ABSTRACT
After World War II, George Wallace launched his political career inAlabama as a progressive Democrat who protected the poor andavoided race-baiting. But when state attorney general John Patterson bested him for governor with the klan vote, the former bantamweight boxing champion vowed never to be ‘out-nigguhed’ again. In his second gubernatorial bid, Wallace underwent a dramatic metamorphosis, pledging to cheering crowds that he would stand in every schoolhouse door in the state to defy desegregation. At his inauguration in 1963, Wallace breathed racial fire: ‘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!’ Martin Luther King regarded Wallace as the ‘most dangerous racist in America today. . . . I am not sure that he believes all the poison he preaches, but he is artful enough to convince others that he does.’ Within six months, Wallace and his supporters lost two key rounds to the civil rights movement – one in Birmingham, the other in Tuscaloosa.
