As Martin Luther King Day has just passed and Barack Obama, the nation’s first African American president is starting his second term, we as a nation are remembering civil rights icons that shaped the country today. One of the nation’s great civil rights icons, James Hood, passed away in his Alabama home last week at the age of 70.

Hood, who is known for being one of the first African-Americans to enroll at the University of Alabama, was an employee of Madison College for 26 years until he retired in 2002. Hood was the head of Protective Services.

“I think his life and his background gave him an ability to empathize and sympathize with other people so he was always very respectful people’s feelings and their status,” said Terry Webb, Madison College provost. Webb, as the dean of Arts and Sciences, worked with Hood from 1999-2002. “There really wasn’t any difference to him between the president of the college and somebody who was here part time to help clean the floors. That’s what I remember about Jim.”

Webb said he remembers a humble person who would not have necessarily liked to be regarded as a “great man,” but he would want to be looked at as someone who followed his beliefs.

“That’s just not what he thought. Gosh, in his head, he was just going to school. He just had bodyguards while he was doing it,” Webb said. “These things always grow, the light of history shines on it and you realize, ‘Wow. That really was something that made a difference.’ It was a first. So Jim becomes a part of history when he wanted to get an education like everyone else.”

In 1963, Alabama Gov. George Wallace prevented Hood from enrolling at University of Alabama, an all-white university. Hood and Vivian Malone went to the university to register and pay fees on June 11, 1963 at Foster Auditorium in Tuscaloosa, Ala., while being accompanied by Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach and federal marshals. Wallace would then bar their entry with the help of Alabama state troopers.

However, after President John F. Kennedy federalized the National Guard, National Guard Gen. Henry Graham forced Wallace to relinquish his post. Wallace obliged and granted Hood and Malone access. This incident was labeled “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door” and was later depicted in the 1994 film “Forrest Gump.”

Webb said that he felt Hood’s experiences were a benefit to Madison College because he brought a different perspective for students, teachers and faculty that they may not have had otherwise. Hood would even speak about his experiences to classes at the college.

“Jim was not only a person who administered programs, but he also came here as a representative of a movement that people who live around here wouldn’t normally converse with somebody who was in the middle of that spotlight,” Webb said. “I think he provided the college a window into what life was like in the South when he was going through school and eventually going through college and how that affected his outlook on how he handled his day-to-day affairs. “

Webb also said that Hood had a lasting impact on the institution as well.

“There’s only so many legends of this movement. Of course, this college doesn’t have the opportunity to employ all of them, but we ‘re happy to have had the experience having Jim influence the culture while he was here.”

Hood only attended classes at University of Alabama for a few months, eventually transferring to Wayne State University where he received a bachelor’s degree in police administration and political science. He would later receive a masters’ degree in criminal justice from Michigan State University. Later on in his life, Hood did return to the University of Alabama and received a doctorate in higher education in 1997.