She was made famous when George Wallace, the Governor of Alabama, attempted to block her and James Hood from enrolling at the all-white university.

Moreover, the bachelor's degree Malone received was issued to her before the university had been fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

In 1961, Malone had received word from a family friend that the local Non-Partisan Voter League had organized a plan to desegregate the University of Alabama's branch school in Mobile.

Due to her exceptional performance in high school, Malone was one out of a number of local black students the organization suggested apply to the Mobile campus.

[2] After applying to the Mobile branch of the University of Alabama, Malone and her family had been visited by two white men who had claimed that they were representatives of the state.

They disclosed that her attempts to apply to the Mobile campus and integrate with the school had instigated violent retaliation from the local white community from which the family would not receive much protection.

[2] The district court had ruled that the University of Alabama's practice of denying black students admission into their university was a violation of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the Brown v. Board of Education case, in which the act of educating black children in schools intentionally separated from white students was charged as unconstitutional.

[2] On June 11, 1963, Malone and Hood, accompanied by United States Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach and a three-car motorcade full of federal marshals, arrived at the University of Alabama's campus with the intention to enroll.

[2] Waiting for them on campus and blocking the entryway to Foster Auditorium was Governor Wallace, flanked by a group of state troopers.

Wallace had not only refused the order, but he interrupted Katzenbach; in front of the crowds of media crews surrounding him, Wallace delivered a short, symbolic speech concerning state sovereignty, claiming:"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.

One hundred guardsmen escorted Malone and Hood from their dorms back to the auditorium, where Wallace moved aside at the request of General Henry V.

[3] Malone recalled that this entrance to campus was frightening: she couldn't stop thinking about the potential for a repeat of the race riot that happened months earlier at the University of Mississippi.

Considering this and the earlier Ole Miss Riot, university officials made students sign pledges to not "contribute to disorder" that fall.

Wallace's legal advisor, Cecil Jackson, called a university official, Jeff Bennett, to argue for removing Malone from the dorms "for the safety of the other children."

Wallace responded by asking him what the university could do if four or five cars full of Alabama Highway Patrolmen tried to remove Malone by force.

The next day, President Kennedy was assassinated, and Malone considered this the most blatant reminder of how she could be killed at any time due to her position.

However, Malone felt encouraged by shows of support by some other students, and she was able to make friends early on with some white women on campus.

She also helped in the piloting of Project 23, a program aimed at addressing the barriers that kept Black individuals in the state of Georgia from registering to vote or running for public office.

George Wallace, the governor who had attempted to block her from integrating the University of Alabama, presented her with the award and praised her: "Vivian Malone Jones was at the center of the fight over states' rights and conducted herself with grace, strength and, above all, courage."

[10] Interviewed after receiving the award, Malone said that "There is no question Wallace and I will be remembered for the stand in the schoolhouse door...But the best that can happen at this point is to say it was a mistake.

The arrival of Vivian Malone Jones and James Hood to the University of Alabama, also known as Stand in the Schoolhouse Door, was depicted in the 1994 film Forrest Gump.

[25][26] The University of Alabama awards a student the Vivian Malone Jones Endowed Scholarship for Diversity each year.

[27] Each year, an individual who has demonstrated integrity and consistently contributed to social justice in the Environmental Protection Agency or in the greater community is presented with this award in memoriam of Malone and the legacy of her work.