George Wallace, Racist or Opportunist?

[NewYorkDragons80]

Obviously, George Wallace's stance on civil rights in the 1960s were prejudiced, but was he? Was former Alabama governor George Wallace motivated by a hatred of blacks or a desire for reelection? In my opinion, he was not a racist, but merely a populist who realized that the governor of Alabama could not possibly support integration and be considered a serious candidate. Discuss.

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[Mike Teacher]

If memory serves his stance vis a vis segregation etc changed radically depending on the political weather. If so, I'd go with the latter.

I don't exactly think he was a saint either; but I think getting shot as seriously as he did was either cruel fate or some weird karmic revenge.

Or it could be some nutjob felt like shooing him.

Now to completely de-rail the thread; I forgot how 'good' the footage was of him getting shot [several times???] until Forrest Gump came out. Pretty shocking actually, in the middle of the movie. Was for me, anyway.

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[Justice4all]

Well I think he is a damn funny comedian.

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[HBox]

If he wasn't a racist, that's even worse IMO. He was willing to continue the oppression of blacks, something that he would know was wrong, for his own politcal gain, and that's just despicable. At the very least, if he was racist, he was fighting for something he really believed in.

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[Bama]

He lost his first run for governor because he wasn't racist enough. The other guy hated blacks more so he won.

From then on he made sure to never let that happen.

No integrationist would have won any election back then. He just wanted power and he got it the only way possible back then.

I know old ladies who didn't and still don't believe that a woman should vote but did vote for him anyway after the school house stand.

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[TheMojoPin]

Like people have said, it's always seemed clear to me that he was just "going with the flow" based on public opinion. Just goes to show you how far some politicians are willing to go to stay in power...

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[high fly]

Like so many others he was a racist until blacks began voting in large numbers.

I recall that later in life he seemed genuinely repentant.

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