In 1961, Vivian Malone attempted to enroll at the University of Alabama’s extension campus in downtown Mobile. Her entrance was denied, and she subsequently enrolled at Alabama A&M University in Huntsville. A year later, Malone and another African American student, James Hood, applied for admission to the Universality of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. In June of 1963, following a series of legal challenges and attempts to prevent their enrollment by Gov. George C. Wallace, Malone and Hood were admitted to the previously all-white university. In 1965, Vivian Malone became the first African American to graduate from the University of Alabama. She later earned a graduate degree from George Washington University and was a career civil servant, working in various federal agencies. She died in 2005.  

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