George Wallace

George Corley Wallace (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician who was elected Governor of Alabama (as a Democrat) four times (1962, 1970, 1974 and 1982) and ran for U.S. President (in 1964, 1968, 1972 and 1976). His first wife, Lurleen Wallace, was the first (and, as of 2005, only) woman to ever be elected as Governor of Alabama.

American Independent Party presidential candidate

When Wallace ran for President in 1968, it was not as a Democrat but as a candidate of the American Independent Party.

Related Topics:
President - American Independent Party

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Wallace hoped to receive enough electoral votes to force the House of Representatives to decide the election, presumably giving him the role of a power broker. Wallace hoped that Southern states could use their clout to extract concessions to end federal efforts at desegregation. This did not occur.

Related Topics:
Electoral votes - House of Representatives

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Wallace ran a "law and order" campaign similar to that of Republican candidate, former Vice President Richard Nixon (see Southern strategy), worrying Nixon that Wallace might steal enough votes to give the election to Democratic candidate Vice President Hubert Humphrey.

Related Topics:
Law and order - Republican - Vice President - Richard Nixon - Southern strategy - Hubert Humphrey

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Wallace's "outsider" status was once again popular with voters, particularly in the rural South, and he carried five Southern states, coming fairly close to receiving enough electoral votes to throw the election to the House of Representatives, and making him the last person to date actually to win electoral votes who was not the nominee of one of the two major parties, and the first since Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond, who ran a similarly regionally-based anti-integrationist campaign two decades earlier. Additionally, he received the vote of one North Carolina elector who was pledged to Nixon.

Related Topics:
Rural - South - Dixiecrat - Strom Thurmond - North Carolina

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Many found Wallace an entertaining campaigner, regardless of whether they approved of his opinions. To hippies who said he was a Nazi, he replied, "I was killing fascists when you punks were in diapers." To other hippies, he said, "You shout four letter words at me, well, I have two for you: S-O-A-P and W-O-R-K." Another memorable quote: "They're building a bridge over the Potomac for all the white liberals fleeing to Virginia."

Related Topics:
Hippies - Nazi - Fascists - Bridge - Potomac - Liberals - Virginia

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Wallace said he disagreed with Abraham Lincoln that blacks should be able to vote, serve on juries, or hold public office—although he agreed with Lincoln that equality for blacks could come with education, uplift and time. (Before the Storm, Rick Perlstein, pg. 317)

Related Topics:
Abraham Lincoln - Blacks - Juries - Education

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