chief of the school’s 129-year-old newspaper, the Crimson White (CW).

A Delaware native and rising senior majoring in news media, she is the third Black person to hold the role.

“A campus newspaper has the unique opportunity to link the town with the college and its students and staff. Under my direction, I’ll strive to tell not only the diverse stories on campus, but the ones on the streets of Tuscaloosa as well,” Woods wrote in a letter published in the CW.

Woods has served in multiple positions at the CW and is the outgoing editor-in-chief of the Black-led student magazine, Nineteen Fifty-Six. The magazine’s title comes from the year 1956, when a Black woman, Autherine Lucy, spent just three days on campus before being expelled by the UA Board of Trustees following a violent backlash from pro-segregation students and others. The university opposed Lucy’s enrollment when they learned she was Black, but a court order forced UA to admit her. It wasn’t until June 1963 that two Black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, were successfully enrolled in the university, following Gov. George Wallace’s failed Stand in the Schoolhouse Door.

“That’s kind of crazy, that it correlates with that,” Woods told Alabama News Center.

“It’s a step in the right direction for the University of Alabama,” Woods said, who plans, among her priorities as editor-in-chief, to work toward making the CW more inclusive.

“Ashlee brings a wealth of experience to the position,” Monique Fields, the UA Office of Student Media’s associate director of editorial and the CW’s advisor, told the CW in a story about Woods.

“Ashlee envisions a student-run newspaper that serves the campus and the surrounding community, and she will leave an indelible mark on it,” Fields said.

Woods follows pioneers such as Vivian Malone who, 60 years earlier, was the first Black woman to successfully enroll at the University of Alabama in June 1963. (University of Alabama)

Woods was initially a political science major. But after taking the spring 2020 semester off, she switched to news media. In May 2020 she “found her footing” at the newspaper as a sports reporter, according to the CW story.

An award-winning writer, she was the spring 2021 assistant sports editor and the 2021-22 sports editor, during which she appeared on the popular SEC Network Paul Finebaum show six times. She also served as a sports intern at the Tuscaloosa News and worked as an intern at the Birmingham Business Journal.

“All the sports writers admired Ashlee, and it was a testament to her natural leadership,” Keely Brewer, the CW’s 2021-22 editor-in-chief, said in the CW story about Woods. “She created a newsroom environment that made her writers want to put in long hours of hard work for the betterment of the paper, and I know she’ll do the same as editor-in-chief.”

“I think the CW is doing great things, but I think we can also be better, and I always want us to be better,” Woods said in the CW story announcing her new position. “I want to challenge us to grow.”

She said she plans to continue the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts launched by Rebecca Griesbach, the CW’s 2020-21 editor-in-chief, which has included expanding the number of diverse sources quoted in the paper and the creation of a race and identity desk in coordination with Masthead, an alumni group focused on promoting an inclusive environment for UA student journalists of color.

Under Woods, the paper is adding a diversity, equity and inclusion chairperson to the editorial staff, according to the CW story. That person will be responsible for “creating and implementing diversity and inclusion practices at the Crimson White” and will work closely with Woods to further her DEI goals.

“I’m really challenging anyone that becomes an editor under me to really think about every story that is possible that we can tell, and every way that we can possibly tell it, because diversity in media is not just about who’s telling the stories, but what kind of stories we’re telling and how we’re telling the stories,” Woods said in the CW story.

“Accountability doesn’t stop at what we’re covering, but who is covering the stories on campus,” Woods said in her letter. “The CW must continue to work to ensure that all perspectives are shared.”