The University of Alabama's Foster Auditorium is nationally significant for its association with the historical movement to desegregate public higher education, and the federal government's efforts to eliminate racial segregation in the United States.

As the site of 1963 "stand in the school house door" by Governor George Wallace, Foster Auditorium marks a significant victory in the desegregation struggle, where federal authority was used to remove state resistance to desegregation.

Here, on June 11, 1963, Vivian Malone and James Hood were able to complete registration at the University. President Kennedy appealed to a national sense of fairness during a nationwide address on that day, and on June 19th the President submitted civil rights legislation to Congress that dealt with public accommodations, school desegregation, and equal employment.

Credits and Sources:

Information courtesy of the National Park Service.