George Corley Wallace Jr.

George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was a Democrat American politician who served as the 45th Governor of Alabama for four terms. He survived an assassination attempt by Arthur Bremer in 1972 while running for the U.S. Presidency, this assassination attempt paralyzed him below the waist for life. he is best remembered for his staunch segregationist and populist views. Wallace opposed desegregation and supported the policies of "Jim Crow" during the Civil Rights Movement, declaring in his 1963 inaugural address that he stood for "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever". Wallace attended the University of Alabama School of Law, and served in United States Army Air Corps during World War II. After the war, he won election to the Alabama House of Representatives, and served as a state judge. Wallace first sought the Democratic nomination in the 1958 Alabama gubernatorial election. Wallace challenged sitting president Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1964 Democratic presidential primaries, but Johnson prevailed in the race. He remains the third longest serving governor in U.S. History. In a 1963 letter to a social studies teacher, Wallace stated they were inclined to criminality – especially "atrocious acts ... such as rape, assault and murder" – because of a high incidence of venereal disease. Desegregation, he wrote, would lead to "intermarriage ... and eventually our race will deterierate to that of the mongrel complexity."