Her father Milton Cornelius Lucy[5] and mother Minnie Maud Hosea[5] were sharecroppers; she was the youngest child in a family of five sons and four daughters.

[6] The family owned and farmed 110 acres, and Lucy's father also did blacksmithing, and made baskets and ax handles to supplement their income.

Backed by the NAACP, Lucy and Myers charged the University with racial discrimination in a court case that took almost three years to resolve.

[9] In 1954, the landmark Supreme Court desegregation case, Brown v. Board of Education said that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional (illegal).

[9] Lucy and Myers's attorneys from the NAACP included Constance Baker Motley, Arthur Shores and Thurgood Marshall, who had helped win Brown.

[8] At least two sources have said that the board hoped that without Myers, the more outgoing and assured of the pair and whose idea it originally was to enroll at Alabama, Lucy's own acceptance would mean little or nothing to her, and she would voluntarily decide not to attend.

But Myers and others strongly encouraged her, and on February 3, 1956, Lucy enrolled as a graduate student in library science, becoming the first African American ever admitted to a white public school or university in the state.

[9] On Monday, February 6, 1956, riots broke out on the campus and a mob of more than a thousand men yelled and pelted the car in which the Dean of Women drove Lucy between classes.

[8] Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a sermon in 1956 about the events and gave it at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church the day before his trial for violating Alabama’s anti-boycott law: As soon as Autherine Lucy walked on the campus, a group of spoiled students lead [sic] by Leonard Wilson and a vicious group of criminals began threatening her on every hand.

In a letter to Lucy, he said, "Whatever happens in the future, remember for all concerned, that your contribution has been made toward equal justice for all Americans and that you have done everything in your power to bring this about.

[3] After Lucy was expelled from the university, Marshall was so concerned about her safety that he brought her to New York to stay in his home with him and his wife, Cecilia.

"[10] In April 1956, in Dallas, Lucy married Hugh Foster, a divinity student (and later a minister) whom she had met at Miles College.

[20] Her grandniece, Nikema Williams, is a member of the United States House of Representatives and chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia.

[4] The Plaza is located beside Foster Auditorium, where, in 1963, Alabama Governor George Wallace unsuccessfully attempted to bar Malone and Hood from registering at the University.

[22] The 40-foot-tall (12 m) brick tower has a base displaying bronze plaques that chronicle the individual struggles of Lucy, Malone, and Hood.

Additionally, on September 15, 2017, a special marker was erected in her honor near Graves Hall (home of the College of Education) on the UA campus.