With the cry of the bailiff one morning last week, the jampacked courtroom in Birmingham's Federal Building fell silent, stood as Judge H. Hobart Grooms, lanky veteran of more than a quarter century of practice as a Birmingham lawyer, took his place. Beyond the closed courtroom doors, in the corridor, latecomers waited patiently, hoping for a chance at seats.
The main question before the court: Negro Student Autherine Lucy's contempt-of-court charge against the trustees and president of the University of Alabama for having barred her "for her protection" after the riots that followed...