Editing Tuskegee, Alabama (section)

===Post-''Gomillion''===
{{anchor|School integration}} In 1963, Tuskegee was to have been the first Alabama community to comply with a federal order to [[desegregate]] its [[State school|public schools]]. The [[school superintendent]], C.A. (Hardboy) Pruitt, at first opposed the admission of Black students, but worked with other community leaders to comply with the final order of the [[federal district court]], with plans to admit 13 Black students in September 1963 to what had been an all-white high school. But Gov. [[George Wallace]] opposed compliance with the federal order anywhere in the state on the grounds that it would lead to violence. Behind the scenes, Wallace enlisted the aid of [[Ku Klux Klan]] members and [[neo-Nazis]] of the [[National States' Rights Party]] to gin up protests calling for the closing of schools that were scheduled to integrate.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Carter|first=Dan T.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/32739924|title=The politics of rage : George Wallace, the origins of the new conservatism, and the transformation of American politics|date=1995|publisher=Simon & Schuster|isbn=0-684-80916-8|location=New York|pages=162–167|oclc=32739924}}</ref> Wallace subsequently ordered public schools closed across the state and deployed [[state troopers]] on September 3, 1963, to block the opening of Tuskegee High School.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Sitton|first=Claude|date=September 3, 1963|title=Alabama Police Prevent Opening of Tuskegee High|work=The New York Times|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/09/03/82145125.html?pageNumber=1|access-date=March 5, 2021}}</ref> The school was integrated on September 10, 1963, after President [[John F. Kennedy]] federalized the Alabama [[National Guard]] and 13 Black students were among only 165 students to begin the school year, against a total enrollment of about 550.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Sitton|first=Claude|date=September 11, 1963|title=Wallace Ends Resistance as Guard Is Federalized; More Schools Integrate|work=The New York Times|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/09/11/82148187.html?pageNumber=1|access-date=March 5, 2021}}</ref>

[[Lucius Amerson]] made history in 1966 by becoming the first Black sheriff to be elected in the state of Alabama, and the American South, since Reconstruction. He was sworn in as Macon County Sheriff in January, 1967.<ref>{{Cite web |date=January 21-22, 1967 |orig-date=January 21-22, 1967 |title=The Southern Courier, Vol. III, No. 4 |url=http://www.southerncourier.org/low-res/Vol3_No04_1967_01_21.pdf |access-date=May 7, 2025 |website=The Southern Courier: A Weekly Newspaper Covering Civil Rights in the South 1965-68}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Brian |title=The Tuskegee Student Uprising: A History |date=2022 |publisher=New York University Press |isbn=978-1-4798-0942-4 |edition=1st |series=Black Power Series |location=New York}}</ref> Amerson served four terms as Sheriff until 1987.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ruane |first=Michael E. |date=2008-08-14 |title=Sheriff Made History Simply by Doing His Job |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2008/08/14/sheriff-made-history-simply-by-doing-his-job/749c726c-c803-4c0b-9aad-1a52fcc814c2/ |access-date=2025-05-07 |newspaper=The Washington Post |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}}</ref>

[[Johnny Ford]] was elected the first black mayor of the city in 1972, and served six consecutive terms in office. Lucenia Williams Dunn was elected the first black woman mayor in 2000.