VIDEO NEWS RELEASE: 50th Anniversary of Autherine Lucy Foster’s Enrollment at UA

It’s been 50 years since Autherine Lucy Foster became the first African American to enroll at UA in 1956. After Foster graduated from Miles College in 1952, she enrolled as a graduate student in library science at the University. Her brief stay on campus involved three days of tumultuous demonstrations. Foster was suspended and later expelled by the Board of Trustees. In 1988, two professors invited Foster to speak at the University about the events that occurred more than 30 years before. After her speech, faculty members got the Board of Trustees to overturn her expulsion. Only a year later, Foster became a student at the University. She enrolled while her daughter, Grazia Foster, was also enrolled. In 1992, mother and daughter graduated together, Autherine Lucy Foster with a master’s degree in elementary education and Grazia Foster with a bachelor’s degree in corporate finance. A portrait of Autherine Lucy Foster hangs in Ferguson Center.

Foster helped open the door for UA’s minority record enrollment. For Fall 2005, there are currently 2,465 African-American students at UA. The 2005 freshman class includes 379 African-American students, up from 265 in 2002 – an increase of 43 percent. African-Americans make up 11.6 percent of the record enrollment of 21,750 students at the Capstone.

These stories chronicle what Autherine Lucy Foster Foster, Integration Historian Dr. Culpepper Clark, and UA alumnus Jim Oakley remember about those three days Foster spent at UA in 1956.