Vivian Malone Jones...her name may not be familiar when you hear it, but she was one of the two students (James Hood was the other one) who wanted to enroll at the University of Alabama. She passed away Oct. 13.
When they tried to enroll, Governor George Wallace blocked them off. He refused when asked to comply with a federal court order (remember that protesters had fire hoses and police dogs turned on them in other parts of the state). The Alabama National Guard was mobilized to enforce the order, and the students were allowed to register for classes.
Vivian had a very lonely existence there. She knew how big this issue was, the magnitude of the impact this would have. And she faced it bravely.
There are two sites that will give you more information:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=1294680
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 02032.html
One bit from the second one. She met with Wallace again, in 1996 (two years before his death). She was named as the first recipient of the Lurleen B. Wallace Award for Courage:
"I asked him why did he do it," she said. "He said he did what he felt needed to be done at that point in time, but he would not do that today. At that point, we spoke -- I spoke -- of forgiveness."
no maoris, no samoans, just white peps! that was abit of a wake up call, and suprising for me to be in a room big hall fall of white people, thought it be the opisite. oh well.
