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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - As part of the 40th anniversary of the first
successful enrollment of African-American students at The University
of Alabama, the College of Communication
and Information Sciences at UA will host a panel on “Media
and the Moment: Images of the Schoolhouse Door.”
On June 10, beginning at 9 a.m. in Sellers Auditorium and ending
after lunch, the panel will discuss how media covered the emotionally
charged events of June 11, 1963 -- a day that witnessed the largest
gathering of national media for a civil rights event to that date.
On that day in 1963, Vivian Malone (now Vivian Malone Jones) and
James Hood successfully enrolled at UA following then Gov. George
Wallace’s highly publicized “stand in the schoolhouse
door.” Wallace stood in the doorway of Foster Auditorium to
block the two students’ entrance, but he stepped aside when
the state’s National Guard was federalized by the Kennedy
administration.
Noted figures both in the media and in the civil rights movement
will explore how the images of “the stand in the schoolhouse
door” were created and communicated and how Foster Auditorium
became one of the enduring symbols of the American Civil Rights
Movement.
Panel members for “Media and the Moment” will include:
ABC News national correspondent John Cochran, as moderator.
Cochran is a Montgomery native and UA graduate.
Vivian Malone Jones and James Hood, who will share
their experiences as the first two African-Americans successfully
admitted to the University.
Chris McNair, one of five black journalists on the UA campus
June 11, and who took photographs of the event for Ebony magazine.
He also is the father of Denise McNair who was killed in Birmingham’s
16th Street Baptist Church bombing.
Wallace’s press aide that hot June day, Bill Jones,
helped orchestrate arrangements in Tuscaloosa.
Robert Kennedy’s 1963 press secretary, Ed Guthman,
a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist.
The legendary Montgomery capitol correspondent who stood near the
governor on June 11 -- Bob Ingram.
Also with Wallace that day was former Gov. Albert Brewer,
who was a floor leader in the legislature at that time.
Bob Drew, of Drew Associates, producer of the documentary
“Crisis,” the only documentary of a presidential decision
as it was being made.
Jim Lipscomb, a photojournalist, who shot the documentary
on location in Alabama.
Dr. Mary Ann Watson, a historian who has written on the
Kennedys and the media and who undertook a close examination of
the “Crisis” documentary.
Hank Black, the 1963 editor of the University of Alabama’s
student newspaper, The Crimson White.
“Media and the Moment” is free and open to the public
and will begin with a showing of the documentary “Crisis.”
After the viewing, the panel of journalists, photographers and documentarists
will discuss how the media covered June 11, 1963. During lunch,
the audience will be encouraged to ask questions of the panelists.
This event is part of UA’s three-day observance, titled “Opening
Doors: 40th Year Commemoration,” For more information on the
complete activities of the three-day program, visit the UA Web site
at www.ua.edu/openingdoors/.
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