Читать книгу The Evolution of Crimson - Jerry Aldridge - Страница 6

Beginning in November, 1907

The University of Alabama is the institution that bears its state’s name. In the fall of 1907, almost everyone in Alabama was talking about the “Crimson Tide” for it was a new way to refer to the University of Alabama football team. Auburn was expected to clobber Alabama that year in the Iron Bowl, but as Hugh Roberts, a journalist with the Birmingham Age-Herald reported, Alabama tied Auburn 6-6 in a sea of red mud. Roberts was probably the first to call the team the Crimson Tide. Later, Zipp Newman of The Birmingham News always referred to Alabama as the Crimson Tide. The name stuck. Before that, the team was often called the “Crimson White”.

For more than half of the 20th century, The University of Alabama was not only Crimson White, it was Lily White except for three days in the 1950s when the University was integrated by Autherine Lucy. She began classes on February 3, 1956, working on a master’s degree in library science. After only three days of classes, Miss Lucy was suspended from the University and later permanently expelled. Why? Because of the color of her skin. University officials said she was suspended for safety reasons. After she filed suit, the University administration permanently expelled her for slander. It took 32 years for the University to overturn Autherine Lucy’s expulsion. And, 36 years after her removal from the University, Miss Lucy returned to the University and completed a master’s degree in education.

Crimson is the color of blood. Hugh Roberts may have given the name “Crimson Tide” to the University of Alabama, but if one takes the name seriously, the Crimson Tide covered all of Alabama as the sweat and blood of valiant pioneers flowed without ceasing. Autherine Lucy was not alone in her quest for equality and fair treatment. Two months prior to Miss Lucy’s enrollment at the University, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a White passenger on a Montgomery bus. The fight for Civil Rights in Alabama would be long and hard. When the movement accelerated in the 1960s, things slowly began to change but at a great price to many people. Vivian Malone and James Hood would do their part. Amelia Boynton would pay with blood. Some, like Jimmie Lee Jackson, would pay with their lives. The state of Alabama would begin to change through a sea of crimson, washing from its northern border to the Gulf of Mexico. Individuals would evolve as well. One of these individuals would be Winifred Jessica Dodd.