Who is george wallace

He could keep those people quiet, or either he could get them to be very disturbed. He ran as a fringe candidate for governor against Wallace in and finished at the bottom of the pack with his racially-charged, divisive campaign. In a remarkable turnaround, Asa Carter remade his image in his later life, moving to Texas and becoming a writer under the pseudonym Forrest Carter.

Oddly, this "true story" became a favorite among the liberal-minded people he had despised throughout his life. Carter died in before his double identity reached national attention.

Jim Folsom In a populist candidate for governor took Alabama by storm, becoming a political mentor to the young George Wallace in the post-war era. He had been an insurance salesman and a sailor in the merchant marine and for years tried to obtain political office.

His candidacy for governor in was considered lightly and few gave the self-avowed sinner much of a chance. He was really a creature of the s and s. And as he tried to shape his own political philosophy, it was to represent poor and struggling and working-class and even middle-class people against elites, against the forces of economic power that he felt like were constantly trying to keep them down.

He was more down home. I think people felt close to him. He was unable to break the dominance of conservative Black Belt representatives in the legislature on larger issues such as legislative reapportionment, a revision of the state constitution, and a road construction bill to pave farm-to-market roads. He also suffered from what one historian called "too much whiskey, too many women, too few honest friends. He was not only progressive in terms of his social and economic policies but in race policies as well.

And saying it was time to stop just preaching brotherhood and start acting brotherhood, and as long as the black man was held down, the poor white people would be held down with him.

A really remarkable man. The popular Folsom was reelected, but his following would begin shrinking almost immediately as segregation became a more contentious and politically-charged issue. With the U. Folsom did not share their concerns. Powell, who had been in Montgomery to help register black voters, later bragged to the press about enjoying a scotch and soda with the governor.

For many, this was the last straw, and Wallace took the opportunity to break with the politician whose campaign style he had so long admired and emulated. He spread the word amongst fellow politicians and journalists that he could no longer support a governor who had always been "soft on the nigger question.

An unfortunate television appearance on the eve of the Democratic primary derailed his efforts and signalled the end of his political career. Folsom appeared drunk and incoherent on the statewide show. His speech broke down into gibberish as he called his greedy opponents "me-too" candidates, resulting in minutes of Folsom chanting "me, too, me, too, me, too, meeee, toooo! He would never hold public office again despite numerous attempts. Years later, Jim Folsom reflected on the difference in strategy which brought Wallace into office and pushed him out:.

The youthful friendship of Johnson and Wallace was surprising, given that the two seemed to have little in common. Johnson was a dyed-in-the-wool Republican from northern Alabama. His great-grandfather had served in the Union Army during the Civil War. Although Wallace and other student Democrats enjoyed ribbing Johnson about his politics, Wallace was a frequent guest at the home of Johnson and his wife, Ruth, who was also a university student.

He returned to Alabama after the war to open a law practice. Johnson was active in the Republican party and organized "Alabama Veterans for Eisenhower" during the presidential campaign.

President Eisenhower appointed Johnson, then thirty-five, as federal district attorney for the Northern District of Alabama. In , Johnson was nominated for a federal judgeship. As part of a federal panel, Johnson declared that "Brown v. Board of Education" applied not only to schools, but to all areas of public life.

He granted the injunction against segregated seating on city buses which had been requested by the Montgomery bus boycotters. In a federal commission began investigating discrimination against black voters in Alabama.

Johnson ordered all voting records to be turned over to federal officials. George Wallace angrily announced that he would personally keep these records from the prying eyes of national officials and Judge Johnson quickly responded by threatening to put Wallace in jail for contempt of court.

Hoping to avoid a long jail sentence, Wallace met with Johnson, but Johnson made it clear that if Wallace did not turn over the records in his keeping, he would be sent to jail for as long as possible. It was the last time the two men would ever speak privately.

In the end, Wallace distributed the records to members of a grand jury and then quietly suggested that they give the records to federal investigators. At the same time Wallace announced that he had defied the court order. Johnson soon ordered the school board in Macon County to begin desegregation.

Governor Wallace sent state troopers to prevent the affected schools from opening. For his rulings, Johnson was an outcast among white Alabamians. He and his family endured harassing and threatening letters and phone calls.

Fearful for the safety of their son, Johnny, the Johnsons sent him to a private school, which was segregated. Their action caused George Wallace to accuse the Johnsons of being hypocrites who wanted other people to send their children to integrated public schools while they did otherwise. In the early s Johnson made important rulings regarding the rights of two other neglected groups in Alabama -- mental patients and the incarcerated. In Johnson issued a court order requiring Alabama to improve the "barbaric" conditions in its state prisons.

Although a repentant George Wallace contacted Ruth Johnson in to apologize "for all the heartache," she found it difficult to forgive him. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta in He died in Montgomery in at the age of Seymore Trammell During the Alabama governor's race, Seymore Trammell, the state's attorney in George Wallace's judicial circuit, maintained a public face of neutrality.

Behind the scenes, however, Trammell helped supporters of Attorney General John Patterson produce flyers accusing Wallace of being soft on race. After Wallace lost the election in a landslide, he consulted with Trammell about running a race-based campaign in the gubernatorial election. In his campaign, however, he ran as a Democrat. While on the campaign trail in Maryland later that year, Wallace was shot by a would-be assassin named Arthur Bremer.

His injuries left him permanently paralyzed below the waist. He managed to still complete the campaign, but ultimately lost the Democratic nomination to George McGovern who then lost the presidential election to Richard Nixon. In his third and final presidential attempt, in , Wallace again ran as a Democrat; he was defeated in the primaries by fellow Southerner Jimmy Carter.

From the late s onward, Wallace attempted to revise his public image by modifying his previous position on race issues. He claimed that many of his statements had been misunderstood, and he emphasized his populist leanings. In some cases, he issued public apologies for his earlier actions. By the time of his fourth term as Alabama governor, he'd begun receiving a substantial amount of support from Black political organizations and Black voters.

His efforts to improve the state's economy, health care, employment and infrastructure were considered highly successful. Due to ill health, Wallace retired at the end of his last gubernatorial term, in January He died of heart failure on September 13, , at the age of 79, in Montgomery, Alabama.

Wallace had married three times. In addition to his marriage to Lurleen Burns, with whom he had four children, he wed Cornelia Ellis Sniveley in divorced in and Lisa Taylor in divorced in We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! Subscribe to the Biography newsletter to receive stories about the people who shaped our world and the stories that shaped their lives.

He was succeeded by Queen Elizabeth II in George W. Bush was the 43rd president of the United States. The series made him a household name, but brought an end to his film career. Machine Gun Kelly was an American bootlegger, bank robber and kidnapper who made headlines in the s.

He was sentenced to life in prison along with wife Kathryn Kelly in A campaign poster for George C. Wallace urging voters to "Stand up for America! But in Wallace wasn't talking to voters who embraced civil rights and anti-poverty programs. He appealed to white Americans who felt abandoned by their government. And he found them not just in the South, but also parts of Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and other northern states. According to historian Michael Kazin, these were voters who "felt their good jobs, their modest homes, and their personal safety were under siege both from liberal authorities above and angry minorities below.

Wallace was "an extraordinarily intuitive politician," says Wallace biographer Dan T. In , student radicals, anti-war protestors and violent black activists were grabbing the headlines. Carter says Wallace knew that many whites despised these people as symbols of "a fundamental decline in the traditional cultural compass of God, family, and country. Wallace relished confronting the left-wing protesters who stalked his campaign rallies. When a heckler interrupted him, Wallace would respond: "Son, if you'll just shut up and take off your sandals, I'll autograph one as a souvenir.

Bearded peaceniks were just the kind of opponents he wanted viewers to see on TV. Wallace often posed as the candidate of the forgotten man. He encouraged his supporters to resent the major parties, their candidates, and the established power structures in the United States especially news media and academic types. Nixon and Mr. Humphrey that there sure are a lot of rednecks in this country!