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| Bailey Thomson |
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The "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door"
confrontation in 1963 focused the international spotlight on the
University of Alabama. Long after the lights, cameras and reporters
were gone from the Tuscaloosa campus, the student newspaper, the
Crimson White, continued to cover the stories that followed
years later.
A high school student in Aliceville, Ala., at the time of George
Wallace's defiant stance at Foster Auditorium, Bailey Thomson, entered
the university in 1967and worked as a reporter for the Crimson White.
His three-part series on race relations at UA won him an award for
outstanding freshman reporter at CW.
Now a journalism
professor at the university, Thomson, recently recounted his
experience as a student journalist in an exclusive interview for
Dateline Alabama.
Watch video clips from the interview:
On
growing up in a biracial, segregated society »
Despite growing up side-by-side with African Americans, it wasn't
until he enrolled at The University of Alabama that Dr. Bailey Thomson
interacted with them as classmates.
(2:43) 3.6 MB
On
writing for the Crimson White »
Thomson wasted no time in pursuing journalistic endeavors at the
University of Alabama.
(2:44) 3.7 MB
On
the African-American social scene »
Simply sitting down and talking with the African American students
was a way Thomson built trust with them, a move that would allow
him to understand the story of their lives on campus.
(2:19) 2.9 MB
On
the "Opening Doors" occasion »
Thomson was not the only member of his family involved
in the integration of The University of Alabama, and he looks optimistically
towards the future to continue the processes that were started when
he was a student.
(3:47) 4 MB
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