The Civil Rights Hero Who Defied Racial Segregation

By Dannie D. Gore, Sr. ||||

Vivian Juanita Malone was one of the first two African American students to enroll at the University of
Alabama in 1963 and the University’s first African American graduate. She was made famous by defying
Alabama Governor George Wallace’s infamous “stand in the schoolhouse door” to block her and James
Hood from enrolling in the all-white university. Her entrance to the university came as the civil rights
struggle raged across the South. On June 12th, the day after Malone And Hood were escorted into the
university by federalized National guard troops, the civil rights leader Medgar Evers was shot to death.
-The Weekly Challenger