Most students at the University of Alabama in the 1960s will remember Carol Self. You couldn’t miss her.

She was highly visible as a cheerleader on the sidelines at UA football games in the heart of the Bear Bryant era.

She marched out front of the Million Dollar Band holding a bouquet of Crimson flowers. The prestigious role was variously called “Miss Alabama,” the “band sponsor” or “the flower girl.”

She then made a transition from student spirit to student activism. She had become an integral part of the student movement that boiled over in May 1970 with protests against the Vietnam War and arrests of students by the Tuscaloosa Police. She organized a rally of female students shortly after the killing of four Kent State University Students by Ohio National Guardsmen.

A vocal leade

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