The Mercury News

Autherine Foster, first Black student at Alabama, dies

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Autherine Lucy Foster, the first Black student to enroll at the University of Alabama, died Wednesday. She was 92.

University officials announced her death in a statement. Her daughter, Angela Foster Dickerson, said her mother died Wednesday morning and said a family statement would be released.

Foster in 1956 briefly attended classes at the then allwhite university. She was expelled three days later after her presence brought protests and threats against her life. Foster, a graduate student studying education, had faced hostile crowds hurling racially charged threats and debris.

The university later celebrated Foster's legacy, her role in desegregat­ing the institutio­n and her bravery.

Her death comes less than a week after university officials dedicated the campus building where she briefly attended classes in her honor. During the ceremony, she was also proclaimed a “master teacher.”

“If I am a master teacher, what I hope I am teaching you is that love will take care of everything in our world, don't you think,” Foster said at the dedication ceremony last week.

“It's not your color. It's not how bright you are. It's how you feel about those that you deal with,” Foster said.

In 2019, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the university, where she had returned and earned a masters degree in education in 1992.

“Dr. Foster will always be remembered as one who broke barriers, reminded us of the respect due to every individual and lived a life of strength in steadfast service to her students and community,” University President Stuart R. Bell said in a statement.

After criticism, trustees abandoned a plan for the building to also keep the name of a one-time governor who led the Ku Klux Klan and to rename it solely for Foster.

 ?? GENE HERRICK — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? Autherine Lucy Foster, center, the first Black person to attend the University of Alabama, is shown in 1956.
GENE HERRICK — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Autherine Lucy Foster, center, the first Black person to attend the University of Alabama, is shown in 1956.

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