Air Date: June 2, 2025

Transcript: https://tinyurl.com/fk7hby52

Dr. David Chase Stephens (AU ’24), winner of the Alabama Historical Association’s 2025 Sarah Woolfolk Wiggins Award for the best dissertation in Alabama History, discusses his dissertation entitled “To Obstruct and Resist: Paradise v. Allen, Integration Efforts, and the Alabama State Troopers” (Dec. 2024). Stephens examines the strum und drang of integrating the Alabama State Troopers by hiring and promoting Black and women officers. He examines the four major lawsuits at the heart of these efforts as well as resistance to integration that Gov. Guy Hunt dropped in the mid-1980s.

Links mentioned in the episode:

Alabama Historical Association: https://www.alabamahistory.net/

Sarah Woolfolk Wiggins Dissertation Award: https://www.alabamahistory.net/wiggins-dissertation-award

Stephens, “To Obstruct and Resist: Paradise v. Allen, Integration Efforts, and the Alabama State Troopers”: https://etd.auburn.edu/handle/10415/9481

Paradise v. Allen / NAACP v. Allen: https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/paradise-v-allen/

Alabama Department of Public Safety: https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/alabama-law-enforcement-agency/

US v. Frazer (1970): https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/317/1079/1415562/

Mieth v. Dothard (1976): https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/418/1169/1602972/

Dothard v. Rawlinson (1977): https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/433/321/

Gov. George Wallace: https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/george-c-wallace-1963-67-1971-79-1983-87/

Gov. Fob James: https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/forrest-fob-james-jr-1979-83-1995-99/

Gov. Guy Hunt: https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/guy-hunt-1987-93/

Cowie, Freedom’s Dominion: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/jefferson-cowie/freedom%E2%80%99s-dominion-winner-of-the-pulitzer-prize/9781541672819/?lens=basic-books

Founded in 1947, the Alabama Historical Association is the oldest statewide historical society in Alabama. The AHA provides opportunities for meaningful engagement with the past through publications, meetings, historical markers, and other programs.

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