George Wallace

State Governor

George Wallace was one of America's most outspoken supporters of racial segregation in the 1960s. As governor of Alabama he fought integration, once even standing symbolically in the doorway of the University of Alabama to block two black students from enrolling there. (Many considered Wallace the leader of the opposition to Martin Luther King, Jr.) Wallace served four terms as governor of Alabama: 1963-67, 1971-79 (two terms), and 1983-87. He served the later terms in a wheelchair after being paralyzed below the waist in a 1972 assassination attempt by gunman Arthur Bremer. Wallace ran for president of the United States four times, in 1964, 1968, 1972, and 1976. In the 1980s he recanted his earlier racial views and sought reconciliation with black leaders.

Extra credit: Wallace was played by actor Gary Sinise in the 1997 HBO movie George Wallace; his wife Cornelia was played by Angelina Jolie.

Wallace appears with Charles de Gaulle in our loop Almost Assassinated!, and joins actress Jodie Foster in the loop The Taxi Driver Connection.