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Anti-war campus protest in 1969.

Just after UAB began the fall term of 1969 as a new and independent university, there was an anti-war protest held on campus.  UAB students and employees, along with members of the local community, protested US involvement in Vietnam.  The Kaleidoscope newspaper reported a couple hundred people attended the protest.  Two weeks afterward, a debate on the Vietnam War was held in the auditorium of the Engineering Building [Cudworth Hall] on the evening before a city-wide anti-war rally was held in Birmingham's Kelly Ingram Park.

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By state law and local regulation, the hospital complex at UAB was segregated by race; a sign noting a white waiting room is visible in this image. This situation began to change in 1963 and effective on April 25, 1965, the hospital and the medical center were integrated. A few weeks later, Federal officials toured the UAB Medical Center and concluded that all policies and procedures of racial segregation had been eliminated and the university was in full compliance with federal law.

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Ballet students in Scotland, 1969

During the summer of 1969, several members of the Alabama Ballet spent the summer dancing and studying in Europe, with visits to Scotland, Italy, and Switzerland.  In Scotland, Helen Dexter and Larry Bailey were photographed on Calton Hill with the Dugald Stewart Monument and the city of Edinburgh in the background.  At the time of this European tour, the Alabama Ballet was an affiliate of UAB and was under the direction of faculty member James F. Hatcher, founding director of the UAB Town and Gown Theatre.

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Members of the first class were recruited by Dean Peters and began their studies at the end of September 1969. Pictured are left to right: (front row) Michael E. Raim, Eugenie Sturtevant, Dean Henry B. Peters, Neil M. Bleakley, and Ronald E. Dachelet; and (back row) Nelson G. Crandall, Ernest S. Spohn, Alan G. Tavel, and Gene J. Terrezza. The School of Optometry awarded its first bachelor degrees in physiological optics in 1971 and its first Doctor of Optometry degrees in 1973.

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Dr. Tinsley R. Harrison (right) was the first Distinguished Faculty Lecturer at UAB. His talk, “Witches and Doctors,” was presented on March 3, 1964, at a banquet held at the Parliament House Hotel. The DFL is the highest honor awarded by UAB to a member of the medical center faculty. In 1975 the event was moved from the spring to the fall. Also pictured in 1964 are (left) Dr. Joseph F. Volker, vice president for Health Affairs, and (center) Dr. Frank A. Rose, president of The University of Alabama.

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For all Distinguished Faculty Lecturers, see the chronological history of UAB

In a special convocation ceremony at the Medical Center, the two medical school faculty members received honorary Doctor of Science degrees from The University of Alabama.  The previous October, the two physicians had been named Distinguished Professors, the first such designations awarded in the history of the university system.  Pictured at the Birmingham ceremony are (left to right):  President Frank A. Rose, Harrison, Vice President Joseph F. Volker, and Lyons.

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The groundbreaking ceremony for a major expansion of the university's medical center was held on July 30, 1968.  This ceremony heralded the groundbreaking for three new facilities at the growing campus in Birmingham: a new health sciences library (Lister Hill Library), a new basic sciences building (Volker Hall), and a new home for the School of Nursing.  Those seated on the platform included the president of the university, the executive vice president, and the deans of dentistry, medicine, and nursing.  Looking east from along Seventh Avenue South are, in the background, Jefferson Tower (right) and the construction of the Sparks Center (left).

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Dr. Kraus was a member of the dental school faculty and was chief of dental service at the Veterans Administration Hospital.  One of the founders of the Concerned White Citizens of Alabama, Kraus joined those marching in Selma, Alabama, in March of 1965. He later said he hoped the group's participation would give more Alabamians "the courage to stand up for equality."

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At a press conference in Montgomery, Governor Brewer announced that the "University of Alabama in Birmingham" and the "University of Alabama in Huntsville" would become independent campuses and join the University of Alabama in a new three-campus administrative system. Meeting with the media are (left to right) Daniel T. McCall, Jr., member of the University of Alabama Board of Trustees; Dr. Joseph F. Volker, newly named president of UAB; Juanita Volker; Governor Brewer; Mary Mathews; Dr. F. David Mathews, president of the University of Alabama; and J. Rufus Bealle, Board secretary. Following a search process, Dr. Benjamin B. Graves would be named the first president of UAH in 1970.

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The Health Sciences Research Building, which spans Seventh Avenue South, was dedicated on December 9, 1960.  In 1966 an addition was completed on the southern edge of the building, and on November 6, 1966, the newly expanded building was rededicated as the Lyons-Harrison Research Building.  It was named in honor of Dr. Champ Lyons (former chair of the Department of Surgery) and Dr. Tinsley R. Harrison (former chair of the Department of Medicine).  On April 11, 2022, UAB held a groundbreaking for a project that will result in a complete renovation of the building and its renaming as the Altec/Styslinger Genomic Medicine and Data Sciences Building.  The $78 million project is planned for completion in 2024.

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On July 12, 1902, cornerstones were laid for two new buildings, one for the Hillman Hospital and one for the adjacent Birmingham Medical College. The Hillman Hospital was originally founded as a charity hospital in 1888 by a group of Birmingham women. In 1897 the hospital's governing entity was incorporated by the State of Alabama; the names of these incorporators, the "Board of Lady Managers," appeared on the cornerstone of the new building. Hillman Hospital was opened in July 1903; it remains today on the UAB campus and is known as the "Old Hillman Building."

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Larry Davis (left) and Floyd Miller (right) operate the IBM computers located in the basement of University Hospital.  An automated accounting system for hospital billing and payroll was implemented in 1967.

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Santa Claus shares the cheer with staff at work in University Hospital during the holiday season.

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Following the 1963 death of President Kennedy, some of his personal papers and memorabilia toured America. Administrators at the Medical Center were responsible for the display being exhibited in Birmingham on September 16-17 in the gymnasium of the Ft. Mortimer H. Jordan National Guard Armory (later UAB’s Mortimer Jordan Hall).

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At a press conference in Montgomery, Governor Albert P. Brewer and members of the Board of Trustees announced a new three-campus University of Alabama System with separate universities located in Tuscaloosa (UA), Huntsville (UAH), and Birmingham (UAB).  The Board named F. David Mathews as the new president of the University of Alabama and Joseph F. Volker as president-elect of the new UAB; a search would later be held for the first president of UAH.  Dr. Volker officially assumed office as the first president of UAB on September 5, 1969.  Dr. and Mrs. Volker (left) and Dr. and Mrs. Mathews (right) chat across the table at the announcement press conference.

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The Kracke Clinical Services Building on Seventh Avenue South was dedicated on July 18, 1965, and was named in honor of the late Dr. Roy R. Kracke, the first dean of the four-year medical school in Birmingham. The building had opened in 1929 as a dormitory for students of the nursing school at Hillman Hospital and it remained a nursing student residence until 1963.

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The booth for the University of Alabama Medical Center at the fair in Birmingham noted “Teamwork in the Health Sciences” and highlighted the medical school, dental school, and hospital.

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Dr. Tinsley R. Harrison, an Alabama native and long-time member of the UAB faculty, was the author of Principles of Internal Medicine, one of the most widely read textbooks in medical education, a textbook still in use today. Student John A. Harris, shown here, graduated from the medical school in 1966.

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