Autherine Lucy-Foster’s Higher Education Journey started at Selma University

While many people know Autherine Lucy Foster as the first black student to enter the University of Alabama, few may realize that she got her collegiate start right here in Selma Alabama at Selma University. Autherine Lucy left her community in nearby Shiloh, Alabama, in 1947, to attend Selma University in Selma, Alabama, where she earned a teaching certificate. Lucy said that she recalls fond memories while at Selma University and credit it as her starting point in higher education.

Lucy-Foster’s story is another example of the crucial role that Historically Black Colleges and Universities have played in positively affecting the lives of African Americans and helping to make the Nation a better place to live for all. Even though Lucy-Foster was unable to get a job as a teacher for many years because of her notoriety, yet it was her education at Selma University and Miles College that helped her survive and paved the way for her to eventually make a living as an educator.

Autherine Lucy was born on October 5, 1929 as the youngest of ten brothers and sisters.

After graduating with a teaching certificate at Selma University, Lucy-Foster went on to graduate from Miles College, with bachelor’s degree in English in 1952. Then pursued further studies at the University of Alabama, where she was wrongly expelled from the University of Alabama after being on campus for just a few days. Many years later, in 1989, Lucy-Foster was readmitted to the University of Alabama and graduated with her daughter.

Sixty-three years after arriving on the campus of the University of Alabama, the School honored Lucy with a doctorate degree in 2019.

Seventy-one years after her arrival at Miles College, the civil rights trailblazer, Autherine Lucy Foster, received an honorary doctorate degree from Miles College in Fairfield, Alabama on Wednesday, August, 19, 2020.

Seventy-four years after attending Selma University, Autherine Lucy-Foster was honored with the Doctor of Humane Letters Degree on May 14, 2021, at the place where her higher education journey first started and was presented with full academic regalia for her achievements.

Lucy-Foster said that she had fond memories of Selma University and claims it as the place where she made her collegiate start. “I don’t have much, but I still send my small donations to Selma University during Founders’ Day,” Lucy Foster said. She went on to say, “I am thankful for the honor that Selma University is giving me and I wish that I could do more for it.”