Autherine Lucy Foster (1929–2022), first Black student at the University of Alabama
Autherine Lucy Foster was an icon of the civil rights movement as the first Black student to attend the University of Alabama.Foster had already received her bachelor’s degree from Mills College when she decided to seek admission to the segregated University of Alabama as a graduate student in 1952. She was initially admitted on her qualifications, but the admission was revoked when school authorities learned she was Black. Foster worked with the NAACP to fight for admission.