James Hood, one of the most revered civil rights African-American activists, passed away last week in his hometown due to natural causes.
Hood, who integrated the University of Alabama 50 years ago, died Thursday afternoon at the age of 70, in his hometown of Gadsden.
Hood dodged the roadblocks that restricted entry of blacks for higher education in the University of Alabama and paved the way for future African-American students to pursue their education without being subjected to discrimination.
Hood, along with his friend, had to face off then Governor George Wallace to enroll at the all-white state university.
Wallace was well-known for being against the desegregation movement in the nation. In 1963, after he was elected as the governor of Alabama, in his inaugural speech he vowed to press for segregation in the state forever. His infamous quote: "In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."
After five months of his infamous speech on segregation, Hood and his friend Vivian Malone, armed with a federal court order entered the university to change things around forever. However, Wallace, reviving his stance on segregation, made an abortive attempt to stop Hood and Malone from entering the school.
"James did a great thing for the University of Alabama," said E. Culpepper Clark, former dean of UA's College of Communication & Information Sciences.
"With Vivian Malone, he liberated the university to serve all the people of Alabama and thereby join the ranks of the nation's flagship universities," he added. Clark is also the author of "The Schoolhouse Door: Segregation's Last Stand at the University of Alabama."
Samory T. Pruitt, UA vice president for community affairs, met Hood and interviewed him along with 13 others for his dissertation "A Reflection of Student Desegregation at the University of Alabama, As Seen through the Eyes of some Pioneering African-American Students 1956-1976," published in 2003.
"One of the things I've always taken away from it, none of them were really afraid, because they thought they were doing the right thing, and were just very spiritual about it," Pruitt said, according to a statement released by the university.
"They felt like they were led to do what they did. They really didn't talk much about being afraid or bitter. It wasn't about fame, anything like that. It was just clear to them that those obstacles shouldn't be in place. So if someone needed to step up and try to remove some of those barriers, let it be them."
"Hood was a very personable man, and obviously a very courageous man," he added. "I thank God for his courage, because if it wasn't for people like him, folks like me wouldn't have the opportunities we have."
According to reports, Hood studied at the University of Alabama only for a few months before he moved to Michigan and enrolled in a college there. And he again made his way to the university to earn a doctorate in 1977.
Reports said that before Hood, a black woman made an attempt to break the restrictions leveled against the African-American students in the university, only to be sacked just three day after she registered at the college to study.
"Autherine Lucy, had been admitted in 1956 but was suspended three days later, ostensibly for her safety, when the university was hit by riots. She was later expelled," reported New York Times.
