"TODAY I STOOD WHERE ONCE JEFFERSON DAVIS STOOD"

GEORGE WALLACE INAUGURATED AS GOVERNOR OF ALABAMA, PROMISES 'SEGREGATION FOREVER'

Montgomery, Alabama (JFK+50) On January 14, 1963, George Corley Wallace, Jr.* was inaugurated as the Governor of the state of Alabama having won the November 1962 election in a landslide.

According to history.com, the Governor's inaugural address was written by Asa Carter**, a leader of the Ku Klux Klan.  

Governor Wallace said...

"Today I have stood where once Jefferson Davis stood.  It is very appropriate then that from this Cradle of the Confederacy...we sound the drum for freedom.

I draw the line in the dust...and I say...segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!"

*George Corley Wallace, Jr. (1919-1998) was born in Clio, Alabama & attended the University of Alabama School of Law.  He served in the US Army Air Force during WWII. 

GCW was governor of Alabama 1963-1967, 1971-1979, 1983-1987.  In 1968, he ran a third party campaign for POTUS winning 5 southern states.  He was shot during the 1972 presidential primaries leaving him permanently paralyzed below the waist.

**Asa Earl Carter (1925-1979) was born in Anniston, Alabama & attended the University of Colorado.  AEC was a segregationist activist in the 1950s & became a Western fiction novelist.  He served in the US Navy during WWII.

SOURCES

"George Wallace Inaugurated as Alabama governor," July 21, 2010, History.com, www.history.com/

"Inaugural Address of Governor George Wallace," Alabama Department of Archives and History, www.digital.archives.alabama.gov/

George Wallace

Democratic National Convention

Atlantic City, NJ

August 21 1964

Photo by Warren K. Leffler

"GRADUALLY BECOMING A PARTY OF SEGREGATION"

WHITE AND NEGRO DELEGATES OF G.O.P. CONVENTION OFFERED DIFFERENT PROGRAMS

Cleveland, Ohio (JFK+50) On June 14, 1924, The Washington Tribune reports "the Republican Party is gradually becoming a party of segregation...proven by the...policy of entertaining the delegates to the...national convention" meeting this week here in Cleveland.

There are two lists of programs of entertainments, one for white delegates and another identified as "For Negro Delegates."

The Tribune says this is the first time a completely separate program for the delegates based on race has ever been made.

SOURCE

"Delegates Face Color Line In Cleveland," The Washington Tribune, June 14, 1924, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/

 

 

Crowd Outside Republican National Convention

Cleveland, Ohio

June 1924

GEORGE C. WALLACE OF ALABAMA

JFK+50:  Volume 5, No. 1712

GOVERNOR GEORGE WALLACE DIED 17 YEARS AGO TODAY

Montgomery, Alabama (JFK+50) Seventeen years ago today, September 13, 1998, the former Governor of the State of Alabama, George C. Wallace*, who had stood in the doorway of the University of Alabama to block admittance of James Hood and Vivian Malone, the first African-American students to enroll there, died here in Montgomery at the age of 79.

Ironically, George Wallace at one time had been considered a liberal judge and had the support of the NAACP.  When he narrowly lost the Democratic nomination for Governor to an opponent who had the support of the Ku Klux Klan, Wallace became a hard-line segregationist.

In his inaugural in 1963, Governor Wallace declared... "Segregation now. Segregation tomorrow. Segregation forever."  The Governor was forced, however, to defer to President John F. Kennedy and federalized National Guard troops allowing the state university to be integrated.

During his third party campaign for President in 1972, Wallace was shot and permanently paralyzed below the waist. In 1982, Governor Wallace had a change of heart toward his views against racial integration.  He said...

"We thought it was in the best interest of all concerned.  We were mistaken."  

After having been elected governor of his state four times and a candidate for President of the United States four times, George Wallace retired in 1986 saying: "I've climbed my last political mountain."

*George Corley Wallace, Jr. (1919-1998) was born in Clio, AL & graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1942.  He served in the US Army in WWII and in 1946 was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives.

As a judge in 1952, GCW became the first to address black attorneys as 'Mister,"  a custom previously reserved for white lawyers.  He died as a result of complications of Parkison's Disease.

SOURCE

"Former Ala. Gov. George C. Wallace Dies," by Richard Pearson, the Washington Post, www.washingtonpost.com/

George C. Wallace 

Photo by Marion S. Trikosko

Library of Congress