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HIGHLIGHT: ALABAMA

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Tuscaloosa: Autherine Lucy Foster, the first African American student to attend the University of Alabama, received an honorary doctorate Friday from the school where her presence brought mobs of protesters in 1956. The Tuscaloosa News reports Foster, 89, received the degree during graduation ceremonies. She enrolled at the all-white university in 1956 but was expelled three days later after her presence brought protests and threats against her life. Foster got a standing ovation Friday. Before receiving the honor, she remarked on the difference in seeing smiling faces “instead of frowning and displeased at my being here.”

 ?? AP ?? Autherine Lucy Foster acknowledg­es the crowd Friday in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
AP Autherine Lucy Foster acknowledg­es the crowd Friday in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

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