Wallace, George C. (1919–1998), Alabama governor, presidential candidate.A 1942 graduate of the University of Alabama Law School, Wallace was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives in 1946 and elected a circuit judge in 1953. A racial moderate until he lost a 1958 gubernatorial bid to an ultrasegregationist, Wallace vowed that he would “never be out‐niggered again.” Elected governor in 1962 as the
civil rights movement gained momentum, he pledged “Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!” In 1963, however, after fulfilling a pledge to “stand in the schoolhouse door” at the University of Alabama, he stepped aside to allow the enrollment of black students. His segregationist stance won strong support among whites in his state and beyond. In 1964 he challenged Lyndon B.
Johnson in the
Democratic party's Wisconsin, Indiana, and Maryland presidential primaries, winning more than a third of the votes. Barred from a further consecutive gubernatorial term in 1966, he was succeeded by his wife, Lurleen.
As the presidential candidate of his American Independent party in 1968, Wallace drew ten million votes, half from outside the
South, and carried five states. His running mate was the retired air force general Curtis LeMay, former head of the Strategic Air Command. Regaining the Alabama governorship in 1970, he entered the Democratic presidential primaries in 1972 (with President Richard M.
Nixon's secret support), pledging to restore law and order, end court‐ordered school busing, and “get tough with protesters.” He made strong showings throughout the South and Midwest, including victories on 16 May in Michigan and Maryland.
The day before, however, an unemployed drifter shot and critically wounded Wallace at a rally in Maryland, leaving him permanently paralyzed below the waist. He retired in 1979 but regained the governorship in 1982, winning significant black support after repudiating his earlier
racism. A major political figure of the 1960s and 1970s, Wallace helped shape the agenda of social
conservatism and white blacklash that would dominate the politics of the 1980s.
See also
Segregation, Racial;
Sixties, The.
Bibliography
Marshall Frady , Wallace, 1968.
Dan T. Carter , The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, the Origins of the New Conservatism, and the Transformation of American Politics, 1995.
Dan T. Carter
