The Lecture that never Was: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Death of President Foster

On the back of an unassuming phys ed grade chart, the discovery of a lecture that never was has come to our attention and to our collections, thanks to Ken Gaddy and the staff at the Bryant Museum. 

On November 18, 1941, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, first lady of the United States, was scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled, "The America We Want" in The University of Alabama auditorium.

The lecture was never to be.  According to Mrs. Roosevelt's "My Day" column for November 19, 1941, she was asked to cancel her engagement at The University of Alabama because of President Richard Clarke Foster's illness. "After my lecture last night, in Greenville, we returned home, for, unfortunately, the President of the University of Alabama, where I was to lecture tonight, was taken seriously ill, and they asked me if I would cancel the lecture. To find myself at home with two unexpected days of leisure is something really to rejoice over, though I am sorry the cause had to be somebody's illness."

Sadly, the sudden illness that struck President Foster took his life.  He passed away on November 19, 1941.  He was much beloved on campus, and in addition to an immediate fund drive to purchase the Richard Clarke Foster Memorial Iron Lung for Druid City Hospital (his sudden illness brought to light the immediate need for such a machine), the very auditorium where Mrs. Roosevelt was to speak was named in his honor soon after.

Foster Auditorium, in its newly renovated glory, served as the site for countless dances, pep rallies, performances, basketball games, class registrations, as well as the very place where integration finally came to pass at The University of Alabama.  While many may remember hearing of Mrs. Roosevelt's lecture that never was, and know of Dr. Foster's sudden and untimely death, might not realize how these two events were connected. 

More Vintage Hoop Shots!

These were too good not to share --- part of a little something I'm working on today, here are some University of Alabama basketball action shots and players from the 1940s-60s! Roll Tide!

Vintage Kicks, Vintage Hardwood

This cool and mysterious photograph is of the feet of the 1964 University of Alabama basketball team, part of the University of Alabama photographs collections. The vintage hardwood is Foster Auditorium, where Men's basketball played before the days of Coleman Coliseum. The sneakers and the venue have changed, but it always is an exciting couple of hours, cheering on the Crimson Tide basketball team! And if you can't make it to see them live, there's always ESPN! Roll Tide!

"...and walk through a door that leads to opportunity for others.”

“There will come a day in your life when you must act for others–your family, perhaps your community–and you must be ready. What you have done to reach this milestone today is part of that preparation. So take from all the books you have read, all the lessons you have learned, the certain knowledge that one day, any day, you must be bold, have courage, and walk through a door that leads to opportunity for others.”

-- Vivian Malone Jones (class of 1965), in her commencement speech to the UA class of 2000

June 11 marks the anniversary of the successful integration of The University of Alabama. It was on that day in 1963 that Vivian Malone and James Hood registered for classes in Foster Auditorium. On that day, all eyes were on our campus, witnessing both a "stand" and more importantly a profound and bold act of courage.

Two short years later, Ms. Malone graduated from The University of Alabama, and featured above is a page from the 1965 University of Alabama yearbook, the Corolla with her senior picture, along with thirty-one of her classmates (she is the face in the third row from the top and in the third column from the left). It's impossible to measure just what went it took to be just another face on a page in that yearbook. Ms. Malone's being "just another senior" in the graduating class of 1965, forty-four short years ago, is something worth recognizing, pondering, commemorating.

The entire 1965 Corolla (volume 73) is available online through our digital program and was made possible by Shirley Dowling McCrary as part of the University Libraries' Corolla Digital Initiative.

In addition, a full run (1893-present) of the Corollas are available to browse in the Hoole Library's Gandrud Reading Room. An exhibit of Corollas is currently on display in Gorgas Library on the 2nd floor in the Pearce foyer. If you are interested in sponsoring the digitization of a Corolla, please contact us.