See main article History of
the University of Alabama.In 1818, the Congress authorized the Alabama
Territory to set aside a township for the establishment of a "seminary of learning." When Alabama was admitted to the
Union on March 2, 1819, a second township added to the grant. The seminary was
established by the General Assembly of Alabama on December 18, 1820, and named "The University of the State of Alabama." It was set up in Tuscaloosa in 1827 (then the capital of Alabama) and
opened its doors to students on April 18, 1831.Greek life began at the University in 1847 when two young Mobilians visiting from Yale
installed a chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon. When DKE members
began holding secret meetings in the old state capitol building that year, the administration strongly voiced its disapproval.
Over the next decade, three other fraternies appeared at Alabama: Phi
Gamma Delta in 1855, Sigma Alpha Epsilon in 1856, and Kappa Sigma in 1857. Anti-fraternity laws were imposed in that
year, but were lifted in 1890s. Eager to have a social organization of their own, women
at the University founded the Zeta Chapter of Kappa Delta sorority in 1903. Alpha Delta Pi soon followedSchool president Landon
Garland transformed the University into a military school in the late 1850s. As such,
the school trained troops for the Confederacy during the Civil
War. As a consequence of that role, Union troops burned down the campus in 1865 (though this
was unrelated to Sherman's March to the Sea). Only seven buildings survived the
burning, one of which was the President's Mansion.The University reopened in 1871 and in 1880,
Congress granted the University 40,000 acres (162 km²) of coal land in partial compensation for $250,000 in war damages. The
military structure was dropped shortly after the reopening of the University. The school was officially opened to women in
1892 after much lobbying by Julia Tutwiler to the Board of Trustees.In 1941, the Gorgas Library opened its doors in the same spot where the Rotunda had once
stood.On June 11, 1963, George Wallace, the governor of Alabama, stood in front of a schoolhouse door
at the University of Alabama in an attempt to stop desegregation of that
institution by the enrollment of two African-American students,
Vivian Malone and
James Hood; when confronted by federal marshals, Wallace stepped aside. Later in life, he apologized for his opposition at
that time to racial integration.Since those troubled times, University of Alabama officials have worked hard to right those wrongs, and the institution is now
one of the top-ranked public universities in the United States. Published reports have ranked UA among the top four flagship
universities in the Southeast and among the nation's top 25 public flagship universities in terms of minority enrollment. To
salute the sacrifice and commitment of the courageous individuals who took a stand for racial change at a crucial time in its
history, the University of Alabama hosted "Opening Doors," a three-day event in June 2003,
the fourtieth anniversary of intergration at Alabama.