James Hood
Encyclopedia
James Hood was one of the first African Americans to enroll at the University of Alabama
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....

 in 1963 and was made famous when Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

 Governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...

 George Wallace
George Wallace
George Corley Wallace, Jr. was the 45th Governor of Alabama, serving four terms: 1963–1967, 1971–1979 and 1983–1987. "The most influential loser" in 20th-century U.S. politics, according to biographers Dan T. Carter and Stephan Lesher, he ran for U.S...

 blocked him from enrolling at the all-white university.

On June 11, 1963, in a ceremonial demonstration, Wallace stood in front of the university's Foster Auditorium
Foster Auditorium
Foster Auditorium is a multi-purpose facility at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. It was built in 1939 and has been used for Alabama basketball, women's sports , graduations, lectures, concerts, and other large gatherings, including registration...

 and delivered a short speech in support of state sovereignty. Hood arrived to pay his fees, accompanied by Vivian Malone and U.S. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach
Nicholas Katzenbach
Nicholas deBelleville Katzenbach is an American lawyer who served as United States Attorney General during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration.-Early life:...

. Wallace, backed by state troopers, refused them entry. President Kennedy nationalized the Alabama National Guard later the same day, which put them under the command of the President, rather than the Governor of Alabama. Guardsmen escorted Hood and Malone back to the auditorium, where Wallace moved aside at the request of General Henry Graham
Henry Graham (General)
Henry Vance Graham was a National Guard general who protected black activists during the Civil rights era...

. Hood and Malone then entered the building, albeit through another door. Hood left the university after only two months but returned in 1995 to earn his doctorate degree. On May 17, 1997 he received his Ph.D.

According to Wallace's secretary, Wallace's action was intended to avoid a more violent demonstration by the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...

, which Wallace himself had opposed before embracing it out of political necessity. In 1997, Wallace planned to give Hood his degree, but poor health prevented him from attending the ceremony. Hood himself was convinced that Wallace was sincere after that meeting, as he wrote in an interchange following the PBS documentary on Wallace, Setting the Woods on Fire. Hood attended Wallace's funeral in 1998, imploring others to forgive Wallace as he had, as Wallace had publicly apologized for his actions.
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