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Document Packet

George C. Wallace and the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama

George Corley Wallace was elected Governor of Alabama in the November elections of 1962. Blaming an earlier, 1958 defeat for the same office on his failure to exploit the racial fears of white voters, Wallace based his successful 1962 campaign on pledges to resist the federal government's efforts to force integration upon Alabama.

Justifying his segregationist stance on the need to preserve "states' rights" in the face of federal tyranny, Governor Wallace called for "Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!" in his first inaugural address and to "stand in the schoolhouse door" to block integration at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa in his first inaugural address and his promise to "stand in the schoolhouse door" to block integration at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

By April of 1963, Birmingham, Alabama had become a national example of racial tension and strife. In the spring of 1962, city parks and public golf courses had been closed to prevent desegregation and the black community had attempted to protest racial activities by boycotting selected Birmingham merchants. On April 12, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. was sentenced to a nine-day jail term for his part in desegregation demonstrations. In May firemen and policemen used powerful water hoses and German shepherd police dogs against demonstrators. Despite the peaceful efforts of both the black and white leaders of the city, terror and violence had gripped Birmingham while the world watched.

On June 11, 1963, Wallace personally barred the path of two black students attempting to register at the University of Alabama. President John F. Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard and ordered some of the units to the university campus. Wallace stood aside and the black students were allowed to register for classes. In September, Wallace ordered state police to prevent K-12 public schools in several cities under integration orders from opening. Following civil disturbances resulting in at least one death, President Kennedy again nationalized the Guard and forced the schools to integrate. Later that month, four young girls attending Sunday school at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham were killed when a bomb exploded at the church.

This packet includes documents and images related to Gov. George Wallace and the events of 1962 and 1963 along with two articles from 2008 that discuss the legacy of Wallace.

Document 1: Gov. George Wallace’s School House Door Speech, June 11, 1963



Document 2. Lucian Lenz Letter to Gov. George Wallace, November 17, 1962



Document 3: Northrop Laboratories Letter to Gov. George Wallace, May 23 1963.



Document 4: Breakdown of White and Negro Voters by County, Alabama, 1962



Document 5: U.S. Census, Alabama 1960



Document 6: George Wallace at the University of Alabama, June 11, 1963



Document 7: Video of George Wallace at the University of Alabama, June 11, 1963

Document 8: John Lewis Invoking George Wallace, Politico Blog, October 11, 2008



Document 9: The George Wallace We Forgot, New York Times, October 24, 2008



|STATEMENT AND PROCLAMATION |

| |

|OF |

| |

|GOVERNOR GEORGE C. WALLACE |

| |

|UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA |

| |

|June 11, 1963 |

| |

|      As Governor and Chief Magistrate of the State of Alabama I deem it to be my solemn obligation and duty to stand |

|before you representing the rights and sovereignty of this State and its peoples. |

| |

|      The unwelcomed, unwanted, unwarranted and force-induced intrusion upon the campus of the University of Alabama |

|today of the might of the Central Government offers frightful example of the oppression of the rights, privileges and |

|sovereignty of this State by officers of the Federal Government. This intrusion results solely from force, or threat of |

|force, undignified by any reasonable application of the principle of law, reason and justice. It is important that the |

|people of this State and nation understand that this action is in violation of rights reserved to the State by the |

|Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Alabama. While some few may applaud these acts, |

|millions of Americans will gaze in sorrow upon the situation existing at this great institution of learning. |

| |

|      Only the Congress makes the law of the United States. To this date no statutory authority can be cited to the |

|people of this Country which authorizes the Central Government to ignore the sovereignty of this State in an attempt to |

|subordinate the rights of Alabama and millions of Americans. There has been no legislative action by Congress justifying |

|this intrusion. |

| |

|      When the Constitution of the United States was enacted, a government was formed upon the premise that people, as |

|individuals are endowed with the rights of life, liberty, and property, and with the right of self-government. The people|

|and their local self-governments formed a Central Government and conferred upon it certain stated and limited powers. All|

|other powers were reserved to the states and to the people. |

| |

|      Strong local government is the foundation of our system and must be continually guarded and maintained. The Tenth |

|Amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads as follows: |

|  |

|"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to |

|the states respectively, or to the people." |

| |

|      This amendment sustains the right of self-government and grants the State of Alabama the right to enforce its laws |

|and regulate its internal affairs. |

| |

|      This nation was never meant to be a unit of one. . . . . . . but a united [sic] of the many . . . . . this is the |

|exact reason our freedom loving forefathers established the states, so as to divide the rights and powers among the |

|states, insuring that no central power could gain master government control. |

| |

|      There can be no submission to the theory that the Central Government is anything but a servant of the people. We |

|are a God-fearing people – not government-fearing people. We practice today the free heritage bequeathed to us by the |

|Founding Fathers. |

| |

|      I stand here today, as Governor of this sovereign State, and refuse to willingly submit to illegal usurpation of |

|power by the Central Government. I claim today for all the people of the State of Alabama those rights reserved to them |

|under the Constitution of the United States. Among those powers so reserved and claimed is the right of state authority |

|in the operation of the public schools, colleges and Universities. My action does not constitute disobedience to |

|legislative and constitutional provisions. It is not defiance – for defiance sake, but for the purpose of raising basic |

|and fundamental constitutional questions. My action is raising a call for strict adherence to the Constitution of the |

|United States as it was written – for a cessation of usurpation and abuses. My action seeks to avoid having state |

|sovereignty sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. |

| |

|      Further, as the Governor of the State of Alabama, I hold the supreme executive power of this State, and it is my |

|duty to see that the laws are faithfully executed. The illegal and unwarranted actions of the Central Government on this |

|day, contrary to the laws, customs and traditions of this State is calculated to disturb the peace. |

| |

|      I stand before you here today in place of thousands of other Alabamians whose presence would have confronted you |

|had I been derelict and neglected to fulfill the responsibilities of my office. It is the right of every citizen, however|

|humble he may be, through his chosen officials of representative government to stand courageously against whatever he |

|believes to be the exercise of power beyond the Constitutional rights conferred upon our Federal Government. It is this |

|right which I assert for the people of Alabama by my presence here today. |

| |

|      Again I state – this is the exercise of the heritage of the freedom and liberty under the law – coupled with |

|responsible government. |

| |

|      Now, therefore, in consideration of the premises, and in my official capacity as Governor of the State of Alabama, |

|I do hereby make the following solemn proclamation: |

| |

|      WHEREAS, the Constitution of Alabama vests the supreme executive powers of the State in the Governor as the Chief |

|Magistrate, and said Constitution requires of the Governor that he take care that the laws be faithfully executed; and, |

| |

|      WHEREAS, the Constitution of the United States, Amendment 10, reserves to the States respectively or to the people,|

|those powers not delegated to the United States; and, |

| |

|      WHEREAS, the operation of the public school system is a power reserved to the State of Alabama under the |

|Constitution of the United States and Amendment 10 thereof; and, |

| |

|      WHEREAS, it is the duty of the Governor of the State of Alabama to preserve the peace under the circumstances now |

|existing, which power is one reserved to the State of Alabama and the people thereof under the Constitution of the United|

|States and Amendment10 thereof. |

| |

|      NOW, THEREFORE, I, George C. Wallace, as Governor of the State of Alabama, have by my action raised issues between |

|the Central Government and the Sovereign State of Alabama, which said issues should be adjudicated in the manner |

|prescribed by the Constitution of the United States; and now being mindful of my duties and responsibilities under the |

|Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Alabama, and seeking to preserve and maintain the |

|peace and dignity of this State, and the individual freedoms of the citizens thereof, do hereby denounce and forbid this |

|illegal and unwarranted action by the Central Government. |

|  |

|George C. Wallace |

|GOVERNOR OF ALABAMA |

| |

| |



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U.S. Census, Alabama 1960



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June 11, 1963

Warren K. Leffler, U.S. News & World Report Magazine



|
October 11, 2008
Categories: McCain |

|John Lewis, invoking George Wallace, says McCain and Palin 'playing with fire' |

| |

|UPDATED WITH MCCAIN STATEMENT AND OBAMA REACTION

Civil rights icon and Georgia congressman John Lewis is accusing John McCain and Sarah |

|Palin of stoking hate, likening the atmosphere at Republican campaign events to those featuring George Wallace, the segregationist former |

|governor of Alabama and presidential candidate.   McCain's campaign has responded with a statement in the candidate's name, urging Barack |

|Obama to repudiate Lewis's comments. |

|"What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history," Lewis said in a statement issued today for |

|Politico's Arena forum.  "Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in|

|our political discourse." |

|Lewis didn't accuse McCain of imitating Wallace, but suggested there were similarities. |

|"George Wallace never threw a bomb," Lewis noted.  "He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged |

|vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of |

|hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama." |

|Lewis's sharp words may be dismissed as those of a partisan Democrat in a campaign season. But the former head of SNCC and hero of Selma is |

|somebody who McCain has lavished praise upon over the years, including admiring him in a book on courage and bravery and repeatedly invoking|

|Lewis's name in public appearances. |

|Appearing with Barack Obama at a forum at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in August, McCain included Lewis as one of "three wise men" he |

|would consult as president.     |

|"He can teach us all a lot about the meaning of courage and commitment to causes greater than our self-interest," McCain said of Lewis. |

|Now, Lewis is castigating McCain in the harshest of terms. |

|“As public figures with the power to influence and persuade, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, |

|that fire will consume us all," Lewis said today. "They are playing a very dangerous game that disregards the value of the political process|

|and cheapens our entire democracy. We can do better. The American people deserve better.” |

|McCain responded with disappointment, but also a challenge to Obama. "I am saddened that John Lewis, a man I've always admired, would make |

|such a brazen and baseless attack on my character and the character of the thousands of hardworking Americans who come to our events to |

|cheer for the kind of reform that will put America on the right track," the GOP nominee said in a statement this afternoon.  |

|He added: "I call on Senator Obama to immediately and personally repudiate these outrageous and divisive comments that are so clearly |

|designed to shut down debate 24 days before the election. Our country must return to the important debate about the path forward for |

|America.”  |

|Obama's campaign distanced themselves from Lewis's Wallace language but took a shot at Palin for some of her tough charges of late. |

|“Senator Obama does not believe that John McCain or his policy criticism is in any way comparable to George Wallace or his segregationist |

|policies," said Obama spokesman Bill Burton.  "But John Lewis was right to condemn some of the hateful rhetoric that John McCain himself |

|personally rebuked just last night, as well as the baseless and profoundly irresponsible charges from his own running mate that the |

|Democratic nominee for President of the United States ‘pals around with terrorists.’" |

|As Barack Obama has said himself, the last thing we need from either party is the kind of angry, divisive rhetoric that tears us apart at a |

|time of crisis when we desperately need to come together. That is the kind of campaign Senator Obama will continue to run in the weeks |

|ahead.” |

|By Jonathan Martin 01:08 PM |



October 24, 2008

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR

The George Wallace We Forgot

By RUSS RYMER

Cambridge, Mass.

JOHN McCAIN deplored them, Barack Obama distanced himself from them, but the comments that Representative John Lewis of Georgia delivered on Oct. 11 may turn out to be some of the most trenchant — and generous — of the campaign. Mr. Lewis charged Mr. McCain and Sarah Palin with “sowing the seeds of hatred and division” in their fervently red-meat rallies, not unlike “a governor of the State of Alabama named George Wallace” whose race-bating rhetoric, Mr. Lewis noted, contributed to the 1963 bombing of the Birmingham church in which four young girls were killed…

To describe George Wallace as a simple racist is to give his biography short shrift. As a circuit court judge in the 1950s, Wallace was respectful toward blacks, and as a legislator from 1947 to 1953, he was a moderate. In 1948, when Strom Thurmond led the Southern delegations out of the Democratic convention to protest the party’s pioneer civil rights plank, Wallace stayed in his seat. Though no fan of the plank, he was yet more Democrat than demagogue, and was instrumental in rallying the other Southern alternate delegates to save the convention’s quorum, and pass its platform.

He might have carried a tolerant message into the Alabama governor’s mansion in 1958, but he lost the race after spurning the support of the Ku Klux Klan (which then backed his primary opponent, John Patterson) and being endorsed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Sadly for Wallace’s state, his region, his nation and himself, he did not respond as John Lewis did after his defeat by Carmichael. Mr. Lewis, whenever confronted with calls to divisiveness, chose to redouble his commitment to reason and tolerance. After his loss to Mr. Patterson, Wallace is said to have turned to an aide and declared, “I was out-niggered ... and I’ll never be out-niggered again.”

After Wallace finally won the governorship in 1962, his administration was never as race-hostile as his campaign appeals implied; black leaders found his office door open, and often his mind, too. But he would eternally pay the price for the methods he used to gain that office.

I once saw that price on vivid display, at a Wallace for president rally in downtown Boston. In 1975, that city was contorted by its own race war over school busing, and the enormous two-tier assembly hall was packed. It was an angry crowd — a black television cameraman was punched as he walked up the aisle. In the middle of Wallace’s remarks, there was a loud explosion, and Wallace, who had been paralyzed by a bullet three years earlier, fell forward from his wheelchair into safety behind the podium.

The noise was caused by a crashing klieg light, knocked over in a fracas as a heckler in the balcony was attacked by the crowd. As Wallace clambered back into his chair, his supporters beat the protester bloody and tried to dump him over the balcony rail. “Just an undecided voter, folks. Just an undecided voter,” Wallace pleaded into his microphone, but there was no quelling the fire. “Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!” people in the hall thundered, until the man was rescued — barely — by Secret Service agents.

In the final debate of this presidential campaign, faced with John McCain’s demand that he repudiate Mr. Lewis’s analogy, Barack Obama said he didn’t think his opponent was another George Wallace, and that sounds reasonable if you assume Mr. Lewis was referring to Wallace the vile racist, not the more tragic Wallace, the one-time straight campaigner who bartered conviction for expedience when he thought a raw appeal to division could gain him crucial votes.

It would behoove everyone in the current race for America’s highest offices to pay attention to what Mr. Lewis was really saying, and judge it for its provenance in his long experience. Better than perhaps any living American, he knows that courage on the front line is one thing, and on the campaign stage quite another, knows how tiny and harmless the seeds of fanaticism can seem, how one cry of “kill him” can crescendo into a chorus that can’t be stifled. Mr. Lewis might be deemed generous in wishing on no other member of his profession the harrowed look I witnessed in George Wallace’s eyes as he struggled up off the floor in Boston and beheld what a hell he’d wrought.

Russ Rymer is the author of “Genie: A Scientific Tragedy” and “American Beach: A Saga of Race, Wealth and Memory.”



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