James Hood

James Alexander Hood was one of the first African Americans to enroll at the University of Alabama in 1963. Hood became famous when Alabama Governor George Wallace attempted to block him and fellow student Vivian Malone from enrolling at the then all-white university, an incident which became known as the "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door". Hood and Malone were the first black students able to enroll in the university after Autherine Lucy in 1956. Hood faced violent threats at the school and left after two months, but finished his education in Michigan and worked in the police science program for the Madison Area Technical College for much of his career. Hood returned to the University of Alabama in the 1990s to earn a PhD in interdisciplinary studies, and conducted bedside interviews with Wallace during his research.