ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, October 11, 1996 TAG: 9610110071
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MONTGOMERY, ALA.
SOURCE: JESSICA SAUNDERS ASSOCIATED PRESS
THE WOMAN HE BARRED from college in 1963 was given an apology and the Lurleen B. Wallace Award of Courage. - The last time George C. Wallace and Vivian Malone Jones laid eyes on each other, he was governor and she was a young black woman he was trying to keep out of the University of Alabama with his ``stand in the schoolhouse door.''
Thirty-three years later on Thursday night, she and Wallace, a sickly shadow of the 1960s segregationist, met again. Jones was being honored with an award named in memory of Wallace's wife; it recognizes women who have made major improvements in the state.
``There is no question Wallace and I will be remembered for the stand in the schoolhouse door. There is no way you can overcome that,'' said Jones, who retired last week from the Environmental Protection Agency. ``But the best that can happen at this point is to say it was a mistake. We all make mistakes.''
Jones said Wallace apologized for the 1963 confrontation in a brief private meeting before the awards ceremony.
``He said he felt that it was wrong, that it shouldn't have happened. He said he felt the state of Alabama is better now than it was then as a result of what has happened through the integration and the desegregation of the schools here,'' she said.
Wallace, who suffers from Parkinson's disease and paralysis, was present but said nothing to reporters.
Jones, 54, said she wanted to be treated like an ordinary college student when Wallace cast her and James Hood into the national spotlight June 11, 1963, by standing in the door of the campus auditorium to try to keep them from becoming the university's first black students.
In a performance carefully arranged with Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Wallace made a speech about states' rights, then stepped aside to let the students enter under National Guard protection.
Jones, a Mobile native who lives in Atlanta, said she forgave Wallace long ago, ``but I never had a chance to talk to him about it.'' Her remarks echoed those of Hood, who met Wallace for the first time in July.
Wallace, who renounced segregation long ago, said he was pleased his family's foundation had picked Jones to receive the first Lurleen B. Wallace Award of Courage. She was its top choice.
``Vivian Malone Jones was at the center of the fight over states' rights and conducted herself with grace, strength and, above all, courage. She deserves to be rewarded for her actions in that air of uncertainty,'' the 77-year-old former governor said.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was 9 at the time, attended the ceremony.
``I wanted to be here because I knew that my father would want to be here,'' he said. ``This event really is a moment of reconciliation and redemption.''
He said he thinks Wallace today is a very different man from the man who stood in the schoolhouse door.
``I don't see this as an attempt to rewrite history,'' he said. ``I think it's an attempt to right a wrong he may have participated in and he may feel some responsibility for.''
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. George Wallace and Vivian Jones had a chance beforeby CNBthe awards ceremony to talk about their prior confrontation.