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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The Eye Foundation Hospital in Birmingham was dedicated on December 8, 1963, and was opened to patients later that month.  The private, independent hospital was constructed at the edge of the university medical center campus.  Dr. Alston Callahan, founder of the hospital, was on the original faculty of the medical school and had served as the inaugural chair of the Department of Ophthalmology from 1945 until 1954.  The Eye Foundation Hospital was acquired by UAB in 1997 and was later renamed in honor of its founder.  The brick building on the left of this image was the dormitory for students enrolled in the University Hospital nursing school.  This later named Hixson Hall was demolished by UAB in 2007.

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

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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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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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On September 15, 1966, the extension program in Birmingham was officially renamed as the College of General Studies. There were 4,600 students enrolled in courses in business, education, engineering, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences. Dr. George W. Campbell was named as first dean of the new college.

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The first major addition to University Hospital in decades, the North Wing was dedicated during ceremonies held August 20-21, 1966. The seven story addition provided space for the emergency department, new operating suites, diagnostic radiology, and 100 beds for psychiatric patients. This western side of North Wing is no longer visible as the Quarterback Tower currently stands where the parking lot existed at the time of the dedication.

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Dr. Alan R. Dimick (left) and Dr. John W. Kirklin (right) provide a hospital tour for a member of the Shriner organization. Kirklin, a renowned surgeon at the Mayo Clinic, was recruited to Birmingham in July of 1966. At UAB he served as chair of the surgery department, as director of the cardiothoracic surgery division, as hospital chief-of-staff, and as founder and president of the Health Services Foundation. He retired from UAB in 1997.

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Primitiva Isar (left) and Leonides Bulawin (right), who were working in the hospital as Exchange Visitor Nurses, enjoy a visit with Santa Claus.

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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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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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