| Governor George C. Wallace installed a beaming Harry Melvin
Philpott as Auburn's eleventh president in 1966. Wallace was governor
and ex officio president of Auburn's Board of Trustees during most of Philpott's
time as University president. Wallace attended only one trustee meeting,
Philpott recalled during interviews with Archivist Dwayne Cox in the early
1990s. Philpott said Wallace "did not interfere" at Auburn during
Philpott's years as president. For instance, Wallace "did not raise
a question about the employment of black faculty [or] about the admission
of black students." Auburn had admitted its first black student before
Philpott became president, and Wallace had not stood in the schoolhouse
door then, as he had done at Tuscaloosa in his "segregation forever" mode.
Auburn signed a black athlete to a scholarship for the first time after
Philpott arrived. Philpott said Alabama's Bear Bryant did not sign
a black player until Auburn had done so. -- Photo: AU Photographic Services |
