Autherine Lucy Foster, who faced racist mobs and death threats as the first Black student to attend the University of Alabama, and who was suspended and ultimately expelled by the school board, died March 2 at 92.
“Autherine Lucy Foster opened that door,” former University of Alabama trustee and retired judge John H. England Jr. said last month,. The school overturned Ms. Foster’s expulsion in 1988, and she soon returned to campus, receiving a master’s degree in elementary education in 1992. She was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2019 and was on campus last week to attend the dedication for an education building named in her honor.
Autherine Juanita Lucy was born in Shiloh, Ala., on Oct. 5, 1929. By most accounts, she was the youngest of 10 children and grew up on a farm owned by her parents. Her father also worked as a blacksmith and made baskets and ax handles.Ms. Foster graduated from high school in Linden, Ala., and studied at Selma University and Miles College, a historically Black school in Fairfield, Ala., where she received a bachelor’s degree in English in 1952.
They submitted applications that were accepted by school officials who backpedaled after learning they were not White. Lawyers including Marshall and Arthur Shores sued the university, accusing it of racial discrimination, and the case wound its way through the courts as Ms. Foster took jobs as an English teacher and insurance company secretary.A federal judge sided with Ms. Foster and Myers in 1955.