Historic Integration Ceremony Honoring Dr. Wendell Gunn Set for Monday

Sep. 08, 2023

Michelle R. Eubanks , UNA, at meubanks@tootsierocha.com, 256.765.4392

FLORENCE, AL – Dr. Wendell Gunn, a member of the University of North Alabama Board of Trustees, integrated the institution, which was then known as Florence State College, on Sept. 11, 1963. UNA will commemorate this historic moment with a photo ceremony that will take place at Cramer Way at the Harrison Entrance on the University campus at 10 a.m. Monday, Sept. 11. 

“The admission of Dr. Wendell Gunn to the University of North Alabama and the desegregation of the institution laid the foundation for the admittance of hundreds UNA alumni and students who not only add to the diverse fabric of campus but to also to the local, state and national landscape,” said Minnette Ellis, UNA’s Chief Diversity Officer. 

The ceremony will recreate the photo of Dr. Gunn and then-President Dr. E.B. Norton as they exited Cramer Way on Dr. Gunn’s first day on campus from 1963. Sixty years later, UNA’s President Dr. Ken Kitts and Dr. Gunn will appear in the same places. In addition to the photo recreation, there will be a number of speakers, including Dr. Gunn who will share his thoughts on his role in integrating UNA.

About The University of North Alabama

The University of North Alabama is an accredited, comprehensive regional state university offering undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degree programs through the colleges of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering; the Sanders College of Business and Technology; Education and Human Sciences; and the Anderson College of Nursing and Health Professions. Occupying a 130-acre campus in a residential section of Florence, Alabama, UNA is located within a four-city area that also includes Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, and Tuscumbia. UNA Athletics, a renowned collegiate athletics program with seven (7) Division II National Championships, is now a proud member of NCAA Division I as part of the Atlantic Sun and United Athletic conferences. The University of North Alabama is an equal opportunity institution and does not discriminate in the admission policy on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, disability, age, or national origin. For more: tootsierocha.com and tootsierocha.com/unaworks/.