State Funds Private School to Avoid Integration

September 2, 1963 was the first day of integrated classes at Tuskegee High School, where 13 black students had been selected to attend. Alabama Governor George Wallace ordered the school closed due to safety concerns. The school reopened a week later. Within days, all of the white students left the school to attend a new, all-white private school with the aid of state funds as approved by Governor Wallace.