I'm going to go ahead and start the presentation.
Inauguration Day, Montgomery, Alabama, January 14, 1963.
George Wallace begins his first year in the State House as John F.
Kennedy begins his third year in the White House.
Many Alabamians ask, who speaks for me, the governor or the president? 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.
We preach freedom around the world and we mean it and we cherish our freedom here at home.
But are we to say to the world and much more importantly to each other that this is a land of the free except for the Negroes, that we have no second -class citizens except Negroes, that we have no class or caste system, no ghettos, no master race except with respect to Negroes.
Now the time has come for this nation to fulfill its promise.
George Wallace had pledged in his successful 1962 campaign to become governor to stand in the school house door to prevent integration in the schools of Alabama.
When Wallace was accused of being a racist, he refuted the charge.
He insisted that he was speaking for the majority of Alabamians, both black and white.
Most whites agreed.
I have never made a single reference or statement public in my life that reflected upon any man because of who he happened to be, because I believe that all of us are the handiwork of God.
It just so happened that God made us in many instances different from one another.
We are his handiwork and I believe that segregation of the school system in Alabama is in her right, that it is in the interest of Negro and white.
I feel that in my heart and the overwhelming majority of people in this state feel that in their heart and therefore there's nothing sinful or immoral or irreligious about a system that we believe is in the best interest of all concern.
Black Alabamians who knew that segregation had always resulted in separate but not equal citizenship were protesting in April and May in Birmingham.
Massive protest for equal job opportunity and an equal enjoyment of civil liberties guaranteed to Americans in all 50 states.
More than a thousand students who demonstrated were expelled by the local school board.
Dr.
Martin Luther King called for patience and determination.
Your willingness to go to jail will make jobs possible for everybody else who will finish school.
Negroes going to school, we finish school and can't get any jobs down here anyway.
They throw us in the worst positions and whether we have high school training or not are beyond that.
We are still the last high than the first five.
So what we've got to see is that the things that are being done in such a creative manner by you will make Birmingham a better city for everybody.
They are angry, they are angry because Birmingham, Alabama, the toughest city in the United States in race relations, the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States will be at least integrated on a certain level in the next few days.
On May 18th, President Kennedy was greeted by Governor Wallace on the occasion of an Alabama celebration of the 30th anniversary of TVA, a federal dam project which improved the lives of all in the state.
The president reminded those in the audience that this was one nation, indivisible.
From time to time, statements are made labeling the federal government an outsider, an intruder, an adversary.
In any free federation of states, of course differences will arise and difficulties will persist.
But the people of this area know that the United States government is not a stranger or not an enemy.
It is the people of 50 states joining in a national effort to seek progress in every state of the union.
But without the national government, without the people of the United States working as a people, there would be no TVA.
Without the national government, the people of the United States working together, there would be no protection of the family farmer, his income and his financial independence.
Or he never would have been able to electrify his farm, to insure his crop, to support its price, and to stay ahead of the bugs, the boll weevils, and the mortgage bankers.
Without the national government and the people of the United States working together, there would be no school lunch or milk programs for our children, no assistance on conserving soil or harvesting trees, no loans to help a farmer buy his farm, and no security at the bank.
For this is and must always be one nation under God indivisible.
Alabama whites, well aware of President Kennedy's strong pro -civil rights stance, nevertheless responded to him with great warmth.
Three days later, their goodwill would be put to the test.
A federal order would demand the admission of two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, to the University of Alabama, the last totally segregated state university system in the United States of America.
They have gone to ridiculous extremes to impose an unjust, unworkable, unconstitutional social experiment on the people of this country by blindly ignoring the rights of the white citizens.
We must resist these actions, which if left unchallenged, can only lead to the destruction of freedom.
Some Alabama whites believe the federal government's action provided an excuse for violence within the state.
They had, however, misinterpreted their governor's militancy.
The Alabama police were instructed to keep the peace.
George Wallace was in favor of segregation, but he demanded law and order.
My friends, we cannot win this fight if we resort to violence, if we resort to bombing, if we resort to harming the hair on a single person's head in this state.
I ask you to join me in keeping the peace in this state.
If you want to stand with me in my fight, I know that you will do just that.
There are people, there are communists, there are left -wingers, there are people who despise all the people of this country.
There are peoples who have pledged their allegiance to a foreign government who would like to exploit and use this situation.
But if you are an Alabamian or a Southerner or an American who stands with your governor, then I can tell you that the resorting to violence in any form will only help defeat our cause in the immigration approach.
The eyes of the nation were focused on the University of Alabama.
Would there be violence? Ku Klux Klan leader Robert Shelton commended George Wallace's course of action and the Klan remained peaceful.
We see in the fire and brimstone of constitutional beliefs of Governor George Wallace, a man that can produce the leadership ability to rewrite history here in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in the next three to four days.
History, ladies and gentlemen, that will affect you and I, and history that your children and their children will be reading in years to come.
Because we realize that in Governor George Wallace we have a man of integrity with the ability and the dedication and the sincerity to help in the leadership capacity of returning this state, the South, and this nation back to constitutional government.
As governor, I am the highest constitutional officer of the state of Alabama.
I embody the sovereignty of this state and I will be present to bar the entrance of any Negro who attempts to enroll at the University of Alabama.
On June 11th, 600 Alabama National Guardsmen were ready to keep the peace.
Two black students would attempt to register at the University of Alabama.
The federal government stood behind them.
Alabamians were urged to stay away.
825 state troopers, game wardens, and revenue agents stood by, always quiet.
Governor Wallace was ready to carry out his pledge to stand in the schoolhouse door.
A faculty member said, this is just like the late late show.
You know how it ends, but you can't go to bed.
George Wallace, representing the state, took his place in the door of the last totally segregated state university system in the United States of America.
Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, representing the federal government, served George Wallace and Alabama with an order to integrate their university.
Wallace refused.
President Kennedy now federalized the Alabama National Guard and Brigadier General Henry Graham of Birmingham told his governor, it is my sad duty to ask you to step aside on order of the President of the United States.
George Wallace stepped aside.
James Hood and Vivian Malone were greeted by scattered applause and no jeers as they were finally able to register for education equal to that given the other young people in Alabama, who happened to be white.
All of the people had prevented some of the people from denying any further Vivian Malone and James Hood their rights as free Alabamians and free Americans.
I think our governor did fulfill his pledges that he made to the voters of the state and I think he did a fine job.
I think Alabama prepared for it.
I think that's why it was so peaceful.
I'm glad that it's over with.
I think it should have been done a long time ago.
I don't see any reason why they should keep any qualified nigger out.
I really don't mind going to school with them here but I think all this is silly to have to take all this much trouble to enroll two people to go to school.
We know that it's coming so we may as well accept it.
That's the way I feel.
Good evening my fellow citizens.
This afternoon following a series of threats and defiant statements, the presence of Alabama National Guardsmen was required on the University of Alabama to carry out the final and unequivocal order of the United States District Court of the Northern District of Alabama.
That order called for the admission of two clearly qualified young Alabama residents who happen to have been born Negro.
That they were admitted peacefully on the campus is due in good measure to the conduct of the students of the University of Alabama who met their responsibilities in a constructive way.
The fires of frustration and discord are burning in every city, north and south, where legal remedies are not at hand.
Redress is sought in the streets in demonstrations, parades, and protests which create tensions and threaten violence and threaten lives.
We face therefore a moral crisis as a country and a people.
It cannot be met by repressive police action.
It cannot be left to increase demonstrations in the streets.
It cannot be quieted by token moves or talk.
It is a time to act in the Congress, in your state, and local legislative body, and above all in all of our daily lives.
It is not enough to pin the blame on others to say this is a problem of one section of the country or another or to pour the facts that we face.
A great change is at hand and our task, our obligation is to make that revolution, that change, peaceful and constructive for all.
