View source for George Wallace

{{Short description|American politician (1919–1998)}}
{{About|the governor of Alabama|other people named George Wallace}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2023}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = George Wallace
| image               = George Wallace (D-AL) (cropped).jpg
| caption             = Portrait by [[Fabian Bachrach]], 1962
| alt                 = Official portrait of Wallace, wearing a light blue suit jacket, white shirt, and dark blue necktie.
| order               = 45th
| office              = Governor of Alabama
| lieutenant          = [[Bill Baxley]]
| term_start          = January 17, 1983
| term_end            = January 19, 1987
| predecessor         = [[Fob James]]
| successor           = [[H. Guy Hunt]]
| lieutenant1         = [[Jere Beasley]]
| term_start1         = January 18, 1971
| term_end1           = January 15, 1979{{efn|name="Term interruption"|[[Jere Beasley]] served as Acting Governor from June&nbsp;5 to July&nbsp;7, 1972, while Wallace recovered from an assassination attempt.}}
| predecessor1        = [[Albert Brewer]]
| successor1          = Fob James
| lieutenant2         = [[James Allen (Alabama politician)|James Allen]]
| term_start2         = January 14, 1963
| term_end2           = January 16, 1967
| predecessor2        = [[John M. Patterson|John Patterson]]
| successor2          = [[Lurleen Wallace]]
| office3             = [[First ladies and gentlemen of Alabama|First Gentleman of Alabama]]
| governor3           = Lurleen Wallace
| term_label3         = In role
| term_start3         = January 16, 1967
| term_end3           = May 7, 1968
| predecessor3        = Lurleen Wallace<br />(as First Lady)
| successor3          = [[Martha Farmer Brewer]]<br />(as First Lady)
| state_house4        = Alabama
| constituency4       = {{nowrap|from [[Barbour County, Alabama|Barbour County]]}}
| term_start4         = January 3, 1946
| term_end4           = January 1953
| predecessor4        = [[Robert H. Bennett]]
| successor4          = Arthur C. Martin
| birth_name          = George Corley Wallace Jr.
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1919|8|25}}
| birth_place         = [[Clio, Alabama]], U.S.
| death_date          = {{nowrap|{{death date and age|1998|9|13|1919|8|25}}}}
| death_place         = [[Montgomery, Alabama]], U.S.
| resting_place       = [[Greenwood Cemetery (Montgomery, Alabama)|Greenwood Cemetery]]
| party               = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
| otherparty          = [[American Independent Party|American Independent]] (1968)
| spouse              = {{unbulleted list|{{marriage|[[Lurleen Wallace|Lurleen Burns]]|May 22, 1943|May 7, 1968|end=died}}|{{marriage|[[Cornelia Wallace|Cornelia Ellis Snively]]|January 4, 1971|January 4, 1978|end=divorced}}|{{marriage|Lisa Taylor|September 9, 1981|February 2, 1987|end=divorced}}}}
| children            = 4, including [[George Wallace Jr.|George III]]
| education           = [[University of Alabama]] ([[Bachelor of Laws|LLB]])
| signature           = George Wallace Signature.svg
| allegiance          = <!-- United States -->
| branch              = {{tree list}}
*[[United States Army]]
**[[United States Army Air Forces|Army Air Forces]]
{{tree list/end}}
| serviceyears        = 1942–1945
| rank                = [[Staff sergeant (U.S. Army)|Staff sergeant]]
| unit                = [[468th Bombardment Group]]
| battles             = {{tree list}}
*World War II
**[[Pacific War|Pacific theater]]
{{tree list/end}}
| module              = {{Listen|pos=center|embed=yes|filename=|title=George Wallace's voice|type=speech|description=Wallace speaks on the death of [[Bear Bryant|Paul "Bear" Bryant]]<br />Recorded January 26, 1983}}
}}

'''George Corley Wallace Jr.''' (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician and lawyer who was the 45th and longest-serving [[governor of Alabama]] (1963–1967; 1971–1979; 1983–1987), and the [[List of longest-serving governors of U.S. states|longest-serving governor]] from the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]]. Wallace is remembered for his staunch [[segregationist]] and [[populist]] views, although in the late 1970s he moderated his views on race, renouncing his support for segregation. During Wallace's tenure as governor of Alabama, he promoted "industrial development, low taxes, and [[trade school]]s." Wallace unsuccessfully sought the United States presidency as a  Democrat three times, and once with the [[American Independent Party]], in which he carried five states in the [[1968 United States presidential election|1968 presidential election]]. Wallace opposed [[Desegregation in the United States|desegregation]] and supported the policies of "[[Jim Crow laws#Origins|Jim Crow]]" during the [[Civil Rights Movement]], declaring in his  [[George Wallace's 1963 Inaugural Address|1963 inaugural address]] that he stood for "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever."

Born in [[Clio, Alabama]], Wallace attended the [[University of Alabama School of Law]], and served in the [[United States Army Air Force]] during World War II. After the war, he won election to the [[Alabama House of Representatives]], and served as a state judge. Wallace first sought the Democratic nomination in the [[1958 Alabama gubernatorial election]]. Initially a moderate on racial issues, Wallace adopted a hard-line [[Racial segregation in the United States|segregationist]] stance after losing the 1958 nomination. Wallace ran for governor again in [[1962 Alabama gubernatorial election|1962]], and won the race. Seeking to stop the racial integration of the [[University of Alabama]], Wallace earned national notoriety by [[Stand in the Schoolhouse Door|standing in front of the entrance]] of the University of Alabama, blocking the path of Black students. Wallace left office when his first term expired in 1967 due to term limits. His wife, [[Lurleen Wallace|Lurleen]], won the next election and succeeded him, with him as the [[de facto]] governor. Wallace's period of influence ended when Lurleen died of cancer in May 1968; her doctor informed Wallace of the cancer's diagnosis in 1961, but he had not told her.

Wallace challenged sitting president [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] in the [[1964 Democratic Party presidential primaries|1964 Democratic presidential primaries]], but Johnson prevailed in the race. In the [[1968 United States presidential election|1968 presidential election]], Wallace ran a [[George Wallace 1968 presidential campaign|third-party campaign]] in an attempt to force a [[contingent election]] in the [[United States House of Representatives]], thereby enhancing the political leverage of segregationist Southern leaders. Wallace won five Southern states but failed to force a contingent election. {{as of|2023|alt=As of the [[2024 United States presidential election|2024 election]],}} he remains the most recent third-party candidate to receive pledged electoral college votes from any state.

Wallace won election to the governorship again in [[1970 Alabama gubernatorial election|1970]], and ran in the [[1972 Democratic Party presidential primaries|1972 Democratic presidential primaries]], having moderated his stance on segregation. His campaign effectively ended when he was shot in [[Maryland]] by [[Arthur Bremer]], and Wallace remained paralyzed below the waist for the rest of his life. Wallace won [[1974 Alabama gubernatorial election|re-election]] as governor in 1974, and he once again unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in the [[1976 Democratic Party presidential primaries|1976 Democratic presidential primaries]]. In the late 1970s, Wallace announced that he became a [[born-again Christian]], and moderated his views on race, renouncing his past support for segregation. Wallace left office in 1979, but re-entered politics and won [[1982 Alabama gubernatorial election|election]] to a fourth, and final, term as governor in 1982. Wallace's 5,848 days in office as governor is the third-longest in the history of any state, and including his 478 days as ''[[de facto]]'' governor during Lurleen Wallace's term gives him a total tenure of 6,326 days in charge of Alabama.

==Early life==
[[File:Clio, Alabama.JPG|thumb|right|Wallace was born in [[Clio, Alabama]] (seen here in 2011).]]
George Corley Wallace Jr. was born in [[Clio, Alabama]], to George Corley Wallace Sr. and Mozelle Smith. Since his parents disliked the designation "Junior", he was called "George C.", to distinguish him from his father, George Corley Sr., and paternal grandfather, the physician George Oscar Wallace, who was called "Doc Wallace". He had two younger brothers, Gerald and Jack, and a younger sister named Marianne.{{sfn|Carter|1995|p=19-21}} During World War I, Wallace's father left college to pursue a life of farming when [[food prices]] were high. When his father died in 1937, his mother had to sell their farmland to pay existing [[Mortgage loan|mortgages]].{{sfn|Carter|1995|p=41}} Wallace was raised as a [[Methodist]].{{sfn|Carter|1995|p=137}}

From age ten, Wallace was fascinated with politics. In 1935, he won a contest to serve as a page in the [[Alabama Senate]], and confidently predicted that he would one day be governor.{{sfn|Carter|1995|p=30-31}} Wallace became a regionally successful boxer in high school, then went directly to law school in 1937 at the [[University of Alabama School of Law]] in [[Tuscaloosa, Alabama|Tuscaloosa]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alabama Governor George Wallace, gubernatorial history |url=http://www.archives.state.al.us/govs_list/g_wallac.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160322022657/http://www.archives.state.al.us/govs_list/g_wallac.html |archive-date=March 22, 2016 |access-date=January 8, 2011 |publisher=Archives.state.al.us}}</ref> He was a member of the [[Delta Chi]] fraternity. It was at the University of Alabama that he crossed paths with future political adversary [[Frank Minis Johnson|Frank Minis Johnson Jr.]], who would go on to become a prominent liberal federal judge.<ref>Bass, Jack. ''Taming the Storm: The Life and Times of Frank M. Jonson Jr., and the South's Fight over Civil Rights'' (Doubleday, New York, 1993).</ref> He received a [[Bachelor of Laws]] degree in 1942.<ref>{{Cite web |date=September 20, 1998 |title=A life marked by hate, violence George Wallace gave comfort to racists |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1998-09-20-1998263111-story.html |website=Baltimore Sun}}</ref>

Early in 1943, Wallace was accepted for pilot training by the [[United States Army Air Forces]]<!-- Not USAAC; it was renamed USAAF on June 20, 1941 --> (USAAF).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Frederick |first=Jeff |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-i1HBMC6qsEC&pg=PA12 |title=Stand up for Alabama: Governor George Wallace |date=2007 |publisher=University of Alabama Press |isbn=978-0817315740 |page=13}}</ref> Soon afterwards Wallace contracted life-threatening [[spinal meningitis]], but prompt medical attention with [[sulfa drugs]] saved his life. Left with partial hearing loss and permanent nerve damage, he was instead trained as a [[flight engineer]]. During 1945, as a member of a [[B-29]] crew with [[468th Bombardment Group]], stationed in the [[Mariana Islands]] as part of the [[Twentieth Air Force]], Wallace took part in [[air raids on Japan]] and reached the rank of [[staff sergeant]].<ref>Lesher (1994) pp. 47–61.</ref> In mid-1945, Wallace received an early discharge on medical grounds, due to "severe anxiety", and a 10% disability pension for "psychoneurosis".<ref name="Frederick, 2007, p. 12">Frederick, ''Stand Up for Alabama: Governor George Wallace'', 2007, p. 12.</ref> (The Twentieth Air Force was commanded by General [[Curtis LeMay]], who was his running mate in the [[1968 United States presidential election|1968 presidential race]].)

== Racial attitude ==
While some may argue that Wallace did not espouse racist views, most sources support the conclusion that he was motivated by racist ideology.

For instance, one source on Wallace's career as a judge reports: "every Black attorney who argued a case in Wallace's ... courtroom was struck by his fairness .... But no one who knew Wallace well ever took seriously his earnest profession – uttered a thousand times after 1963 – that he was a segregationist, not a racist."{{sfn|Carter|1995|p=236}}

A reporter covering state politics in 1961 observed that, while other Alabama politicians conversed primarily about women and Alabama football, for Wallace "it was race – race, race, race – and every time that I was closeted alone with him, that's all we talked about."{{sfn|Carter|1995|p=237}}

Wallace's preoccupation with race was based on his belief that Black Americans constituted a separate and inferior race. In a 1963 letter to a social studies teacher, Wallace stated that Black Americans were inclined to criminality – especially "atrocious acts ... such as rape, assault and murder" – because of a high incidence of venereal disease. Desegregation, he wrote, would lead to "intermarriage ... and eventually our race will be deteriated [sic] to that of the mongrel complexity."{{sfn|Carter|1995|p=237-238}}

==Early career==
In 1938, at age 19, Wallace contributed to his grandfather's successful campaign for probate judge. Late in 1945, he was appointed as one of the assistant attorneys general of Alabama, and, in May 1946, he won his first election as a member to the [[Alabama House of Representatives]], succeeding [[Robert H. Bennett]]. At the time, he was considered a moderate on racial issues. As a delegate to the [[1948 Democratic National Convention]], he did not join the [[Dixiecrat]] walkout at the convention, despite his opposition to [[U.S. President]] [[Harry S. Truman]]'s proposed [[civil rights]] program. Wallace considered it an infringement on [[states' rights]]. The Dixiecrats carried Alabama in the 1948 general election, having rallied behind Governor [[Strom Thurmond]] of South Carolina. In his 1963 inaugural speech as governor, Wallace excused his failure to walk out of the 1948 convention on political grounds.

In 1952, he became the Circuit Judge of the [[Courts of Alabama|Third Judicial Circuit]] in Alabama. Here he became known as "the fighting little judge", a nod to his past boxing association.<ref name="Woods On Fire">{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0240534/ |title=George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire |date=2000 |type=Documentary |publisher=American Experience |place=Boston, USA |people=Mccabe, Daniel (writer, director, producer), Paul Stekler (writer, director, producer), Steve Fayer (writer)}}</ref> He gained a reputation for fairness regardless of the race of the plaintiff. It was common practice at the time for judges in the area to refer to Black lawyers by their first names, while their white colleagues were addressed formally as "Mister"; Black lawyer [[J. L. Chestnut]] later said that "Judge George Wallace was the most liberal judge that I had ever practiced law in front of. He was the first judge in Alabama to call me 'Mister' in a courtroom."<ref name="Woods On Fire" />

On the other hand, Wallace issued injunctions to prevent the removal of segregation signs in rail terminals, becoming the first Southern judge to do so.<ref name="htFradyA8">{{cite news|title=Former governor shaped politics of Alabama, nation|first=John|last=Anderson|newspaper= The Huntsville Times|location=Huntsville, Alabama|date=September 14, 1998|page=A8}} referencing {{Cite book |last=Frady |first=Marshall |url=https://archive.org/details/wallace00frad |title=Wallace |publisher=World Pub. Co. |year=1968 |isbn=978-0679771289 |location=New York |oclc=588644 |url-access=registration}}</ref> Similarly, during efforts by civil rights organizations to expand voter registration of Black people, Wallace blocked federal efforts to review Barbour County voting lists. He was cited for criminal contempt of court in 1959.<ref name="htFradyA8" />

As judge, Wallace granted probation to some Black people, which may have cost him the 1958 gubernatorial election.<ref name="htWallaceA8">{{Cite news |last=Anderson |first=John |date=September 14, 1998 |title=Former governor shaped politics of Alabama, nation |work=The Huntsville Times |location=Huntsville, Alabama |page=A8}}</ref>

=== 1958 gubernatorial campaign ===
In 1958, Wallace ran in the Democratic [[Partisan primary|primary]] for governor. Since the 1901 constitution's effective [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disfranchisement]] of Black Alabamians, the Democratic Party had been virtually the only party in Alabama. For all intents and purposes, the Democratic primary, which was a political crossroads for Wallace, was the only real contest at the state level. State Representative [[George C. Hawkins]] of [[Gadsden, Alabama|Gadsden]] ran, but Wallace's main opponent was [[Attorney General of Alabama]] [[John M. Patterson]], who ran with the support of the [[Ku Klux Klan]], an organization Wallace had spoken out against. Despite being endorsed by the [[NAACP]], Wallace lost the nomination by over 34,400 votes.<ref name="Woods On Fire" />

After the election, aide Seymore Trammell recalled Wallace saying, "Seymore, you know why I lost that governor's race? ... I was outniggered by John Patterson. And I'll tell you here and now, I will never be outniggered again."<ref group="note">Carter (1996, p. 2) notes that Wallace later denied a similar quotation that appeared in a 1968 biography by [[Marshall Frady]]: {{"'}}Well boys,' he said tightly as he snuffed out his cigar, 'no other son-of-a-bitch will ever out-nigger me again.{{'"}} {{Cite journal |last=Riechers |first=Maggie |date=March–April 2000 |title=Racism to Redemption: The Path of George Wallace |url=https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2000/marchapril/feature/racism-redemption |url-status=dead |journal=Humanities |volume=21 |issue=2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171210064143/https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2000/marchapril/feature/racism-redemption |archive-date=December 10, 2017 |access-date=May 25, 2006}} The exact wording is a matter of historical dispute. Some sources quote Wallace as using the word "outsegged". In an extended note in "The Politics of Rage" (1995), p. 96 & 96fn, Carter notes the denial, but says two witnesses confirm the use of the racist language on Election Night, in addition to Seymore Trammell's recollection of Wallace using similar phrasing the next day in his presence.</ref> In the wake of his defeat, Wallace adopted a hard-line [[segregationist]] stance and used this stance to court the white vote in the next gubernatorial election in 1962. When a supporter asked why he started using racist messages, Wallace is quoted by biographer [[Dan T. Carter]] as having said:<ref name="Woods On Fire"/> {{blockquote|You know, I tried to talk about good roads and good schools and all these things that have been part of my career, and nobody listened. And then I began talking about niggers, and they stomped the floor."|source=}}

==Governorships and presidential campaigns==

===Segregation===
[[File:Wallacenasa.gif|thumb|right|From left to right: Governor Wallace, [[NASA]] administrator [[James E. Webb]] and scientist [[Wernher von Braun]] at the [[Marshall Space Flight Center]] in 1965]]
[[File:Wallace at University of Alabama edit2.jpg|thumb|Wallace standing against desegregation while being confronted by U.S. Deputy Attorney General [[Nicholas Katzenbach]] at the [[University of Alabama]] in 1963]]
In the 1962 Democratic primary, Wallace finished first, ahead of State Senator [[Ryan DeGraffenried Sr.]], and taking 35 percent of the vote. In the runoff, Wallace won the nomination with 55 percent of the vote. As no Republican filed to run, this all but assured Wallace of becoming the next governor. He won a crushing victory in the [[1962 Alabama gubernatorial election|November general election]], taking 96 percent of the vote. As noted above, Democratic dominance had been achieved by disenfranchising most Blacks and many poor whites in the state for decades, which lasted until years after federal civil rights legislation was passed in 1964 and 1965.{{how|date=May 2020}}

Wallace 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 [[George Wallace's 1963 Inaugural Address|inaugural speech]], Wallace said:<ref name="Woods On Fire quotes">{{Cite web |year=2000 |title=George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire: Wallace Quotes |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/wallace-quotes/ |access-date=September 5, 2006 |website=The American Experience |publisher=[[Public Broadcasting Service]]}}</ref><ref name="Klarman">{{Cite journal |last=Klarman |first=Michael J. |date=March–April 2004 |title=''Brown v. Board'': 50 Years Later |url=http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/2004-03/brown.html |url-status=dead |journal=Humanities: The Magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170201071709/https://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/2004-03/brown.html |archive-date=February 1, 2017 |access-date=September 6, 2006}}</ref>

{{blockquote|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.}}

This sentence had been written by Wallace's new speechwriter, [[Ku Klux Klan]] leader [[Asa Earl Carter]].

In 1963, President [[John F. Kennedy]]'s [[Presidency of John F. Kennedy|administration]] ordered the U.S. Army's 2nd Infantry Division from Fort Benning, Georgia to be prepared to enforce the [[racial 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]]".<ref>{{Cite book |last=E. Culpepper Clark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sHIsXlrTmHQC&pg=PA195 |title=The Schoolhouse Door: Segregation's Last Stand at the University of Alabama |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1995 |isbn=978-0195096583 |page=195}}</ref>

In September 1963, Wallace attempted to stop four Black students from enrolling in four separate elementary schools in [[Huntsville, Alabama|Huntsville]]. After intervention by a federal court in [[Birmingham, Alabama|Birmingham]], the four children were allowed to enter on September 9, becoming the first to integrate a primary or secondary school in Alabama.<ref name="Hereford">{{Cite news |last=Webb |first=Debbie |date=June 11, 2003 |title=Wallace in the Schoolhouse Door: Marking the 40th Anniversary of Alabama's Civil Rights Standoff |url=https://www.npr.org/2003/06/11/1294680/wallace-in-the-schoolhouse-door |access-date=August 17, 2012 |work=NPR}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=A brief history of race and schools |url=http://www.al.com/specialreport/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?separateagain/sa4.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080423030934/http://www.al.com/specialreport/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?separateagain%2Fsa4.html |archive-date=April 23, 2008 |website=al.com |agency=The Huntsville Times}}</ref>

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."<ref>Alabama Governor George Wallace, public statement of May 8, 1963, in ''[[The New York Times]]''. (May 9, 1963).</ref>

Wallace predicted, during a [[Milwaukee, Wisconsin]] speech on September 17, 1964, that the office-holding supporters of a civil rights bill would politically "[[:wikt:bite the dust|bite the dust]]" by 1966 and 1968.<ref>{{Cite news |date=September 18, 1964 |title=Restore U.S. Sanity: Wallace |url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1964/09/18/page/8/article/restore-u-s-sanity-wallace |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803011949/http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1964/09/18/page/8/article/restore-u-s-sanity-wallace/ |archive-date=August 3, 2017 |access-date=May 5, 2017 |work=Chicago Tribune}}</ref>

{{external media
| float  = right
| video1 = [https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_151-pr7mp4wh8k "Interview with George Wallace"] conducted in 1986 for the [[Eyes on the Prize]] documentary in which he discusses integration of the University of Alabama, the Birmingham movement, and the Selma voting rights campaign.}}

The ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' characterized him not so much as a segregationist but more as a "populist" who pandered to the white majority of Alabama voters.<ref name="Britannica2"/> It notes that his failed attempt at presidential politics created lessons that later influenced the populist candidacies of [[Jimmy Carter]] and [[Ronald Reagan]].<ref name="Britannica2"/> [[Jack Newfield]] wrote in 1971 that Wallace "recently has been sounding like [[William Jennings Bryan]] as he attacked concentrated wealth in his speeches".<ref name="newfield197107192"/>

===Economics and education===
{{More citations needed section|date=October 2010}}
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 states to offer tax abatements and other incentives to companies willing to locate plants in Alabama.

15 new trade schools were built during Wallace's term, while free school textbooks were introduced.<ref name="Eskew">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=George C. Wallace (1963–1967, 1971–1979, 1983–1987) |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia of Alabama]] |url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1676 |last=Eskew |first=Glenn T. |date=September 8, 2008}}</ref><ref name="Gadsden Times 22 Apr 1970">[https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ZKofAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA67&dq=Governor+George+Wallace+free+school+textbooks&article_id=4283,3321036&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjA9c-GoaCMAxXlWUEAHeGQBsM4ChDoAXoECAkQAw#v=onepage&q=Governor%20George%20Wallace%20free%20school%20textbooks&f=false Gadsden Times 22 Apr 1970]</ref> Wallace also initiated a [[community college]] system that has now spread throughout the state,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Katsinas |first=Stephen G. |year=1994 |title=George C. Wallace and the Founding of Alabama's Public Two-Year Colleges |journal=The Journal of Higher Education |volume=65 |issue=4 |pages=447–472 |doi=10.2307/2943855 |jstor=2943855}}</ref> preparing many students to complete four-year degrees at [[Auburn University]], [[University of Alabama at Birmingham]], or the [[University of Alabama]]. [[Wallace Community College]] ([[Dothan, Alabama|Dothan]]), is named for his father. [[Wallace Community College Selma]] ([[Selma, Alabama|Selma]]), and [[Wallace State Community College]] ([[Hanceville, Alabama|Hanceville]]) are named for him. [[Lurleen B. Wallace Community College]] in [[Andalusia, Alabama|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.

Other initiatives carried out during Wallace's first term as governor included a cost of living and medical hospital plan for state employees, improvements in aid to indigent persons,  an insurance program for state personnel in security work, increased appropriations for mental and tubercular hospitals, a statewide program to help those regarded as mentally retarded, increases in teachers’ salaries by over 40% and a 100% increase in retired teacher benefits.<ref name="Gadsden Times 22 Apr 1970"/>

Wallace's tenure as governor was also marked by high levels of spending on old age pensions, highways and schools,<ref>[https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6bgoAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA3&dq=George+Wallace+free+school+textbooks&article_id=6762,4152370&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwje66SbmJ6MAxU1W0EAHTpgHrIQ6AF6BAgHEAM#v=onepage&q=George%20Wallace%20free%20school%20textbooks&f=false Eugene Register-Guard 20 Oct 1968]</ref> together with the passage of various labor measures.<ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015077850876&view=1up&seq=3 Annual digest of state and federal labor legislation 1963, P.1-2]</ref><ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015077884818&view=1up&seq=3 Annual digest of state and federal labor legislation 1965-1966, P.15]</ref><ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015077884826&view=1up&seq=3 Annual digest of state and federal labor legislation 1967, P.19]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20240209020955/http://www.4president.org/brochures/wallace1968brochure.htm George Wallace for President brochure]</ref>

===1964 Democratic presidential primaries===
{{Main|1964 Democratic Party presidential primaries}}
[[File:George Wallace standing at the podium addressing an audience at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, August 1964.jpg|thumb|Wallace addressing an audience at the [[1964 Democratic National Convention]] in [[Atlantic City]], [[New Jersey]]]]
On November 15–20, 1963, in [[Dallas]], Wallace announced his intention to oppose the incumbent president, John F. Kennedy, for the 1964 Democratic presidential nomination. Days later, also in Dallas, Kennedy was [[Assassination of John F. Kennedy|assassinated]], and Vice President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] succeeded him as president.

Building upon his notoriety after the University of Alabama controversy, Wallace entered the [[1964 Democratic Party presidential primaries|Democratic primaries in 1964]] on the advice of a public relations expert from Wisconsin.{{sfn|Carter|1995|p=203}} Wallace campaigned strongly by expressing his opposition to integration and a tough approach on crime. In Democratic [[United States presidential primary|primaries]] in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Maryland, Wallace garnered at least a third of the vote running against three Johnson-designated surrogates.{{sfn|Carter|1995|p=198-225}}

Wallace was known for stirring crowds with his oratory. ''[[The Huntsville Times]]'' interviewed Bill Jones, Wallace's first press secretary, who recounted "a particularly fiery speech in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1964 that scared even Wallace, [where he] angrily shouted to a crowd of 1,000 people that 'little Pinkos' were 'running around outside' protesting his visit, and continued, after thunderous applause, saying, 'When you and I start marching and demonstrating and carrying signs, we will close every highway in the country.' The audience leaped to its feet and headed for the exit", Jones said, "It shook Wallace. He quickly moved to calm them down."<ref name="htWallaceA8" />

At graduation exercises in the spring of 1964 at [[Bob Jones University]] in [[Greenville, South Carolina]], Wallace received an honorary doctorate.<ref>Archie Vernon Huff, ''Greenville: the history of the city and county in the South Carolina Piedmont'', Columbia: U South Carolina P, 1995, p. 404.</ref> At the commencement, [[Bob Jones Jr.]], read the following citation as a tribute to Wallace:<ref>Sword of the Lord (June 26, 1964) 2.</ref>

{{blockquote|Men who have fought for truth and righteousness have always been slandered, maligned, and misrepresented. The American press in its attacks upon Governor Wallace has demonstrated that it is no longer free, American, or honest. But you, Mr. Governor, have demonstrated not only by the overwhelming victories in the recent elections in your own state of Alabama, but also in the showing which you have made in states long dominated by cheap demagogues and selfish radicals that there is still in America love for freedom, hard common sense, and at least some hope for the preservation of our constitutional liberties.}}

=== 1964 unpledged elector slate ===
In 1964, Alabama Republicans stood to benefit from the unintended consequences of two developments: (1) Governor Wallace vacating the race for the Democratic presidential nomination against President Johnson, and (2) the designation of unpledged Democratic electors in Alabama, in effect removing President Johnson from the general election ballot. Prior to the [[1964 Republican National Convention]] in San Francisco, Wallace and his aides Bill Jones and Seymore Trammell met in the [[Jefferson Davis Hotel]] in Montgomery with Alabama Republican leader [[James D. Martin]], who had narrowly lost the U.S. Senate election in 1962 to [[J. Lister Hill]]. Wallace and his aides sought to determine if [[Barry M. Goldwater]], the forthcoming Republican presidential nominee who as a senator from [[Arizona]] had voted against the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] on libertarian and constitutional grounds, would advocate repeal of the law, particularly the public accommodations and equal employment sections.  Bill Jones indicated that Wallace agreed with Goldwater's anti-communist stance but opposed the Republican's proposal to make [[Social Security (United States)|Social Security]] a voluntary program. Jones stressed that Wallace had sacrificed his own presidential aspirations that year to allow a direct Republican challenge to President Johnson. It was later disclosed that Wallace proposed at the meeting with Martin to switch parties if he could be named as Goldwater's running-mate, a designation later given to [[U.S. Representative]]  [[William E. Miller]] of [[New York (state)|New York]].  Goldwater reportedly rejected the overture because he considered Wallace to be a racist.<ref>''[[Montgomery Advertiser]]'', September 23, 1966; Bill Jones, ''The Wallace Story'', pp. 324, 327, 340.</ref>

The unpledged electors in Alabama included the future U.S. senator, [[James Allen (U.S. Senator)|James Allen]], then the [[Lieutenant Governor of Alabama|lieutenant governor]], and the subsequent Governor [[Albert Brewer]], then the state House Speaker. National Democrats balked over Johnson's exclusion from the ballot, but most supported the unpledged slate, which competed directly with the Republican electors. As ''[[The Tuscaloosa News]]'' explained, loyalist electors would have offered a clearer choice to voters than did the unpledged slate.<ref>''[[The Tuscaloosa News]]'', reprinted in ''[[The Birmingham News]]'', September 5, 1964.</ref>

The 1964 Republican electors were the first since [[Reconstruction era|Reconstruction]] to prevail in Alabama. The Goldwater-Miller slate received 479,085 votes (69.5 percent) to the unpledged electors' 209,848 (30.5 percent). The Republican tide also brought to victory five Republican members of the [[United States House of Representatives]], including [[William Louis Dickinson]], who held the Montgomery-based district seat until 1993, and James D. Martin, the [[Gadsden, Alabama|Gadsden]] oil products dealer who defeated then State Senator George C. Hawkins for the U.S. House seat formerly held by [[Carl Elliott]]. Hardly yet sworn into the U.S. House, Martin already had his eyes on Wallace's own position as governor.<ref>''[[Congressional Quarterly]]'' report, Volume 23, Issues 40–53, p. 2443.</ref>

=== First Gentleman of Alabama ===
[[Term limit]]s in the [[Constitution of Alabama|Alabama Constitution]] prevented Wallace from seeking a second term in 1966. Therefore, Wallace offered his wife, [[Lurleen Wallace]], as a [[Power behind the throne|surrogate candidate]] for governor.<ref name="Eskew" /> In the Democratic primary, she defeated two former governors, [[Jim Folsom]] and [[John Malcolm Patterson|John M. Patterson]], [[Attorney General of Alabama|Attorney General]] [[Richmond Flowers Sr.]], and former U.S. Representative [[Carl Elliott]].<ref>Billy Hathorn, "A Dozen Years in the Political Wilderness: The Alabama Republican Party, 1966–1978", ''Gulf Coast Historical Review'', Vol. 9, No. 2 (Spring 1994), p. 22.</ref> Largely through the work of Wallace's supporters, the Alabama restriction on gubernatorial succession was later modified to allow two consecutive terms.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alabama Constitution of 1901, Amendment 282, Section 116 |url=http://alisondb.legislature.state.al.us/alison/codeofalabama/constitution/1901/CA-246125.htm |access-date=December 30, 2016 |publisher=Alabama State Legislature |archive-date=April 8, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220408053558/http://alisondb.legislature.state.al.us/alison/codeofalabama/constitution/1901/CA-246125.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Wallace defended his wife's proxy candidacy. He felt somewhat vindicated when Republicans in [[Idaho]] denied renomination in 1966 to [[governor of Idaho|Governor]] [[Robert E. Smylie]], author of the article entitled "Why I Feel Sorry for Lurleen Wallace". In his memoirs, Wallace recounts his wife's ability to "charm crowds" and cast-off invective: "I was immensely proud of her, and it didn't hurt a bit to take a back seat to her in vote-getting ability."  Wallace rebuffed critics{{who|date=May 2020}} who claimed that he had "dragooned" his wife into the race. "She loved every minute of being governor the same way ... that [[Margaret Chase Smith|Mrs. (Margaret) Smith]] loves being senator."<ref>"A Dozen Years in the Political Wilderness", p. 22.</ref>

During the 1966 campaign, George Wallace signed state legislation to nullify desegregation guidelines between Alabama cities and counties and the former [[United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare]]. Wallace claimed that the law would thwart the national government from intervening in schools. Critics denounced Wallace's "political trickery" and expressed alarm at the potential forfeiture of federal funds. Republican gubernatorial candidate [[James D. Martin]] accused the Democrats of "playing politics with your children" and "neglecting academic excellence".<ref>''The Huntsville Times'', September 3, 4, 1966; ''Montgomery Advertiser'', September 1, 6, 1966.</ref>

Martin also opposed the desegregation guidelines and had sponsored a U.S. House amendment to forbid the placement of students and teachers on the basis of racial quotas. He predicted that Wallace's legislation would propel the issuance of a court order compelling immediate and total desegregation in all public schools. He also compared the new Alabama law to "another two-and-a-half-minute stand in the schoolhouse door".<ref>''Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report'', October 7, 1966, p. 2350.</ref>

Lurleen Wallace defeated Martin in the [[1966 Alabama gubernatorial election|general election on November 8, 1966]]. She was inaugurated in January 1967, but on May 7, 1968, she died in office of cancer at the age of 41, amid her husband's ongoing second presidential campaign.{{sfn|Carter|1995|p=317-320}} On her death, she was succeeded by Lieutenant Governor [[Albert Brewer]], who had run without Republican opposition amid the Wallace–Martin races. George Wallace's influence in state government thus subsided until his next bid for election in his own right in 1970. He was "first gentleman" for less than a year and a half.

=== 1968 third-party presidential run ===
{{Main|George Wallace 1968 presidential campaign}}
{{Further|Southern strategy}}
[[File:George C Wallace.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Wallace announcing his Presidential run in 1968]]
Planning for Wallace's 1968 presidential campaign began with a strategy session on the evening of the March 1967 inauguration of Lurleen Wallace. The meeting featured prominent white supremacists and anti-Semites, including: Asa Carter; William Simmons of the [[Citizens' Councils|White Citizens' Council]]; Dallas County Sheriff [[Jim Clark (sheriff)|Jim Clark]]; former Mississippi governor [[Ross Barnett]]; [[Leander Perez]], a fervent Louisiana segregationist and [[Antisemitism|anti-Semite]]; Kent Courtney, a John Bircher; and "a representative sent by [[Willis Carto]], head of the [[Liberty Lobby]] and publisher of the anti-Semitic magazine ''[[American Mercury]].''"{{sfn|Carter|1995|p=295–298}} [[File:ElectoralCollege1968.svg|thumb|Results of the 1968 presidential election (Wallace won the states in orange.)]]
Wallace ran for president in the [[1968 United States presidential election|1968 election]] as the [[American Independent Party]] candidate, with [[Curtis LeMay]] as his candidate for vice president. Wallace hoped to force the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] to decide the election with one vote per state if he could obtain sufficient [[U.S. Electoral College|electoral votes]] to make him a power broker. Wallace hoped that Southern states could use their clout to end [[Federal government of the United States|federal]] efforts at [[Desegregation in the United States|desegregation]]. His platform contained generous increases for beneficiaries of [[Social Security (United States)|Social Security]] and [[Medicare (United States)|Medicare]]. Wallace's foreign policy positions set him apart from the other candidates in the field. "If the [[Vietnam War]] was not winnable within 90 days of his taking office, Wallace pledged an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops ... Wallace described foreign aid as money 'poured down a rat hole' and demanded that European and Asian allies pay more for their defense."<ref name="Kauffman">[[Bill Kauffman|Kauffman, Bill]] (May 19, 2008) [http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/when-the-left-was-right/ When the Left Was Right], ''[[The American Conservative]]''</ref>

[[Richard Nixon]] feared that Wallace might split the conservative vote and allow the Democratic nominee, Vice President [[Hubert H. Humphrey]], to prevail. He mostly attracted the [[Southern Democrats]] who were dissatisfied with the [[1964 Civil Rights Act]] and the [[1965 Voting Rights Act]] that were signed earlier in the decade by President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]. However, some Democrats feared Wallace's appeal to [[organized labor|organized]] blue-collar workers would damage Humphrey in Northern states such as Ohio, New Jersey and Michigan. Wallace ran a "[[Law and order (politics)|law and order]]" campaign similar to Nixon's, further worrying Republicans.{{sfn|Brands|2010|p=165}}

In Wallace's 1998 obituary, ''The Huntsville Times'' political editor John Anderson summarized the impact from the 1968 campaign: "His startling appeal to millions of alienated white voters was not lost on Richard Nixon and other Republican strategists. First Nixon, then [[Ronald Reagan]], and finally [[George Herbert Walker Bush]] successfully adopted toned-down versions of Wallace's anti-busing, anti-federal government platform to pry low- and middle-income whites from the Democratic [[New Deal]] coalition."<ref name="htWallaceA8" /> [[Dan T. Carter]], a professor of history at [[Emory University]] in [[Atlanta]], added: "George Wallace laid the foundation for the dominance of the Republican Party in American society through the manipulation of racial and social issues in the 1960s and 1970s. He was the master teacher, and Richard Nixon and the Republican leadership that followed were his students."<ref name="htCarter">Carter, Dan, professor of history at Emory University, quoted in {{Cite news |last=Anderson |first=John |date=September 14, 1998 |title=Former governor shaped politics of Alabama, nation |work=The Huntsville Times |location=Huntsville, Alabama |page=A1, A8}}</ref>

Wallace considered [[Happy Chandler]], the former [[baseball commissioner]], two-term former [[governor of Kentucky]] and former [[List of United States Senators from Kentucky|Senator from Kentucky]], as his running mate in his 1968 campaign as a third-party candidate; as one of Wallace's aides put it, "We have all the nuts in the country; we could get some decent people–-you working one side of the street and he working the other side." Wallace invited Chandler, but when the press published the prospect, Wallace's supporters objected; Chandler had supported the hiring of [[Jackie Robinson]] by the [[Brooklyn Dodgers]].

Wallace retracted the invitation, and (after considering [[Kentucky Fried Chicken]] founder [[Colonel Sanders|Colonel Harland Sanders]])<ref name=Kauffman/> chose former [[United States Air Force|Air Force]] General [[Curtis LeMay]] of [[California]]. LeMay was considered instrumental in the establishment in 1947 of the United States Air Force and an expert in military affairs. His four-star military rank, experience at [[Strategic Air Command]] and presence advising President Kennedy during the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] were considered foreign-policy assets to the Wallace campaign. By 1968, LeMay had retired and was serving as chairman of the board of an electronics company, but the company threatened to dismiss him if he took a leave of absence to run for vice president. To keep LeMay on the ticket, Wallace backer and Texas oil tycoon [[H. L. Hunt]] set up a million-dollar fund to reimburse LeMay for any income lost in the campaign.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Lesher |first=Stephan |url=https://archive.org/details/georgewallaceame00step |title=George Wallace: American Populist |publisher=Addison Wesley |year=1994 |isbn=978-0201622102 |page=[https://archive.org/details/georgewallaceame00step/page/409 409] |url-access=registration}}</ref> Campaign aides tried to persuade LeMay to avoid questions relating to nuclear weapons, but when asked if he thought their use was necessary to win the Vietnam War, he first said that America could win in Vietnam without them.  However, he alarmed the audience by further commenting, "we [Americans] have a phobia about nuclear weapons.  I think there may be times when it would be most efficient to use nuclear weapons." The "politically tone-deaf" LeMay became a drag on Wallace's candidacy for the remainder of the campaign.<ref>LeMay and Chandler in {{Cite book |last=Perlstein |first=Rick |author-link=Rick Perlstein |title=Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America |title-link=Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America |publisher=Simon and Schuster |year=2008 |isbn=978-0743243025 |page=348}}</ref>

In 1968, Wallace pledged that "If some anarchist lies down in front of my automobile, it will be the last automobile he will ever lie down in front of" and asserted that the only [[Four-letter word|four letter words]] that [[hippies]] did not know were "w-o-r-k" and "s-o-a-p."  Responding to criticism of the former comment, Wallace later elaborated that he meant such a protester would be punished under the law, not run over. This type of rhetoric became famous. He accused Humphrey and Nixon of wanting to radically desegregate the South. Wallace said, "There's not a dime's worth of difference between the Republicans and Democrats", a campaign slogan that he had first perfected when Lurleen Wallace defeated James D. Martin.

Major [[News media|media outlets]] observed the support Wallace received from extremist groups such as [[Citizens' Councils|White Citizens' Council]]s. It has been noted that members of such groups had permeated the Wallace campaign by 1968 and, while Wallace did not openly seek their support, he also never refused it.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Diamond |first=Sara |url=https://archive.org/details/roadstodominionr00diamrich/page/142 |title=Roads to Dominion: Right-Wing Movements and Political Power in the United States |publisher=Guilford Press |year=1995 |isbn=978-0898628647 |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/roadstodominionr00diamrich/page/142 142–146]}}</ref> Indeed, at least one case has been documented of the pro-Nazi<ref>{{cite news|author1=Trento, Joseph|author2=Spear, Joseph|title=How Nazi Nut Power Has Invaded Capitol Hill|work=True|date=November 1969|page=39}}</ref> and white supremacist<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Pearson |first1=Drew |author-link1=Drew Pearson (journalist) |last2=Anderson |first2=Jack |author-link2=Jack Anderson (columnist) |year=1966 |title=Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson on The Washington Merry-Go-Round |url=http://dspace.wrlc.org/doc/bitstream/2041/52940/b19f19-1026zdisplay.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718093952/http://dspace.wrlc.org/doc/bitstream/2041/52940/b19f19-1026zdisplay.pdf |archive-date=July 18, 2011 |access-date=August 8, 2010}}</ref> [[Liberty Lobby]] distributing a pro-Wallace pamphlet entitled "Stand up for America" despite the campaign's denial of such a connection.{{sfn|Carter|1995|p=296–297}} Unlike [[Strom Thurmond]] in [[1948 United States presidential election|1948]], Wallace generally avoided race-related discussions. He mostly criticized hippies and "pointy-headed intellectuals". He denied he was racist, saying once, "I've never made a racist speech in my life."{{sfn|Brands|2010|p=165}}

While Wallace carried five Southern states, won almost ten million popular votes and 45 electoral votes, Nixon received 301 electoral votes, more than required to win the election. Wallace remains the last non-Democratic, non-Republican candidate to win any pledged electoral votes. Wallace also received the vote of one [[North Carolina]] elector who had been pledged to Nixon.

Many found Wallace an entertaining campaigner.{{citation needed|date=August 2024}} To "[[hippie]]s" who called him a fascist, he replied, "I was killing fascists when you punks were in diapers." Another notable quip: "They're building a bridge over the [[Potomac River|Potomac]] for all the white liberals fleeing to [[Virginia (U.S. state)|Virginia]]."

Wallace decried the [[United States Supreme Court]]'s binding opinion in ''[[Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education]]'', which ordered immediate desegregation of Southern schools – he said the new [[Warren Burger|Burger]] court was "no better than the [[Earl Warren|Warren]] court" and called the justices "limousine hypocrites".<ref>Woodward, Bob; Scott Armstrong (1979). ''The Brethren''. Simon & Schuster. {{ISBN|0671241109}}. p. 56.</ref>

=== Second term as governor ===
[[File:George Wallace official portrait.jpg|thumb|190 px|Official portrait, {{Circa|1970}}]]
In [[1970 Alabama gubernatorial election|1970]], Wallace sought the Democratic nomination against incumbent governor [[Albert Brewer]], who was the first gubernatorial candidate since Reconstruction to seek African American voter support.<ref name="William">{{Cite book |last=William |first=Warren |title=Alabama: The History of a Deep South State |publisher=University of Alabama Press |year=1994 |isbn=978-0585263670 |location=Tuscaloosa |page=576 |display-authors=etal}}</ref> Although in the 1966 gubernatorial election then state Attorney General Richmond Flowers championed civil rights for all and, with the support of most of Alabama's Black voters, finished second in the Democratic primary. Brewer unveiled a progressive platform and worked to build an alliance between Blacks and the white working class. Of Wallace's out-of-state trips, Brewer said, "Alabama needs a full-time governor!"<ref name="flowers">{{Cite web |title=Steve Flowers Inside the Statehouse |url=http://www.steveflowers.us/columns/101205.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928125855/http://www.steveflowers.us/columns/101205.htm |archive-date=September 28, 2007 |access-date=October 25, 2006}} Flowers, Steve, "Steve Flowers Inside the Statehouse", October 12, 2005.</ref>

In the primary, Brewer received the most votes but failed to win a majority, which triggered a runoff election.<ref name="Carter IRS">{{Cite book |last=Carter |first=Dan T. |url=https://archive.org/details/grandexpectation00patt/page/46 |title=From George Wallace to Newt Gingrich: Race in the Conservative Counterrevolution, 1963–1994 |publisher=Louisiana State University Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0195076806 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/grandexpectation00patt/page/46 46–48]}}</ref>

In what later U.S. President [[Jimmy Carter]] called "one of the most racist campaigns in modern southern political history",<ref name="Carter IRS" /> Wallace aired television advertising with slogans such as "Do you want the Black bloc electing your governor?" and circulated an ad showing a white girl surrounded by seven Black boys, with the slogan "Wake Up Alabama! Blacks vow to take over Alabama."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Swint |first=Di Kerwin C. |title=Mudslingers: The Top 25 Negative Political Campaigns of All Time Countdown from No. 25 to No. 1 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=2006 |isbn=978-0275985103 |page=228}}</ref> 
Wallace slurred Brewer, whom he called "[[Sissy]] Britches",<ref>{{Cite news |date=May 4, 1970 |title=Season Openers – Printout |url=http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,943783,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120914095204/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,943783,00.html |archive-date=September 14, 2012 |access-date=January 8, 2011 |publisher=Time}}</ref> and his family.<ref name="William"/> In the runoff, Wallace narrowly won the Democratic nomination<ref name="William"/> and won the general election in a landslide.

Though Wallace had promised not to run for president a third time,<ref name=flowers/><ref name="Carter IRS" /> the day after the election, he flew to Wisconsin to campaign for the upcoming [[1972 United States presidential election]].<ref name=flowers/> Wallace, whose presidential ambitions would have been destroyed by a defeat for governor, has been said to have run "one of the nastiest campaigns in state history", using racist rhetoric while proposing few new ideas.<ref name="William" />

=== 1972 Democratic presidential primaries ===
[[File:United States Democratic presidential primaries, 1972 by state.svg|thumb|Green states went to George Wallace in the 1972 Democratic primaries.]] [[File:Wallace 1972 campaign logo.svg|thumb|George Wallace 1972 presidential campaign logo]]
On January 13, 1972, Wallace [[1972 Democratic Party presidential primaries|declared himself a Democratic candidate]]. The field included Senator [[George McGovern]], 1968 nominee and former U.S. vice president [[Hubert Humphrey]], and nine other Democratic opponents.

Wallace announced that he no longer supported segregation and had always been a "moderate" on racial matters.<ref name="Woods On Fire" /> This position has been compared to that of Nixon, who in 1969 had instituted the first [[Affirmative Action|affirmative action]] program, the [[Philadelphia Plan]] that established goals and timetables. However, Wallace (similarly to Nixon){{sfn|Parmet|pp=595–597, 603}} expressed continued opposition to [[Desegregation busing in the United States|desegregation busing]].<ref>Carter (1996), pp. 17–32.</ref>
For the next four months, Wallace's campaign proceeded well. In [[Florida]]'s primary, Wallace carried every county to win 42% of the vote.

=== Assassination attempt ===
[[File:George Wallace assassination attempt.jpg|thumb|left|Wallace lies wounded on the ground immediately after the assassination attempt, as his wife, Cornelia, embraces him.]]

On May 15, 1972, Wallace was shot four times by [[Arthur Bremer]] while campaigning at the [[Laurel Shopping Center]] in [[Laurel, Maryland]], at a time when he was receiving high ratings in national opinion polls.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Greider, William |date=May 16, 1972 |title=Wallace Is Shot, Legs Paralyzed; Suspect Seized at Laurel Rally |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/daily/sept98/wallace051672.htm |access-date=August 20, 2013 |newspaper=Washington Post}}</ref> Bremer was seen at a Wallace rally in [[Wheaton, Maryland]], earlier that day and two days earlier at a rally in [[Kalamazoo, Michigan]]. Wallace was hit in the abdomen and chest, and one of the bullets lodged in Wallace's [[spinal cord|spinal column]], leaving him [[paralysis|paralyzed]] from the waist down for the rest of his life. No bullets hit his major organs though one narrowly missed his [[aorta]].<ref>Corvallis Gazette-Times – Thu, June 1, 1972 · Page 6</ref> A five-hour operation was needed that evening, and Wallace had to receive several units of blood to survive. Three others who were wounded in the shooting also survived. The shooting and Wallace's subsequent injuries put an effective end to his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.<ref>{{Cite news | author = Walter Rugaber |date=May 17, 1972 |title=Wallace Off the Critical List; Sweeps Primary in Michigan and Wins Handily in Maryland |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/05/17/archives/wallace-off-the-critical-list-sweeps-primary-in-michigan-and-wins.html |access-date=August 22, 2020 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The assassination attempt was caught on film.<ref>{{Cite web |date=January 26, 2017 |title=1972 George Wallace Assassination Attempt |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-q7R_WaKTQ |access-date=November 25, 2021 |website=YouTube}}</ref>

Bremer's diary, ''[[An Assassin's Diary]]'', published after his arrest, shows he was motivated in the assassination attempt by a desire for fame, not by political ideology.{{efn|After the diary was read as evidence in court (including a passage where Bremer wonders whether Wallace's death will bring enough media coverage), [[William V. Shannon]] commented, "He... wanted to have his face flashed on millions of television screens and his name printed on the front pages of every newspaper."<ref name="bigart">{{Cite news |last=Bigart |first=Homer |author-link=Homer Bigart |date=August 4, 1972 |title=Bremer Diary Details Effort to Kill Nixon |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/08/04/archives/bremer-diary-details-effort-to-kill-nixon-jurors-hear-bremers-diary.html |access-date=April 3, 2024 |work=[[New York Times]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Shannon |first=William V. |author-link=William V. Shannon |date=August 8, 1972 |title=To Save America's Lost Children |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/08/08/archives/to-save-americas-lost-children.html |access-date=April 3, 2024 |work=[[New York Times]]}}</ref> Psychologist James W. Clarke notes, "Bremer had never been interested in politics... any prominent political leader would do since it was not ideology which motivated" him.<ref>{{registration required|date=April 2024}} {{Cite journal |last=Clarke |first=James W. |date=1981 |title=Emotional Deprivation and Political Deviance: Some Observations on Governor Wallace's Would-Be Assassin, Arthur H. Bremer |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3791286 |journal=[[Political Psychology]] |volume=3 |issue=1/2 |pages=84–115 |doi=10.2307/3791286 |jstor=3791286 |access-date=April 3, 2024|url-access=subscription }}</ref>}} He had considered President Nixon an earlier target.<ref name="bigart" /> He was convicted at trial. On August 4, 1972, Bremer was sentenced to 63 years in prison,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bigart |first=Homer |author-link=Homer Bigart |date=August 5, 1972 |title=Bremer Guilty in Shooting Of Wallace, Gets 63 Years |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/08/05/archives/bremer-guilty-in-shooting-of-wallace-gets-63-years-bremer-found.html |access-date=April 3, 2024 |work=[[New York Times]]}}</ref> later reduced to 53 years.<ref>{{Cite news |date=September 29, 1972 |title=BREMER TERM CUT BY 10 YEARS TO 53 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/09/29/archives/bremer-term-cut-by-10-years-to-53.html |access-date=April 3, 2024 |work=[[New York Times]]}}</ref> Bremer served 35 years and was released on parole on November 9, 2007.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lyons |first=Patrick J. |date=November 9, 2007 |title=Arthur Bremer, Who Shot Wallace, Is Freed |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/09/arthur-bremer-who-shot-wallace-is-freed/ |access-date=April 3, 2024 |work=[[New York Times]]}}</ref>

[[CBS News]] correspondent David Dick won an [[Emmy Award]] for his coverage of the attempt on Wallace's life.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cheryl Truman, "David Dick, former CBS newsman from Ky., dies at age 80: CBS veteran embraced rural life", July 17, 2010 |url=http://www.kentucky.com/2010/07/17/1351911/david-dick-former-cbs-newsman.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140715134936/http://www.kentucky.com/2010/07/17/1351911/david-dick-former-cbs-newsman.html |archive-date=July 15, 2014 |access-date=June 3, 2014 |website=[[Lexington Herald-Leader]]}}</ref>

=== Rest of the campaign ===
[[File:Wallace1972brochure.gif|thumb|right|A campaign brochure]]
Following the assassination attempt, Wallace was visited at the hospital by Democratic Representative and presidential primary rival [[Shirley Chisholm]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=January 4, 2005 |title=Shirley Chisholm |url=http://www.blogofdeath.com/archives/001272.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110103105339/http://www.blogofdeath.com/archives/001272.html |archive-date=January 3, 2011 |access-date=January 8, 2011 |publisher=The Blog of Death}}</ref> a representative from [[Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn]]. At the time, she was the nation's only African-American female member of Congress. Despite their ideological differences and the opposition of Chisholm's constituents, Chisholm felt visiting Wallace was the humane thing to do. Other people to visit Wallace in hospital were President Nixon, Vice President [[Spiro Agnew]], and presidential primary rivals Hubert Humphrey, George McGovern, and [[Ted Kennedy]]. He also received telegrams from former President Lyndon Johnson, California governor [[Ronald Reagan]] and [[Pope Paul VI]].

After the shooting, Wallace won primaries in Maryland and Michigan, but his near assassination effectively ended his campaign. From his wheelchair, Wallace spoke on July 11, 1972, at the Democratic National Convention in [[Miami Beach, Florida]].

Since Wallace was out of Alabama for more than 20 days while he was recovering in Holy Cross Hospital in [[Silver Spring, Maryland]], the [[Constitution of Alabama|state constitution]] required Lieutenant Governor [[Jere Beasley]] to serve as [[acting governor]] from June 5 until Wallace's return to [[Alabama]] on July 7. Wallace resumed his gubernatorial duties and easily won the 1974 primary and general election, when he defeated Republican State Senator [[Elvin McCary]], a real estate developer from [[Anniston, Alabama|Anniston]], who received less than 15% of the ballots cast.<ref>{{Cite web |date=December 8, 2010 |title=Election Results Archive – Governor |url=https://www.sos.alabama.gov/sites/default/files/election-data/2017-06/eagovernor1946-2010.xls |access-date=June 19, 2022 |website=[[Alabama Secretary of State]]}}</ref>

In 1992, when asked to comment on the 20th anniversary of his attempted assassination, Wallace replied, "I've had 20 years of pain."<ref name="htObitOwnWords">{{Cite news |last=Wallace |first=George |date=September 14, 1998 |title=Wallace in his own words |work=The Huntsville Times |location=Huntsville, Alabama |page=A9}}</ref>

===1976 Democratic presidential primaries===
[[File:Democratic_Party_presidential_primaries_results,_1976.svg|thumb|States in green went to Wallace in the 1976 Democratic primaries.]] [[File:George Wallace presidential campaign, 1976.png|thumb|George Wallace 1976 presidential campaign logo]]
[[File:Alabama highway safety conference.png|thumb|left|Wallace (right, seated) hosting a highway safety conference in 1975]]
In November 1975, Wallace announced his fourth bid for the presidency, again participating in the [[1976 Democratic Party presidential primaries|Democratic presidential primaries]]. Wallace's campaign was plagued by voter concern about his health<ref>{{Cite web |date=November 13, 1975 |title=Wallace enters race |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=hOghAAAAIBAJ&pg=3192%2C1568719 |access-date=December 12, 2017 |via=Google News Search Archive |work=The Cavalier Daily |page=1 |location=Charlottesville, Virginia}}</ref> as well as the media use of images that portrayed him as nearly helpless.<ref>{{Cite news |date=March 13, 1976 |title=Wallace presses the health issue |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/03/13/archives/wallace-presses-the-health-issue-in-illinois-he-attributes-florida.html |access-date=November 6, 2022 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> His supporters complained that such coverage was motivated by bias, citing the discretion used in coverage of [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]'s [[Paralytic illness of Franklin D. Roosevelt|paralysis]], before television became commercially available. In the Southern primaries and caucuses, Wallace carried only Mississippi, South Carolina and his home state of Alabama. If the popular vote in all primaries and caucuses were combined, Wallace would have placed third behind former Georgia governor [[Jimmy Carter]] and California governor [[Jerry Brown]]. After the primaries were completed, and he had lost several Southern primaries to Carter, Wallace left the race in June 1976. He eventually endorsed Carter, who defeated Republican incumbent [[Gerald Ford]].

=== Final term as governor ===
[[File:Governor George Wallace (205360242).jpg|thumb|upright|Wallace in 1982 at the Elmore Airshow in [[Elmore, Alabama]]]]
Wallace began to moderate on race in the late 1970s.<ref name="Britannica2">{{Cite journal |date=August 25, 2012 |title=George C. Wallace |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/634760/George-C-Wallace |journal=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=August 25, 2012}}</ref><ref name="newfield197107192">{{Cite news |last=Newfield, Jack |date=July 19, 1971 |title=A Populist Manifesto: The Making of a New Majority |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A-MCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA39 |access-date=January 6, 2015 |work=New York |pages=39–46}}</ref><ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Lesher |first=Stephan |url=https://archive.org/details/georgewallaceame00step |title=George Wallace: American Populist |publisher=Addison Wesley |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-201-62210-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/georgewallaceame00step/page/409 409] |url-access=registration}}</ref> During this time, Wallace announced that he was a [[Born again|born-again Christian]] and apologized to Black civil rights leaders for his past actions as a segregationist. He said that while he had once sought power and glory, he realized he needed to seek love and forgiveness.<ref group="note">According to Carter (1995, pp. 236–37), "But no one who knew Wallace well ever took seriously his earnest profession – uttered a thousand times after 1963 – that he [had been] a segregationist, not a racist. ... Wallace, like most white southerners of his generation, [had] genuinely believed Blacks to be a separate, inferior race."</ref> In 1979, Wallace said of his stand in the schoolhouse door: "I was wrong. Those days are over, and they ought to be over."<ref name="over">Edwards, George C., ''Government in America: people, politics, and policy''(2009), Pearson Education, 80.</ref> He publicly asked for forgiveness from Black Americans.<ref name="over" /><ref name="Elliott">{{Cite news |last=Elliott |first=Debbie |date=September 14, 1998 |title=Remembering George Wallace |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1024881 |access-date=February 4, 2015 |publisher=[[National Public Radio]]}}</ref>

In the 1982 Alabama gubernatorial Democratic primary, Wallace's main opponents were Lieutenant Governor [[George McMillan (politician)|George McMillan]] and Alabama House Speaker [[Joe McCorquodale]]. In the primary, McCorquodale was eliminated, and the vote went to a runoff, with Wallace holding a slight edge over McMillan. Wallace won the Democratic nomination by a margin of 51 to 49 percent. In the [[1982 Alabama gubernatorial election|general election]], his opponent was Montgomery Republican Mayor [[Emory Folmar]]. Polling experts at first thought the 1982 election was the best chance since Reconstruction for a Republican to be elected as governor of Alabama.{{citation needed|date=September 2011}} Ultimately, though, it was Wallace, not Folmar, who claimed victory.

During the 1982 election, Wallace presented himself as politically progressive, declaring "We'll talk about people who are unemployed and hungry, and about Republicans who only have to worry about who will mow their
beachfront lawns."<ref>[https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/467036/1/809039.pdf Populism in the White Southern Democratic Party With Reference to Alabama and Mississippi] by William Sheward, 2001, P.166</ref>

During Wallace's final term as governor (1983–1987) he appointed a record number of Black Americans to state positions,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Foner |first1=Eric |url=https://archive.org/details/readerscompanion00fone |title=The Reader's Companion to American History |last2=John Arthur Garraty |last3=Society of American Historians |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |year=1991 |isbn=978-0395513729 |page=[https://archive.org/details/readerscompanion00fone/page/n1154 1127] |url-access=registration}}</ref> including, for the first time, two as members in the cabinet.

On April 2, 1986, Wallace announced at a press conference in Montgomery that he would not run for a fifth term as Governor of Alabama, and would retire from public life after leaving the governor's mansion in January 1987.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Daniel |first=Clifton |url=https://archive.org/details/20thcenturydayby00shar_0 |title=20th Century, Day by Day |publisher=Dorling Kindersley |year=1999 |isbn=978-0789446404 |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/20thcenturydayby00shar_0/page/n1284 1279] |ref=TwentiethCentury |url-access=registration}}</ref> Wallace achieved four gubernatorial terms across three decades, totaling 16 years in office.

== Personal life ==
Wallace married [[Lurleen Wallace|Lurleen Brigham Burns]] on May 22, 1943.<ref name="Frederick, 2007, p. 12" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Lesher |first=Stephan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uzJ7-p31HRwC&pg=PA49 |title=George Wallace: American Populist |publisher=Hachette Books |year=1994 |isbn=978-0201407983 |page=49 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=April 24, 1969 |title=City Has Been Home of Four Governors |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1817&dat=19690424&id=ciceAAAAIBAJ&pg=7288,6033471 |work=The Tuscaloosa News |page=14E}}</ref> The couple had four children together: Bobbi Jo (1944) Parsons, Peggy Sue (1950) Kennedy, [[George Wallace Jr.|George III]], known as George Junior (1951), and Janie Lee (1961), who was named after [[Robert E. Lee]]. Lurleen Wallace was the first woman to be elected governor of Alabama, which she did as a stand-in for her husband, who was [[term limit|barred]] from serving another term. In 1961, in keeping with the practice of many at the time to shield patients from discussion of cancer, which was greatly feared, Wallace had withheld information from her that a uterine biopsy had found possibly precancerous cells.{{sfn|Carter|1995|p=277-278}} He also failed to seek appropriate care for her. When she saw a gynecologist for abnormal bleeding in 1965, her diagnosis of [[uterine cancer]] came as a complete shock. Lurleen was outraged to learn from one of her husband's aides that the staffers had known of her cancer since Wallace's 1962 campaign three years earlier.{{sfn|Carter|1995|p=277-278}} Wallace continued to make campaign stops nationwide during Lurleen's last weeks of life and persistently lied to the press about her condition, claiming in April 1968 that "she has won the fight" against cancer.{{sfn|Carter|1995|p=319}} After Lurleen's death in 1968, the couple's younger children, aged 18, 16, and 6, were sent to live with family members and friends for care (their eldest daughter had already married and left home).{{sfn|Carter|1995|p=322}}

Their son, commonly called [[George Wallace Jr.]], is a Democrat-turned-Republican formerly active in Alabama politics. He was twice elected state treasurer as a Democrat, and twice elected to the [[Alabama Public Service Commission]]. He lost a race in 2006 for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor. In 2010, Wallace Jr. failed by a wide margin to win the Republican nod to regain his former position as state treasurer.{{citation needed|date = March 2021}}

On January 4, 1971, Wallace wed the former [[Cornelia Wallace|Cornelia Ellis Snively]] (1939–2009), a niece of former Alabama governor [[Jim Folsom]], known as "Big Jim". "C'nelia" had been a performer and was nicknamed "the [[Jacqueline Kennedy|Jackie Kennedy]] of the rednecks." The couple had a bitter divorce in 1978. A few months after that divorce, Cornelia told [[Parade (magazine)|''Parade'']] magazine, "I don't believe George needs a family. He just needs an audience. The family as audience wasn't enough for his ego."<ref name="htWallaceA8" /> Snively died at the age of 69 on January 8, 2009.<ref>[http://www.wztv.com/template/inews_wire/wires.regional.al/31633b7d-www.fox17.com.shtml Former Alabama first lady Cornelia Wallace dies]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, WZTV FOX17/Nashville</ref>

On September 9, 1981, Wallace married Lisa Taylor, a [[country music]] singer; they divorced on February 2, 1987, weeks after Wallace had left office for the fourth and final time.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stephan Lesher |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uzJ7-p31HRwC&pg=PA498 |title=George Wallace: American Populist |publisher=Da Capo Press |year=1995 |isbn=978-0201407983 |pages=498–99}}{{Dead link|date=March 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=December 29, 2023 |title=WALLACE DIVORCE REPORTED |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/02/03/wallace-divorce-reported/882b9d87-5509-481b-81bd-096a6732b773/ |access-date=March 9, 2024 |newspaper=Washington Post |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}}</ref>

Peggy was 12 years old when her father ran successfully for governor. She has shared that she was not treated nicely out in public due to her father's segregationist views. Some people would not shake her hand because of her last name. She would go to school wanting to befriend the Black students, but she assumed that they would not like her because of what her father had done.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Blake |first=John |title=Children of the movement |date=2007 |publisher=Chicago Review Press |others=Hoopla digital |isbn=978-1-56976-594-4 |location=United States |oclc=1098920753}}</ref>

== Final years and death ==

In a 1995 interview, Wallace said that he planned to vote for Republican [[Bob Dole]] in the [[1996 United States presidential election|1996 presidential election]], commenting, "He's a good man. [[Elizabeth Dole|His wife]] is a [[born-again Christian]] woman and I believe he is, too." He also revealed that he had voted for [[George H. W. Bush]], another Republican, in [[1992 United States presidential election|1992]]. His son, George Wallace Jr., officially switched from Democrat to Republican that same year. Wallace himself declined to identify as either a Republican or a Democrat. But he added, "The state is slowly going Republican because of [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] being so [[Modern liberalism in the United States|liberal]]."<ref name="Gadsden Times">{{Cite news |date=September 16, 1995 |title=Wallace backs Bob Dole for president |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1891&dat=19950916&id=acIfAAAAIBAJ&pg=2447,1516586 |access-date=September 27, 2017 |work=The Gadsden Times}}</ref>

In his later years, Wallace grew deaf and developed [[Parkinson's disease]].<ref name="Gadsden Times" />

Wallace eventually apologized and met with [[Vivian Malone Jones]] and [[James Hood]], the Black students whom he had attempted to block from integrating the University of Alabama via the [[Stand in the Schoolhouse Door]]. The George Wallace Family Foundation had chosen Malone to receive the first Lurleen B. Wallace Award of Courage in October 1996, and Wallace himself presented the award to her. The night before the presentation, Malone and Wallace met privately where he apologized for his conduct, and she told him she had long-since forgiven him. Wallace praised her during the award presentation the next day, saying "Vivian Malone Jones was at the center of the fight over states' rights and conducted herself with grace, strength and, above all, courage."<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |last=Archives |first=L. A. Times |date=October 11, 1996 |title=George Wallace Honors a Foe of Yesteryear |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-10-11-mn-52736-story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250102072339/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-10-11-mn-52736-story.html |archive-date=January 2, 2025 |access-date=January 2, 2025 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref>

When Hood returned to the University of Alabama to earn a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary studies, he started a book on Wallace in 1996 and sat at his bedside for hours of interviews.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=February 3, 1998 |title=DECADES AFTER GEORGE WALLACE DENIED JAMES HOOD ADMISSION TO THE UNIVERSITY, THE PAIR HAS DEVELOPED AN UNLIKELY FRIENDSHIP |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1998/02/03/decades-after-george-wallace-denied-james-hood-admission-to-the-university-the-pair-has-developed-an-unlikely-friendship/ |access-date=January 2, 2025 |website=Chicago Tribune |language=en-US}}</ref> Hood believed in the sincerity of Wallace's apologies, saying that Wallace was haunted by people's lack of forgiveness for his actions.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news |last=Bragg |first=Rick |date=September 17, 1998 |title=Quietly, Alabama Troopers Escort Wallace for Last Time |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/17/us/quietly-alabama-troopers-escort-wallace-for-last-time.html |work=The New York Times}}</ref> Hood graduated in 1997 and requested that Wallace present his degree, and Wallace would have if not for his poor health.<ref name=":1" /> Hood instead attended Wallace's 1998 funeral.<ref name=":3" />

At a restaurant a few blocks from the State Capitol, Wallace became something of a fixture. In constant pain, he was surrounded by an entourage of old friends and visiting well-wishers and continued this ritual until a few weeks before his death. Wallace died of [[septic shock]] from a bacterial infection in Jackson Hospital in Montgomery on September 13, 1998.<ref name="segsymbol">{{Cite web |date=September 14, 1998 |title=George Wallace, Segregation Symbol, Dies at 79 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/14/us/george-wallace-segregation-symbol-dies-at-79.html |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref><ref name="indy">{{Cite news |last=Cornwell |first=Rupert |author-link=Rupert Cornwell |date=September 15, 1998 |title=Obituary: George Wallace |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-george-wallace-1198238.html |access-date=August 23, 2019 |work=The Independent}}</ref> He had respiratory problems in addition to complications from his gunshot spinal injury. His grave is located at [[Greenwood Cemetery (Montgomery, Alabama)|Greenwood Cemetery]], in Montgomery.

=== Legacy ===
{{external media| float = left| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?54899-1/george-wallace-american-populist ''Booknotes'' interview with Stephen Lesher on ''George Wallace: American Populist'', February 27, 1994], [[C-SPAN]]| video2 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?164890-4/influence-governor-george-wallace ''Washington Journal'' interview with Dan T. Carter on the influence of George Wallace, June 23, 2001], [[C-SPAN]]}}
{{conservatism US|politicians}}

Although George Wallace moderated later in his political career, at the time of his death he was still widely seen as a segregationist symbol.<ref name="segsymbol" /> Wallace was an unusual candidate who refused to condemn [[political violence]]. Ziblatt and Levitsky describe Wallace as an autocratic figure who exhibited a casual disregard for the Constitution.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Levitsky |first1=Steven |title=How Democracies Die |last2=Ziblatt |first2=Daniel |date=2019 |publisher=Broadway Books |isbn=978-1-5247-6293-3 |location=New York |chapter=Chapter 3}}</ref> Wallace was the subject of a documentary, ''George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire'' (2000), shown by [[PBS]] on ''The [[American Experience]]''.<ref name="Woods On Fire" /><ref name="Woods On Fire website">{{Cite web |year=1999 |title=George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire (web site) |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/wallace/ |access-date=May 25, 2006 |website=The American Experience |publisher=[[Public Broadcasting Service]]}} Web site for the PBS documentary, including a complete transcript, references to other Wallace information, and tools for teachers.</ref>

Wallace is the third<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 29, 2017 |title=The Top 50 Longest Serving Governors in US History (Updated) |url=https://smartpolitics.lib.umn.edu/2017/05/29/the-top-50-longest-serving-governors-in-us-history-updated/}}</ref> [[List of longest-serving governors of U.S. states|longest-serving governor in U.S. history]], having served 5,848 days in office, as well as being the longest serving governor from the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ostermeier |first=Eric |date=May 29, 2017 |title=The Top 50 Longest Serving Governors in US History (Updated) |url=https://smartpolitics.lib.umn.edu/2017/05/29/the-top-50-longest-serving-governors-in-us-history-updated/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301175243/https://smartpolitics.lib.umn.edu/2017/05/29/the-top-50-longest-serving-governors-in-us-history-updated/ |archive-date=March 1, 2021 |access-date=April 2, 2021 |website=Smart Politics |publisher=University of Minnesota |language=en-US}}</ref>

With four failed runs for president, Wallace was unsuccessful in national politics.<ref>"Victorious Loser", ''Newsweek'', May 13, 1964, p. 13.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Irving Louis Horowitz |url=https://archive.org/details/winnersloserssoc0000horo |title=Winners and Losers: Social and Political Polarities in America |publisher=Duke University Press |year=1984 |page=[https://archive.org/details/winnersloserssoc0000horo/page/164 164] |url-access=registration}}</ref> His impact on American politics was significant with his biographers calling him "the most influential loser" in 20th century American politics.{{sfn|Carter|1995|p=468}}<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Lesher |first=Stephan |url=https://archive.org/details/georgewallaceame00step |title=George Wallace: American Populist |publisher=Addison-Wesley |year=1994 |isbn=978-0201622102 |location=Reading, Massachusetts |page=xi |ref=Lesher |url-access=registration}}</ref>

The 1984 book, ''Bloods'', by [[Wallace Terry]], includes a story about [[Sergeant Major Edgar A. Huff]], the first African American [[sergeant major]] in the [[United States Marine Corps|US Marine Corps]]. Huff stated that when he retired, Governor Wallace "called to tell me how proud he was of my career and how it stands as an example for others to follow."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Terry |first=Wallace |title=Bloods: Black Veterans of the Vietnam War: An Oral History |publisher=Ballantine Books |year=1984 |isbn=978-0-345-31197-9 |location=New York |publication-date=1984 |pages=144}}</ref>

The TNT cable network produced a movie, ''[[George Wallace (film)|George Wallace]]'' (1997), directed by [[John Frankenheimer]] and starring [[Gary Sinise]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=James |first=Caryn |author-link=Caryn James |date=August 23, 1997 |title=Going Beyond Just Facts To Show a Hollow Soul |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/23/arts/going-beyond-just-facts-to-show-a-hollow-soul.html |access-date=April 1, 2024 |work=[[New York Times]]}}</ref> Sinise received an [[Emmy Award]] for his performance<ref>{{Cite web |title=1998 – 50th Emmy Awards {{!}} Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Special – 1998 |url=https://www.emmys.com/awards/nominees-winners/1998/outstanding-lead-actor-in-a-miniseries-or-a-movie |access-date=April 1, 2024 |website=emmys.com}}</ref> during [[50th Primetime Emmy Awards|a ceremony]] held the day Wallace died.<ref>{{Cite news |date=September 14, 1998 |title=Actor Finds Wallace Life 'Hopeful' |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/actor-finds-wallace-life-hopeful/ |access-date=April 1, 2024 |publisher=[[CBS News]]}}</ref> Sinise reprised this role in the 2002 film ''[[Path to War]]''.<ref>{{Cite news |last=James |first=Caryn |author-link=Caryn James |date=May 17, 2002 |title=Many Advise, Mr. President, but You Decide |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/17/movies/tv-weekend-many-advise-mr-president-but-you-decide.html |access-date=April 1, 2024 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> In the 2014 film ''[[Selma (film)|Selma]]'', which was set during the Civil Rights Movement, which then-Governor Wallace publicly opposed, Wallace was portrayed by actor [[Tim Roth]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Scott |first=A.O. |author-link=A. O. Scott |date=December 24, 2014 |title=A 50-Mile March, Nearly 50 Years Later |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/25/arts/in-selma-king-is-just-one-of-the-heroes.html |access-date=April 1, 2024 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> The [[George Wallace Tunnel]] on [[Interstate 10]], constructed in 1973, was named for him. Three community colleges in Alabama are named for Wallace: [[Wallace Community College]], [[Wallace Community College Selma]], and [[Wallace State Community College]]. [[Lurleen B. Wallace Community College]] is named for his wife.  In 2020, amidst a change in public opinion, many Alabama universities were pushed to rename campus buildings that were originally named after Wallace. This included, but was not limited to, the [[University of Montevallo]] and [[Auburn University]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Nail |first=Tim |title=Petition calls for University to rename Wallace Hall |url=https://www.theplainsman.com/article/2020/06/petition-calls-for-university-to-rename-wallace-hall |access-date=October 13, 2020 |website=The Auburn Plainsman}}</ref> The University of Montevallo has been unsuccessful in renaming the George C. Wallace Speech and Hearing Center because the building was named via Act 110 by the [[Alabama Legislature]] in 1975.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Balasky |first=Bri |date=September 30, 2020 |title=Board of Trustees votes to rename Bibb Graves and Comer |url=https://www.thealabamian.com/board-of-trustees-votes-to-rename-bibb-graves-and-comer/ |access-date=October 13, 2020 |website=The Alabamian}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Alabama|Biography}}
* [[Democratic backsliding in the United States]]
* [[Electoral history of George Wallace]]
* [[Southern Democrats]]

==Footnotes==
{{Notelist}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
* {{Cite book |last=Carter |first=Dan T.|title=The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, the Origins of the New Conservatism, and the Transformation of American Politics|publisher=Louisiana State University Press|year=1995|location=Baton Rouge|isbn=978-0-684-80916-8}}
* {{Cite book |last=Brands |first=H.W. |author-link=H.W. Brands |url=https://archive.org/details/americandreamsun00bran |title=American Dreams: The United States Since 1945 |date=2010 |publisher=Penguin Press |isbn=978-1594202629 |location=New York |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |last=Parmet |first=Herbert S. |url=https://archive.org/details/richardnixonhisa00parm_0 |title=Richard Nixon and His America |publisher=Little, Brown & Co |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-316-69232-8 |location=Boston |ref={{sfnRef|Parmet}}}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite news |last1=Doris |first1=Margaret |title=The return of George Wallace |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_boston-phoenix_1982-10-26_11_43/page/n7/mode/1up |access-date=September 27, 2024 |work=The Boston Phoenix |date=October 26, 1982}}
* {{Cite book |last=Frady |first=Marshall |url=https://archive.org/details/wallace00frad/mode/2up |title=Wallace |publisher=World Publishing Co. |year=1968 |isbn=9780307561053 |location=New York |oclc=1200799828 |ref=none}} (1996 Random House ed.).
* {{Cite book |last1=Kennedy |first1=Peggy Wallace |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ENzTvgEACAAJ |title=The Broken Road: George Wallace and a Daughter's Journey to Reconciliation |last2=H. Mark Kennedy |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2019 |isbn=978-1635573657 |location=New York |oclc=1076505149 |ref=none}}

==External links==
{{External links|section|date=June 2019}}
{{Sister project links|d=Q313776|s=Author:George Corley Wallace|c=Category:George Wallace|q=George Wallace|n=no|b=no|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|wikt=no|species=no}}
* [http://www.archives.state.al.us/govs_list/schooldoor.html Governor Wallace's Schoolhouse Door speech] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020806081029/http://www.archives.state.al.us/govs_list/schooldoor.html |date=August 6, 2002 }} archived at The University of Alabama
* [http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1676 George Wallace article] at the ''Encyclopedia of Alabama''
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100913220518/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/7624706/George-Wallace.html George Wallace] – ''Daily Telegraph'' obituary
* [http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/A-0024/menu.html Oral History Interview with George Wallace] from [http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/ Oral Histories of the American South]
* Caught on Tape: The White House Reaction to the Shooting of Alabama Governor and Democratic Presidential Candidate George Wallace from History's News Network: http://hnn.us/articles/45104.html
* [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/wallace/ ''George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire'']—[[PBS]] ''[[American Experience]]'' documentary, including complete transcript, teacher tools and links
* [https://digital.archives.alabama.gov/digital/collection/voices/id/2952 1963 gubernatorial inauguration address]
* [http://www.legacy.com/DecaturDaily/DeathNotices.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonID=122382790 Cornelia Wallace's Obituary] on ''[[Decatur Daily]]''
* [http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/wallace.html Political Graveyard]
* {{C-SPAN|56987}}
** [http://www.c-span.org/video/?301279-1/george-wallace-presidential-contender "George Wallace, Presidential Contender"] from [[C-SPAN]]'s ''[[The Contenders]]''
* [http://purl.lib.ua.edu/82843 Speech by George Wallace given on March 16, 1970.] Audio recording from [http://purl.lib.ua.edu/18388 The University of Alabama's Emphasis Symposium on Contemporary Issues]
* [http://dmr.bsu.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/HistFilmVid&CISOPTR=9&CISOBOX=1&REC=7 Footage of campaign speech given by George Wallace] on May 1, 1964, at Ball State Teachers College in Muncie, Indiana
* [http://www.ep.tc/georgewallace/ Alabama Needs "The Little Judge" – 1960/1961 Pro-Segregation Comic Book commissioned directly by George Wallace during his campaign for Governor of Alabama.]
* {{IMDb name|0908650}}
* {{NYTtopic|people/w/george_c_wallace}}
* Meeting [[Elvis Presley]] with his family backstage before Elvis's concert at the Garrett Coliseum in Montgomery, Alabama on March 6, 1974. http://www.elvis-collectors.com/candid-central/wallace74.html
* [https://arcweb.archives.gov/arc/action/ExternalIdSearch?id=279204 Testimony from Hosea Williams, John Lewis, and Amelia Boynton et al. v. Honorable George C. Wallace, Governor of Alabama et al.]{{Dead link|date=February 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} from the [[National Archives and Records Administration]]
* [https://radiotapes.com/special-postings/#GeorgeWallace Breaking news coverage of the assassination attempt on Governor George Wallace as heard on CBS Radio and WCCO-AM (Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN)]

{{s-start}}
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{{s-ttl|title=[[American Independent Party|American Independent]] nominee for [[President of the United States]]|years=[[1968 United States presidential election|1968]]}}
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{{s-end}}

{{George Wallace}}
{{Governors of Alabama}}
{{AIPPresidentialNominees}}
{{Historical right-wing third party presidential tickets (U.S.)}}
{{1964 United States presidential election}}
{{1968 United States presidential election}}
{{1972 United States presidential election}}
{{1976 United States presidential election}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wallace, George}}
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