James William Oakley Jr. Photographs

In 1952, Pollie Ann Myers and her friend Autherine Lucy applied for admission to The University of Alabama as undergraduate students. Although the University initially accepted their applications, school administrators quickly rejected their request. Myers and Lucy, aided by Birmingham NAACP attorney Arthur Shores and others, including Thurgood Marshall, then entered a three-year court battle to gain admission. In July 1955 Judge Harlan Groom ruled in favor of Myers and Lucy. When the two women were ready to enroll in early 1956, the University denied admission to the now-married Pollie Myers Hudson on the grounds that she had conceived a child out of wedlock. The next day, February 1, 1956, Autherine Lucy arrived on campus to register for classes. She attended class on February 2, and over the course of several days mobs gathered on campus and in downtown Tuscaloosa to protest her enrollment. Escorted around campus at times by the Dean of Women, local clergy, and her attorneys (including Shores, Thurgood Marshall, and Constance Baker Motley), Lucy attended class two days amid protests. Pelted with garbage by the growing crowds, Lucy was secreted away to safety while lying down in a car. On February 6, 1956, University administrators suspended her from classes, citing safety concerns. The University expelled her later in February 1956. After the University of Alabama overturned her expulsion in 1988, Autherine Lucy Foster enrolled again, graduating in 1992 with a master's degree in education.

James Oakley was a University of Alabama student when he took these photographs. He was a member of Theta Chi fraternity, whose house was at the time adjacent to Smith Hall.