Jones, Vivian Malone

Source:

 Black Women in America, Second Edition

Jones, Vivian Malone

(b. 1942; d. 2005),
civil rights activist.

On 11 June 1963, at the age of twenty, Vivian Malone Jones challenged more than a century of segregation at the University of Alabama. In a highly publicized confrontation, Jones and fellow African American student James Hood were greeted by Governor George Wallace, who attempted to prohibit their entrance into the University of Alabama's Foster Auditorium by standing in the doorway. The entire incident lasted only fifteen minutes, and Wallace's move proved to be little more than a symbolic gesture. Jones and Hood began classes the next day. Although Hood eventually left the University of Alabama to attend school in Michigan, Jones continued on at the school and in 1965 became the first African American to graduate from the University of Alabama.

Jones began her undergraduate career under much different circumstances. She spent her first two years of college at Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College, an all-black institution in Normal, Alabama, just outside Huntsville. On the morning Jones transferred to the University of Alabama, she was cognizant of the significance of the moment, both for herself and the larger African American community, but remained focused on the future. Reflecting on the experience later in life, Jones stated, “I went way beyond that day at that point in my mind.…My vision was of the future and graduating and going to classes, things like that.” Even though she faced incredible hostility and threats of violence from fellow students, community members, and the governor himself, Jones did not want to hide. She said, “I didn't feel I should go around [to] the back door. If [Wallace] were standing in the door, I had every right in the world to face him and to go to school.” Jones not only faced Governor Wallace at the schoolhouse doors, she also thrived while attending the university in spite of the negative treatment she sometimes received from white students and faculty members.

Despite the hostile environment at the school, Jones has been quick to point out that not everybody at UA had a negative attitude toward her presence, and she was able to make a few close friends. Although she did not attend dances or date any of the boys at her own school, Jones socialized with boys from Tuscaloosa's Stillman College, where she met her future husband, Mack Jones. In addition to forging a meaningful personal life while at college, Jones thrived academically and managed to achieve excellent grades in her program. Two years after beginning classes at UA, Jones graduated with a bachelor's degree in business management.

Unable to find work in Alabama after graduation, Jones moved to Washington, DC, and began working for the U.S. Department of Justice. In 1969 she moved to Atlanta when her husband was accepted at Emory University's medical school. In Atlanta, Jones raised two children and continued to work for the federal government. She held a position in employee relations as a personal specialist with the Veterans Administration Hospital before accepting a position as Director of Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and later Director of Environmental Justice with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Jones also worked as executive director of the Voter Education Project. In 1996 Jones retired from her thirty-year career with the federal government and began a private-sector career working for Atlanta Associates of MONY Life Insurance Company of America.

In addition to her obvious place in civil rights history, Jones has remained active in civil rights causes throughout her life. She has been part of a number of civic and community organizations, including the NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Atlanta's Ben Hill United Methodist Church, and the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW). Over the years Jones has received several awards for her work in civil rights–related efforts, including the Emancipation Day Award from the NAACP and the Drum Major for Justice Award from the SCLC. In 1995 officials in Tuscaloosa, the hometown of Jones's alma mater, dedicated 13 October as “Vivian Malone Jones Day.”

In 1996 Jones was chosen by the George Wallace Family Foundation to be the first recipient of the Lurleen B. Wallace Award of Courage. Wallace was not only present at the ceremony, which took place in Montgomery, but he also presented Jones with the award. Unlike their confrontational meeting three decades earlier, this meeting has been described as a moment of reconciliation and forgiveness. Of this second meeting Jones stated, “I forgave George Wallace—as a Christian, that was my responsibility. But I never forgot what he did.” Two years later, she would return to Montgomery as one of the thousands present at Wallace's funeral.

The University of Alabama has also honored Jones by endowing a Vivian Malone Jones Scholarship Fund and hanging her portrait in the university's Bidgood Hall, home of the College of Commerce and Business Administration. She received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from the University of Alabama, where she was named one of the most outstanding women in the institution's history. In 2003, on the fortieth anniversary of Jones's courageous stand on the steps of Foster Auditorium, the University of Alabama hosted the Opening Doors Ceremony in honor of her passage through those now-famous portals. Jones died on 14 October 2005 after suffering a stroke. Funeral services were held at the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College.

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