Autherine Lucy

Who is Autherine Lucy?

Autherine Juanita Lucy was the first black student to attend the University of Alabama, in 1956.

She was born on October 5, 1929 in Shiloh, Alabama and graduated from Linden Academy in 1947.

She went on to attend Selma University in Selma, and the all-black Miles College in Fairfield - where she graduated with a BA in English in 1952.

Later in 1952, at the encouragement of and along with a Miles classmate, Pollie Ann Myers, she decided to attend the University of Alabama as a graduate student but, knowing that admission would be difficult due to the University's admission policies, she and Myers approached the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for help. Thurgood Marshall, Constance Baker Motley, and Arthur Shores were assigned to be their attorneys. While they started preparing her case, she worked as a secretary. Court action began in July 1953.

On June 29, 1955, the NAACP secured a court order preventing the University from rejecting the admission applications of Lucy and her friend based upon their race. Days later, the court amended the order to apply to all other African-American students seeking admission. The Supreme Court upheld this in Lucy v. Adams on October 10, 1955. On the very eve of the day Lucy and her friend were to register, the University Board of Trustees rejected Hudson on the grounds of her "conduct and marital record", but reluctantly allowed Lucy to register. However, she was barred from all dormitories and dining halls. 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.