Opening Doors
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| Vivian Malone Jones and Deborah Sodeke |
When Vivian Malone Jones was admitted to The University of Alabama, she realized that breaking the color barrier at this institution would be difficult. She knew that Autherine Lucy had tried to integrate the University in 1956 but was expelled "for her own safety" after only three days of attending classes. But Jones had not imagined the response that then governor George C. Wallace would have arranged for June 11, 1963, when she and James Hood arrived on the UA campus to register for classes.
Wallace's "stand in the schoolhouse door" did not deter Jones from stepping through that door and attending classes the next day. Nor did it derail her from becoming the University's first black graduate in 1965. Immediately following graduation, she went to work for the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
In 1996, Jones retired as director of civil rights and urban affairs and director of environmental justice for the Environmental Protection Agency. That same year, the George Wallace Family Foundation chose Jones as the first recipient of its Lurleen B. Wallace Award of Courage. She and George Wallace met once again, but this time it was a moment of forgiveness and reconciliation rather than one of conflict.
Jones now concentrates on "reaching back to help others" as she was helped during her own undergraduate education. As a testament to the power of the individual to effect change, she's still a role model for African-Americans attending the University.
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| Marie Parsons, Joseph Bryant, and Ed Mullins |
One of those students is Joseph Bryant, the first black editor of the Crimson White and currently a reporter for the Florence, Alabama, TimesDaily. Joseph "discovered his purpose" as a Minority Journalism Workshop participant during the summer of 1996.
When he was selected as the CW editor in 2000, he did not anticipate that he would become the news. He simply saw it as a personal achievement and not among the great "firsts" realized by Vivian Malone Jones, James Hood, and Autherine Lucy.
"The door was already opened, I just walked through it," Joseph explains.
Under the guidance of his first UA mentor, Minority Journalism Workshop director Marie Parsons, and of Dr. Ed Mullins, head of the Department of Journalism, Joseph based his CW editorship on fairness, giving equal coverage to all sides of an issue. He also extended the paper's coverage to include more stories of particular interest to minority students at the University, giving voice to their concerns.
Another student who has gained inspiration from Vivian Malone Jones is Deborah Sodeke, a senior majoring in international studies and Spanish and the 2001 recipient of the Vivian Malone Jones Endowed Scholarship. The University's Black Faculty and Staff Association established the scholarship in 1996 in recognition of Jones "as a symbol of the importance of diversity."
With the support of this scholarship and others, Deborah's experience at the University has been broadened. She has traveled to Alcalá de Henares, Spain, where she stayed with a local family, studied Spanish civilization and advanced grammar, and toured Toledo, Madrid, Sevilla, and Córdoba. In addition, she says her participation in the Blount Undergraduate Initiative, a living-learning program for liberal arts majors, made her "a better listener, a more outspoken debater, and a more critical thinker." Upon graduation, she plans to serve in the Peace Corps before going on to graduate school.
On the way to and from class in Bidgood Hall, Deborah passes by a painting of Vivian Malone Jones that commemorates her as the first black graduate of the University and of the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration. Each time Deborah passes by, she is reminded of Jones's "sacrifice and the marvelous example she has set for all students at the University."
Daring to dream, to push the boundaries that limit self-expression, to change the world for the better - this is the legacy of Vivian Malone Jones, a legacy carried forward by Joseph Bryant and Deborah Sodeke.
