January 14, 1963: George Wallace is sworn in as Governor of Alabama for the first time. All Governors of that State are sworn in on a star on the portico of the State Capitol in Montgomery, marking the spot where Jefferson Davis was sworn in as the Presidency of the Confederate States of America (before the capital was moved to Richmond).
Wallace couldn't help that. What he could help was what he said in his Inaugural Address.
He was elected to the State House of Representatives in 1946. In 1948, as a Delegate to the Democratic National Convention, he did not join the walkout of Southern Delegates over the Party platform's civil rights plank. But he did consider President Harry Truman's civil rights program an infringement on States' rights.
In 1952, he was appointed a State Judge. Although he spoke to black lawyers, witnesses and defendants from the bench with the same courtesy that he gave their white counterparts, his rulings were always pro-white. He argued that he was a segregationist, but not a racist. As if that was possible.
In 1958, Wallace made his 1st campaign for Governor. At the time, with the Republican Party still thought of as "The Party of Lincoln," there was hardly any presence for it in the Southern States. Therefore, in such States, winning the Democratic Primary was said to be "tantamount to election."
But Wallace was beaten in the Primary by the State's Attorney General, John M. Patterson, 32 percent of the vote to 26. Patterson had taken a stand against organized crime in the State. But, in the wake of the Little Rock Crisis the year before, he announced, "If a school is ordered to be integrated, it will be closed down." He was endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan.
Wallace knew why he lost, but, in expressing it, he used a word that I won't use here. In cleaned-up language, Patterson had outdone him on racial issues, and he swore that no one would ever outdo him on racial issues again.
At the time, the State Constitution forbid a Governor from succeeding himself: He could wait out 4 years, then run and win again, but not in back-to-back terms. When a supporter asked why he started using racist messages, Wallace replied, "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 (N-word)s, and they stomped the floor."
In the Primary, Wallace got 32 percent. State Representative Ryan deGraffenried Sr., who favored civil rights, got just over 25 percent. Big Jim Folsom, Patterson's predecessor as Governor, ran again, and got just 1,000 fewer votes than deGraffenried. Had he finished 2nd, the history of American politics might have been changed. But the runoff would have only the top 2 candidates, and Wallace won it with 55 percent.
And so, it was Wallace who was sworn in on Jeff Davis' star on January 14, 1963. In a speech written by Klansman and former radio host Asa Earl Carter, Wallace said, "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, and segregation forever!" The crowd in Montgomery roared its approval.
Five months later, Wallace stood in the doorway of Foster Auditorium in Tuscaloosa to prevent the enrollment at the University of Alabama to 2 black people. Assistant Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach and federal Marshals ordered him to get out of the doorway or face arrest on federal charges, and he got out.
America's racists chose to remember that he "stood in the schoolhouse door," and to forget that he caved in. Unlike Martin Luther King Jr., George Wallace wasn't man enough to defy a law he hated.
He had to leave the Governorship after the 1966 election, ran for President as a 3rd-party candidate in 1968, regained the Governorship in 1970, ran for President in the 1972, Democratic Primaries before being shot and paralyzed, left the Governorship again after the 1974 election, made one more Presidential run in 1976; and, with the State Constitution now allowing a Governor to run for re-election, was elected again in 1978 and 1982.
His near-death experience, and the pain caused by his condition, made him more compassionate, and led him to seek forgiveness from civil rights groups, and even embrace legislation that addressed their needs. He was forgiven by Coretta Scott King and Jesse Jackson.
On the other hand, he had, since his 4th and final term as Governor ended in 1987, fully embraced conservative ideology, though he never officially left the Democratic Party. and even what would later be called Christian Coalition, Tea Party and MAGA ideology.
In 1995, 3 years before his death, interviewed by John F. Kennedy Jr., the son and nephew of the men who sent Katzenbach to get him out of the schoolhouse door, for George magazine, Wallace said, "And now, segregation's gone. Good riddance." He died in 1998, and I'm sure he would have opposed Barack Obama every step of the way, but, somehow, I doubt he would have bought into the stupid Birther theories.
Former Governor John Patterson would also express regret for his racist campaigning and policy, and died in 2021, 4 months short of his 100th birthday.
Asa Earl Carter did not express any regret. Quite the opposite: He expressed regret that Wallace had a change of heart. He would later write the Western novel The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales, which was turned into a film starring and directed by Clint Eastwood. Carter died in 1979.
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January 14, 1963 was a Monday. Film director Steven Soderbergh was born.
Baseball and football were out of season. No games were scheduled in the NHL. There was 1 game in the NBA: The San Francisco Warriors beat the New York Knicks, 142-134 at the Cow Palace, outside San Francisco in Daly City, California. It was just another day at the office for Wilt Chamberlain: He scored 48 points and grabbed 33 rebounds.
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