Stand in the Schoolhouse Door

As a stand in the Schoolhouse Door is referred to an event that occurred on Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama on June 11, 1963. George Wallace, the governor of Alabama, stood ostentatiously in the door of the auditorium, to deny the two African-American students Vivian Malone Jones and James Hood from entering. Wallace tried it, symbolically comply with the promise that he had given when he took office, namely the " segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever " maintain and stop the desegregation of schools.

Due to the incident, George Wallace came to the attention of the entire nation.

Background

On May 17, 1954 gave the Supreme Court of the United States the lawsuit Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka held, in which the plaintiff appealed to the fact that in public schools, racial segregation in education between children of blacks and children of whites unconstitutional be.

Meant the verdict in the case Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation at the University of Alabama had to be canceled. In the following years, hundreds of African Americans competed for admission to the University, but they were all rejected. The University cooperated with the police to find abqualifizierende reasons, or, if this failed to intimidate the candidate. 1963, however, three African Americans competed with impeccable qualifications, Vivian Malone Jones, Dave McGlathery and James Hood, which resisted all attempts at intimidation. Beginning in June 1963 told a federal judge that the three as students were and said Governor Wallace 's interference permit.

The incident

On June 11, Malone and Hood arrived to enroll. Governor Wallace tried the one hand, keeping his promise, on the other hand to stage a political show by the entrance to Foster Auditorium personally barred under the eyes of the media. Then called on Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, who was accompanied by Federal Marshals, Wallace, to step aside. However, Wallace cut Katzenbach from the word and refused. Instead, he gave a speech about the rights of the U.S. states. Katzenbach phoned U.S. President John F. Kennedy, then these units the Alabama National Guard ordered to the scene. General Henry Graham told Wallace " Sir, it is my sad duty to ask you on behalf of the President of the United States to step aside. " Although Wallace continued, but moved eventually.

Movies

• The incident will be taken up in a scene of the movie Forrest Gump, Forrest Gump appears in the on the scene, digitally copied into an original film recording media.
• Wallace is an American film biography of John Frankenheimer from the year 1997.
• The dialogue between Wallace and Katzenbach is shown in the documentary Four Little Girls by Spike Lee.