James Alexander Hood (November 10, 1942 – January 17, 2013) was one of the first African Americans to enroll at the University of Alabama in 1963, and was made famous when Alabama Governor George Wallace attempted to block him and fellow student Vivian Malone from enrolling at the then all-white university, an incident which became known as the "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door".

Wallace not only refused the order, he interrupted Katzenbach and, in front of the crowds of media crews surrounding him, delivered a short, symbolic speech concerning state sovereignty, claiming that: "The unwelcomed, unwanted, unwarranted and force-induced intrusion upon the campus of the University of Alabama... of the might of the Central Government offers frightful example of the oppression of the rights, privileges and sovereignty of this State by officers of the Federal Government.

Guardsmen escorted Hood and Malone back to the auditorium, where Wallace moved aside at the request of General Henry Graham.

[7] He'd started his time on campus on a dorm floor shared only by federal marshals, and had a dead black cat mailed to him.

[11] Vivian Malone, the other black student who integrated the university with Hood, had similarly forgiven Wallace in his later years, and met with him in 1996 as well.

[12] Hood retired in 2002 as chairman of public safety services in charge of police and fire training at the Madison Area Technical College.