"Four-time Alabama Democratic governor George Wallace lost his first gubernatorial race when he ran as an economic populist against a candidate with a segregationist platform and famously vowed never to be "outniggered again" and he never was. He declared, "Segregation now, segregation forever!" as he took the oath of office in 1963. He stood in a schoolhouse's door in Tuscaloosa to prevent black students from integrating it. He was responsible for the vicious beating of voting-rights activists in Selma. By 1984, however, Wallace's memory of his own actions, like Stephens's, had changed. "It was not an antagonism towards black people, and that's what some people can't understand," Wallace explained to a reporter from PBS for the documentary Eyes on the Prize. "White Southerners did not believe it was discrimination. They thought it was in the best interest of both the races. "I love black people. I love white people. I love yellow people," Wallace said. "I'm a Christian and, therefore, I don't have any ill feeling toward anybody because of the race, 'cause our black people are some of our finest citizens." In remarkable symmetry with Stephens's defense of treason in defense of slavery, Wallace recalled his defense of racial apartheid as resistance to tyranny. "I spoke vehemently against the federal government, not against people. I talked about the, the government of the, the United States and the Supreme Court. I never expressed in any language that would upset anyone about a person's race. I talked about the Supreme Court usurpation of power. I talked about the big central government," Wallace said. "Isn't that what everybody talks about now? Isn't that what Reagan got elected on? Isn't that what all the legislators, electors, members of Congress, and the Senate and House both say?""
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United States presidential candidates, 1972United States presidential candidates, 1968United States presidential candidates, 1976United States presidential candidates, 1964Governors of Alabama
Original Language: English
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Sources
Adam Serwer, The Cruelty is the Point (2021)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Wallace
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George Wallace
George Corley Wallace, Jr. (25 August 1919 – 13 September 1998) was an American politician who served as the 45th governor of Alabama for four terms. A member of the Democratic Party, he is remembered for his staunch segregationist and populist views. Wallace sought the United States presidency as a Democrat on three occasions, and once as an American Independent Party candidate; he was unsuccessful each time. Wallace opposed desegregation and supported the policies of "Jim Crow" during th
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