Older Americans who long have kept up with the news will likely recall this unusual name. It belongs to one of the iconic figures in the story of U.S. civil rights.
Autherine Juanita Lucy was born the daughter of an Alabama farmer. A bright child, she received a B.A. in English from all-black Miles College in her home state and then decided to apply to graduate school at the University of Alabama.
Before applying, she lined up support from the NAACP. That organization assigned her three lawyers, most prominent of whom was future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
The university accepted her as a master's student in library science in 1956.Three days after she arrived on campus, riots began, lasting three days and forcing her to leave school for safety from the howling mob. The university's board of trustees ordered her not to return so that order could be restored, but this order was overruled in court. Then the board expelled her.
Lucy's experience generated a lot of sympathy elsewhere, and she had offers of a free education in Europe, which she declined.
Later that year, she moved to Texas, married the Rev. Hugh Foster, her old flame from undergraduate years, and eventually became a school teacher.
Much later, in 1992, Lucy finally got her master's in education at the University of Alabama, where by this time she was a famous and well received person.
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