Autherine Lucy
| Autherine Juanita Lucy | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Born |
Autherine Juanita Lucy October 5, 1929 Shiloh, Alabama, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Citizenship | U.S. |
| Education |
Selma University AA in English Miles College in Fairfield, Alabama, BA in English, 1952 University of Alabama, MA in Elementary Education, 1992 |
| Alma mater | Selma University, Miles College, University of Alabama |
| Occupation | Educator, professor |
| Years active | 1956-present |
| Known for | First African-American student to attend the University of Alabama, 1956 |
Autherine Juanita Lucy (born October 5, 1929) was the first African-American student to attend the University of Alabama, in 1956.
Lucy was born in Shiloh, Alabama. Her father was a sharecropper; she was the youngest child in a family of five sons and four daughters. After attending public school in Shiloh through grade ten, she attended Linden Academy in Linden, Alabama. She graduated in 1947, and went on to attend Selma University in Selma for two years, after which she studied at the historically black Miles College in Fairfield. She graduated from Miles with a BA in English in 1952.
In September 1952, she and a friend, Pollie Myers, a civil rights activist with the NAACP, applied to the University of Alabama. Lucy later said that she wanted a second undergraduate degree, not for political reasons but to get the best possible education in the state. Although the women were accepted, their admittance was rescinded when the authorities discovered they were not white. Backed by the NAACP, Lucy and Myers charged the University with racial discrimination in a court case that took almost three years to resolve. While waiting, Lucy worked as an English teacher in Carthage, Mississippi, and as a secretary at an insurance company.
On June 29, 1955, the NAACP secured a court order preventing the University from rejecting the admission applications of Lucy and Myers (who had married and was then known as Pollie Myers Hudson) based upon their race. Lucy was finally admitted to the University but it rejected Hudson on the grounds that a child she had conceived before marriage made her an unsuitable student. Even though Lucy was officially admitted, she was still barred from all dormitories and dining halls. Days later, the court amended the order to apply to all other African-American students seeking admission. At least two sources have said that the board hoped that without Hudson, the more outgoing and assured of the pair and whose idea it originally was to enroll at Alabama, Lucy's own acceptance would mean little or nothing to her, and she would voluntarily choose not to attend. But Hudson and others strongly encouraged her, and on February 3, 1956, Lucy enrolled as a graduate student in library science, becoming the first African American ever admitted to a white public school or university in the state.
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