Integration and the SEC

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of desegregation at the University of Georgia, a multitude of organizations are hosting events, exhibits, and workshops to spotlight an incredible change in our campus history. The University of Georgia integrated in January of 1961, but what about other South Eastern Conference schools and their experiences in the shaky times of civil rights? How do the integration processes of other colleges compare to that of UGA in the tumultuous times of the 1960s and Jim Crow?

May 1954
With the ruling of the case of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, the Supreme Court determined that segregation is unequal.

Auburn University
At Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama, integration was happening smoothly. The first black student, Harold Franklin enrolled on January 4, 1964. Since the campus had been historically conservative, politically and socially, the students were barely affected by the radical movements of the 1960s.

University of Alabama
Vivian Malone and James Hood, two black students, ventured to integrate the University of Alabama in 1963. They were denied admission to the university by Gov. George C. Wallace, who famously vowed to protect segregation by “standing in the schoolhouse door.” President John F. Kennedy mobilized the Alabama National Guard, and Gov. Wallace was ordered to step aside as the students enrolled.
“You have the expert on the desegregation of Alabama right there in Athens,” says Rebecca Florence, Director of College Relations and Associate Director of Development in the College of Arts and Sciences at the university. “Culpepper Clark,” Florence insists. Florence cited Clark's book The Schoolhouse Door, in which he describes the historic setting, people, and events in the integration of the University of Alabama.

Tulane
“Tulane was desegregated in 1962,” says August Milton, Associate Director of the Office of Institutional Equity. During their integration, Tulane was a part of the SEC and left the conference in 1966.

University of Tennessee
In 1952, four black graduate students were admitted to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. In 1957, while the state was making the change to integration, an integrated school in Nashville was blown up with dynamite by white supremacists. Black undergraduates were not permitted to attend the University of Tennessee until 1961.

University of Mississippi
In the fall of 1962, Gov. Ross Barnett of Mississippi said, "I hereby direct each official to uphold segregation laws enacted by the state of Mississippi, regardless of the federal courts." In September, riots broke out at the University of Mississippi when James Meredith attempted to begin classes. U.S. Marshals fought against an estimated 3,000 racists, Klan members, and university students until President Kennedy sent in U.S. Army troops. After the riots, racial issued calmed at the university and Meredith graduated in 1963 without incident.

Each of these colleges and universities faced much adversity in the process toward desegregation. Some of the changes were made during violence, and others during protest. Today we can thank the heros of the 1960s south for total integration in schools, cafeterias, busses, and eventually everywhere else.