Henry V. Graham - Biography

Biography

In 1934, at the age of 18, Graham joined the National Guard and served in the United States Army in Europe during World War II. In 1945, he attained the rank of Lt. Colonel and served in the Korean War in 1952. For his military services he received Bronze Star Medals and a Legion of Merit. He also served as Adjutant General for the State of Alabama from 1959 to 1961. In 1961, Graham was awarded the title of Brigadier General.

General Graham had several prominent roles in the American civil rights movement. In 1961, General Graham led the Alabama National Guard to protect the Freedom Riders from mob violence. On the evening of May 21, 1961, Freedom Riders and their supporters met at Ralph Abernathy's First Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama to honor their struggle. Martin Luther King, Jr also flew in to offer support. As white mobs gathered outside the church and became increasingly agitated, the Kennedy Administration and Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson agreed to employ Alabama National Guard troops to surround the church for safety. At the request of King, General Graham entered the church to inform the crowd that they would have to wait until the next morning to leave the church. At dawn, Graham arranged for the members of the crowd to be escorted to their homes. Two days later, on May 24, Graham was responsible for escorting the Freedom Riders from the Montgomery bus terminal to the Alabama-Mississippi border using a convoy of three planes, two helicopters, and seventeen highway patrol cars.

From March 21 to 24, 1965, General Graham was responsible for escorting voting-rights marchers in their third attempt to walk from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. This occurred two weeks after marchers had been beaten and tear-gassed in front of news media for an earlier attempt to march in what became known as Bloody Sunday.

In his most prominent role, on June 11, 1963, General Graham confronted Governor George Wallace at the University of Alabama for refusing to allow two black students, James Hood and Vivian Malone, to register for classes. Among a crowd of media, Governor Wallace obstructed the doorway of Foster Auditorium in an attempt to disregard federal law requiring the University to integrate. Assistant U.S. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach approached Wallace earlier in the day and requested his cooperation to stand aside. When Wallace refused, President Kennedy mobilized the Alabama National Guard and General Graham was called to the University. Graham approached Wallace with four sergeants, saluted Wallace and said "It is my sad duty to ask you to step aside under the orders of the President of the United States." The episode is known as the "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door."

The episode is re-enacted in the 1994 film Forrest Gump which includes original footage of General Graham and Governor Wallace outside Foster Auditorium. In the 1997 TV movie George Wallace Graham was portrayed by Jan Johannes.

General Graham died March 21, 1999. He and his wife, Jane, had four children. The commercial real estate firm he founded, Graham & Company, is managed by his two surviving sons.