June 11, 1963: Everyone remembers that George Wallace "stood in the schoolhouse door." What everyone should remember is that he was removed from that door.
On January 14, 1963, Wallace was sworn in as Governor of Alabama for the 1st time -- of what would be 4. Alabama's Governors are sworn in while standing on a star on the floor of the front of the State House in Montgomery. That star marks the spot where Jefferson Davis stood as he was sworn in as President of the Confederate States of America on February 22, 1862. And in his Inaugural Address, Wallace promised, "And I say to you: Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever!"
On June 11, Wallace stood in the doorway of Foster Auditorium, then both the main indoor athletic facility and the registration building for the University of Alabama, in Tuscaloosa. The purpose was to deny the registration of the school's 1st black students. Two were making the attempt: James Hood and Vivian Malone. He said, as Governor, he had to "denounce and forbid this unwarranted and illegal action by the central government!"
It was not illegal: The Supreme Court had ruled segregation illegal in 1954, so Wallace was the one breaking the law. And it was not unwarranted.
President John F. Kennedy knew beforehand that Wallace was going to do this, and wanted his Attorney General, also his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, to do something about it. So RFK sent his Deputy, Nicholas Katzenbach, and federal marshals to Tuscaloosa. Katzenbach showed Wallace a federal warrant for his arrest, and, with all the gentility of a graduate of Philips Exeter Academy and Princeton University, essentially told him, "Get your sorry scrawny ass out of that door, or you will be handcuffed and arrested, and exposed as a federal criminal on national television."
Everybody remembers Wallace's Stand In the Schoolhouse Door. Most people forget that he backed down, because he didn't want to go to jail. Martin Luther King Jr. was willing to go to jail to challenge a law he believed was unjust. George Corley Wallace was not: He decided that looking weak was better than looking like a criminal, and he backed down. But he was still a hero to America's bigots.
Nevertheless, accompanied by Katzenbach and the marshals, Malone walked in, and became the 1st black person to register as a student at the University of Alabama. Hood followed.
Vivian Malone graduated from 'Bama in 1965. She worked in the U.S. Department of Justice, the Veterans' Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency. She married a doctor, and had a son and a daughter. In 1996, having founded an award named for his late wife, the Lurleen B. Wallace Award of Courage, George Wallace personally chose Vivian Malone Jones as the 1st recipient.
Hood left 'Bama after only 2 months. He went to Detroit's Wayne State University, and received degrees from there and Michigan State, and taught at a college in Wisconsin, before returning to 'Bama for his Ph.D.
The desegregation of the University of Alabama's in-State rival, Auburn University, was considerably less dramatic, as Harold A. Franklin was the 1st black student admitted, in 1964. Franklin didn't complete his degree at Auburn, either, transferring to the University of Denver, and getting a Ph.D. He taught at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), including Alabama State and the Tuskegee Institute.
Wallace died in 1998, Malone Jones in 2005, Katzenbach in 2012, Hood in 2013, Franklin in 2021.
Foster Auditorium opened in 1939, named for Richard Clarke Foster, the University President who got it built. Seating 3,800, it was home to Alabama basketball from 1939 to 1968. It remains home to the university's volleyball teams.
The movie Forrest Gump shows a fictionalized version of the events, with Malone dropping a book on her way in, and Gump, an Alabama football player who wandered onto the scene, picking it up and handing it to her. Winston Groom, who wrote the novel on which the movie is based, died in 2020. If Gump were a real person, he would probably have been born the same year as Groom, 1943; so, if he were still alive, he would be 79 years old as of June 11, 2022.
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June 11, 1963 was a Tuesday. This was also the day that Thích Quảng Đức, a Buddhist monk, committed suicide by burning himself to death in Saigon, in protest of South Vietnam's Catholic-dominated government oppressing the country's majority-Buddhist population. I have a separate entry for that event.
These baseball games were played on that day:
* The New York Yankees and the Washington Senators were not scheduled to play.
* The New York Mets lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 8-3 at the Polo Grounds. Frank Robinson went 0-for-5, but Vada Pinson and Tommy Harper hit home runs.
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Milwaukee Braves, 8-7 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Hank Aaron went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Clay Dalrymple singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Baltimore Orioles, 9-5 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Jim "Mudcat" Grant outpitched Robin Roberts. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-4.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-1 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Bob Gibson won the game, and Roberto Clemente went 1-for-3 with a walk.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 7-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-4 with 3 walks. Al Kaline went 2-for-5. Tiger reliever Terry Fox -- no relation to the later Canadian runner and anti-cancer activist -- collapsed in the top of the 15th inning, including giving up home runs to Frank Malzone and Dick Stuart.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox, 8-6 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Harmon Killebrew went 2-for-3 with 2 walks and an RBI.
* The Kansas City Athletics beat the Los Angeles Angels, 5-2 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.
* The Houston Colt .45s beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-2 at Colt Stadium in Houston. The Colts became the Houston Astros in 1965. Ernie Banks went 3-for-5 with an RBI. Bob Aspromonte won the game with a home run in the bottom of the 10th inning.
* And the San Francisco Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 3-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Juan Marichal pitched a 7-hit shutout, to outduel Don Drysdale. Willie Mays went 0-for-3, but Willie McCovey hit a home run.
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