]]>
Articles from local papers chronicling the September, 1963 enrollment at Florence State College of African-American student Wendell Wilkie Gunn, son of Mr. and Mrs. Marshall Gunn of Tuscumbia, AL.

Gunn, FSC's first black student, transferred to FSC from Tennessee State Agricultural and Industrial University at Nashville with a B average.

Wendell Gunn formally applied for admission to Florence State on July 29, 1963 but was turned down by President Ethelbert B. "EB" Norton on the grounds that state law didn't give him the authority to enroll black students at that time however US District Court Judge HH Grooms ordered Gunn's enrollment on August 28 and Norton and FSC officials immediately complied, vowing that Gunn would be treated no differently than any other student at the school. For his part Gunn was represented by noted civil rights attorney Fred Gray, who later said of Gunn's case that it was “the easiest civil rights case I ever had.”

Reporting on Gunn's registration, on September 10, the *Tri-Cities Daily* stated:

"Campus observers said today that the attitude and atmosphere at the college this week and last week appears to be no different from that experienced during any previous Fall. Attitude of college authorities and faculty members appear the same."

On September 19 the *Florence Herald* reported that:

"Gunn walked freely over the campus the first day but was escorted to his classes by college officials. Student reaction thus far has been indifferent and Gunn has suffered no harassment."

Two years later the Award to the Outstanding Student in Physics (highest average) went to Wilkie Gunn to a standing ovation from students and faculty. Wendell Gunn graduated from Florence State in 1965 with a BA in Chemistry and Mathematics.

Also in 1965 Gunn was accepted into the national honorary mathematics fraternity Kappa Mu Epsilon. Upon graduation he was employed by the Tennessee Pulp and Paper Co. in Counts, TN. After earning a master's in computers and finance at the University of Chicago in 1970 Gunn was hired as a marketing analyst for Chase Manhattan Bank in New York, and in 1972 he joined the faculty of Texas Southern University, Houston as instructor in marketing and finance.

From 1982 to 1984 Gunn served in the Regan Administration as Special Assistant to the President for Policy Development, Gunn served as Assistant Director for Commerce and Trade within the Office of Policy Development. He also served as Executive Secretary of the Cabinet Council on Commerce and Trade.

In 2017 Gunn returned to UNA as commencement speaker and in 2018 the Wendell Wilkie Gunn Commons was named in his honor. On July 11, 2019 Wendell Gunn was appointed a trustee of the University by Alabama Governor Kay Ivey.

]]>

*Tri-Cities Daily.*]]>

Wendell Gunn's Registration Time Uncertain, *Tri-Cities Daily,* Tuesday, September 10, 1963, p. 1.

No Time Given for Registering of Wendell Gunn, *Tri-Cities Daily,* Wednesday, September 11, 1963, p. 1.

FSC Accepts first Negro Wednesday, *Tri-Cities Daily,* Thursday, September 12, 1963, pp. 1, 2.

Gunn Registered (photo), *Tri-Cities Daily,* Thursday, September 12, 1963, pp. 1.

1964 Florence State College Diorama Yearbook, p. 142 showing Wendell Gunn as a member of the university choir (back row, 6th from left).

Enlargement of 1964 Diorama photo.

First Black Graduates to a Standing Ovation, *Florence Times-Tri-Cities Daily* and *Flor-Ala,* "One Hundred Years of Progress, 1872-1972, p. 18.

.

]]>

*Tri-Cities Daily.*]]>
September, 1963.]]>

Students Dig Drugs, not Politics: Bond]]>
A Tuesday, May 18 1971 *Florence Times-Tri-Cities Daily* advertisement for Georgia State Legislator and Civil Rights activist Julian Bond, the guest speaker of the Florence State Convocation Committee, speaking on "What's Next" Tuesday, May 18, at 7:30 pm at the Lurleen B. Wallace Auditorium.

The *Tri-Cities Daily,* reporting on Bond's speech in its Wednesday, May 19 edition, noted that he was critical of "activists who are 'more concerned with themselves than with their communities'" as well as the penchant of "modern youth" to be too tied to "big causes" at the expense of individuals. And according to Bond, "the attempted coalition with labor, college students, and the radical left have failed Negroes." Bond was also critical of the Nixon administration and the administration of Alabama Governor George Wallace as well as FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. ]]>

*Florence Times-Tri-Cities Daily*]]>

*Florence Times-Tri-Cities Daily,* Wednesday, May 18, 1971, p. 28.

]]>
Wednesday, November 20, 1968 *Tri-Cities Daily* report of a speech given at the Sheffield, AL Community Center to an audience of some 400 people by black author and former undercover FBI agent (for nine years) Mrs. Julia Brown. In her speech titled 'I, Too, Have a Dream," Brown intimated that the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., if not a Communist, had many Communist connections, enough to cast suspicion on his civil rights movement as one of Communist infiltration rather than a bona fide civil rights movement. While admitting that there are "many well-meaning Negroes in the Civil Rights movement and that there is a need for legitimate civil rights" the "national effort drawing attention now is a blueprint for revolution that she saw formulated during the nine years she served as an informer for the FBI." Among those singled out by Brown, who admitted her admiration for the far-right advocacy group the John Birch Society, were Attorney General Ramsey Clark, the US Supreme Court and Chief Justice Earl Warren, the National Council of Churches and the Office of Economic Opportunity. Meanwhile a "protest demonstration outside" of some 20 picketers, "was completely orderly and peaceful."]]> A Saturday, February 28, 1970 report of speeches given by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr., pastor of Ebeneezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and father of slain Civil Rights activist Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Friday night, at First Baptist Church, Sheffield and Mt. Moriah Primitive Baptist Church in Florence.

In his speeches Rev. Dr. King noted that "America is being destroyed by hate" and that "the Communist World has a cocked gun pointed at us and we won't learn the lesson of brotherhood."

Turning to politics, King noted that blacks had "called the bluff" of politicians like Georgia Governor Lester Maddox and former Alabama Governor George Wallace and suggested that recent attempts by such politicians to to pass Freedom of Choice laws in those states was futile, as federal courts were in no mood to back down from integration just because state laws were changed.

Waxing more optimistic, Rev. Dr. King expressed his belief that blacks would be aided by young whites in ending the climate of hate and suspicion, yet cautioned that black youth of the 1970s were uninterested in patterning themselves after white America. Significantly King reminded his audiences that "there is no white gospel or black Bible" and singling out a group of white newsmen reassured them that "I am your brother, whether you like it or not."]]>
This is an advertisement for a TV editorial program hosted by noted Alabama civic leader and businessman James D. "Jim" Martin, scheduled for 10:30 pm, Monday night, March 2, 1964 on WOWL-TV 15 (Florence's NBC affiliate station from the 1960s to the late 1990s), analyzing the upcoming vote in the US Senate of the 1964 Civil Rights Bill and warning of a "tragic era which will descend upon Alabama" if the Senate passed the bill.]]> A letter to the editor of the *Florence Herald* by Florence American Legion Post No. 11, containing the full text of a resolution passed by the Legion Post on April 9 and published on April 23, 1964, said resolution opposing "the Civil Rights Bill in its every aspect," on the grounds that the "so-called Civil Rights Bill now pending in the Congress of the United States, in many of its provisions, wholly ignores and contravenes the Constitution of the United States, and destroys everything that we have believed, heretofore, to protect us from the complete and absolute power of a Central Government."

The resolution further "expresses its gratitude to Gov. George C. Wallace for the noble effort he is making to safeguard and transmit to posterity the principles of justice, freedom and Democracy bequeathed to us by the founding fathers."]]>
April 23, 1964]]>
An April 16, 1964 *Florence Herald* editorial noting that "Alabama's able senators Lister Hill and John Sparkman, and scores of other forthright Americans" were fighting the upcoming Civil Rights Bill and arguing that the Civil Rights Bill was unconstitutional because "the elements of this bill that place enforcement and grave decisions in the hands of the attorney general . . . will break down the Constitution and prevent the United States from ever returning to its three-branch government as set up by the founding fathers." According to the *Herald*, no citizen should be deprived of the right to vote "because of color, race or creed. But the civil rights bill says nothing about people deprived of voting because of color or sex but would set up federal machinery for controlling state voting and registration laws." ]]> April, 1964]]> An April 23, 1964 campaign ad by Democratic Governor of Alabama George Wallace who was campaigning on a platform of states' rights and opposition to the Civil Rights Bill, and his Wallace Electors Committee, urging Alabama voters to "Vote for These WALLACE Backed Electors on May 5."]]> April 23, 1964]]> An April 16, 1964 campaign ad for Alabama Congressman Bob Jones, who "has always stood up for the South and Alabama against so-called civil rights laws."]]> April 16, 1964]]>
"Negro Ministers Complain to Commissioners"]]>
Two reports from the Florence Herald of 1963 on the formation of a bi-racial committee to study and make recommendations in regard to school desegregation and the subsequent complaint of Florence black ministers and committee members Rev. David Tolbert, Rev. M. C. Griffin and Rev. H. Smiley to the Florence City Commission relative to the committee, in which the pastors requested, among other things, "that membership be expanded to include a better cross-section."

]]>
1963-10-17
1964-01-23]]>