And We, Too, Shall Overcome

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s dismantled legalized racial segregation and discrimination in the Deep South. Alabama State University (ASU) civil rights activists were central to the successes of these mid-twentieth century protest years. Through boycotts, sit-ins, freedom rides, and marches for civil rights, they joined other activists, many also from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and ushered in a new era of fuller integration for African Americans into the civil and political life of their country.  In the process, they helped generate landmark federal legislation that extended and strengthened protections for the constitutionally guaranteed citizenship rights of all Americans. 

And We, Too, Shall Overcome: The Civil Rights Legacy of Alabama State University examines ASU's journey in the fight for African American equality beginning with the birth of its parent institution, the Lincoln School of Marion, in 1867. Marion's Whites, like most other Whites throughout the state, wanted training for Blacks only in the mechanical, agricultural, and domestic labor skills that would uphold White supremacy and be an asset to the White plantation owners in maintaining their subservient labor force lost with emancipation. Blacks, on the other hand, began directing their efforts toward developing a university-equal to White universities in the state-for educating their community in the liberal arts and teacher preparation. Their school would therefore prepare an endless supply of teachers to educate their community for economic and political independence, for freedom and full equality-not for continuing a life of field and domestic labor. Thus, the efforts of Marion's African Americans to establish their own school occurred amid gross White hostility and opposition.

The book's examination of ASU's journey continues with the school's forced relocation from Marion to Montgomery where, still in the midst of White violence and racial strife, the institution struggled to survive. But survive it did.  And, over time, its administration and faculty developed an institution that produced civil rights movement leaders including Rosa L. Parks, Ralph D. Abernathy, Frederick L. Shuttlesworth, Frederick D. Reese, Fred D. Gray, Mary Fair Burks, T. J. Jemison, Aurelia Browder, and Bernard Lee.The book explores how these activists--along with other leaders and scores of students, grassroots organizers, and foot soldiers--tackled and dismantled "Jim Crow," especially in Alabama (Montgomery, Birmingham, Tuskegee, and Selma) through non-violent, direct-action protest strategies.  Through their courageous efforts and years of consistent work, ASU has emerged as a major contributor to the African American struggle to achieve full equality as American citizens. 

The narrative of And We, Too, Shall Overcome concludes with a discussion of the role of two 21^st century centers established on the ASU campus as critical resources for preserving, interpreting, and disseminating ASU's historic and enduring legacy within the context of the greater civil rights movement in Alabama and the nation.  These centers are ASU's National Center for the Study of Civil Rights and African American Culture and the National Park Service's third Interpretive Center along the Selma-to-Montgomery National Historic Trail.