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James hood alabama

He was thrust into the spotlight during a fight to attend college in Alabama. George Wallace's "stand in the schoolhouse door" policy, has died. Hood died at his home in Alabama Thursday at age He was thrust into the national spotlight during a long fight to attend college in his home state of Alabama at the height of the civil rights movement.

Alabama was the last state to integrate its education system.

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On June 11, , after a U. Wallace and several state troopers. Later that day, President John F. Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard and issued a presidential proclamation ordering Wallace to execute federal court orders that would allow Hood and Malone to enroll at the university. Guardsmen then escorted Hood and Malone via a side door into the school auditorium, where Wallace stepped aside and allowed the two to register.

Later that evening, Kennedy addressed the nation and called for sweeping civil rights legislation that would ban discrimination in all public places. Wallace had long proclaimed he would stand at the front door of any school that was ordered by the federal courts to admit black students. During his inaugural speech five months before the standoff at the university, Wallace famously proclaimed, "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.

James Hood left the school a few months after the historic day and moved to Michigan, where he finished out his undergraduate degree. He said he did so to avoid "a complete mental and physical breakdown," according to the school website dedicated to a civil rights memorial named after Hood and Malone.