George Wallace

@ National Portrait Gallery

Description

Elected governor of Alabama by a landslide in 1962, George Wallace became a defiant symbol of the South's entrenched resistance to integration. With his rallying cry "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!" Wallace fought the civil rights movement at every turn. On June 11, 1963, he fulfilled his pledge to "stand in the schoolhouse door" to thwart the admission of two black students to the University of Alabama, and made a great show of blocking the school's entrance before yielding to Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach (right). Although Wallace claimed to deplore violence, his rebellious stand fueled mounting racial tensions. As civil rights leader and congressman John Lewis later observed, "Much of the bloodshed in Alabama occurred on Governor Wallace's watch. Although he never pulled a trigger or threw a bomb, he created the climate of fear and intimidation in which those acts were deemed acceptable."

Type:

Image

Format:

Gelatin Silver Print

Rights:

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Steve Schapiro

View Original At:

http://collections.si.edu/search/results.htm?q=record_ID=npg_NPG.2006.23&repo=DPLA