George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 -- September 13, 1998) was an American politician and the 45th governor of Alabama, having served two nonconsecutive terms and two consecutive terms as a Democrat: 1963--1967, 1971--1979 and 1983--1987. Wallace has the third longest gubernatorial tenure in post-Constitutional U.S. history at 5,848 days. After four runs for U.S. president (three as a Democrat and one on the American Independent Party ticket), he earned the title "the most influential loser" in 20th-century U.S. politics, according to biographers Dan T. Carter and Stephan Lesher. A 1972 assassination attempt left Wallace paralyzed, and he used a wheelchair for the remainder of his life. He is remembered for his Southern populist and segregationist attitudes during the desegregation period. He eventually renounced segregationism but remained a populist. In the 1962 Democratic primary, Wallace finished first in the primary ahead of State Senator Ryan DeGraffenried, Sr., taking 35 percent of the vote. In the runoff, Wallace won the nomination with 55 percent of the vote. As no Republican even filed to run (though Democratic dominance of state politics was so absolute that a Republican candidate would have stood almost no chance in any event), this all but assured Wallace of becoming the next governor. He won a crushing victory in the November general election, taking 96 percent of the vote. He took the oath of office on January 14, 1963, standing on the gold star marking the spot where, nearly 102 years earlier, Jefferson Davis was sworn in as provisional president of the Confederate States of America. In his inaugural speech, Wallace used the line for which he is best known: " In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.[17][18] " The line was written by Wallace's new speechwriter, Asa Earl Carter. The Second Infantry Division from Ft. Benning, GA was ordered to be prepared to enforce the integration of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. In a vain attempt to halt the enrollment of black students Vivian Malone and James Hood, Governor Wallace stood in front of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama on June 11, 1963. This became known as the "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door". In September 1963, Wallace again attempted to stop four black students from enrolling in four separate elementary schools in Huntsville. After intervention by a federal court in Birmingham, the four children were allowed to enter on September 9, becoming the first to integrate a primary or secondary school in Alabama.[19][20] Wallace desperately wanted to preserve segregation. In his own words: "The President (John F. Kennedy) wants us to surrender this state to Martin Luther King and his group of pro-communists who have instituted these demonstrations."[21] The Encyclopædia Britannica characterized him as not so much a segregationist, but more as a "populist" who pandered to the white majority of Alabama voters.[22] It notes that his failed attempt at presidential politics created lessons that later influenced the populist candidacies of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. The principal achievement of Wallace's first term was an innovation in Alabama industrial development that several other states later copied: he was the first Southern governor to travel to corporate headquarters in Northern and Northeastern states to offer tax abatements and other incentives to companies willing to locate plants in Alabama. He also initiated a junior college system that has now spread throughout the state, preparing many students to complete four-year degrees at Auburn University, UAB, or the University of Alabama. The community college in Andalusia is named for Wallace's first wife, Lurleen Burns Wallace. The University of South Alabama, a new state university in Mobile, was chartered in 1963 during Wallace's first year in office as governor. On November 15--20, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, Wallace announced his intention to oppose the 35th U.S. President, John F. Kennedy, for the Democratic nomination for President. Days later, Kennedy was dead of an assassin's bullet, and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson moved into the presidency. Building upon his newfound public image after the University of Alabama controversy, Wallace entered the Democratic primaries on the advice of a public relations expert from Wisconsin.[23] Wallace campaigned strongly by expressing his opposition on integration and a tough approach to crime. In Democratic primaries in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Maryland, Wallace garnered at least a third of the vote running against three Johnson-designated surrogates. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Wallace

• published: 23 Mar 2014
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