George Wallace

George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician and lawyer who was the 45th and longest-serving governor of Alabama (1963–1967; 1971–1979; 1983–1987), and the longest-serving governor from the Democratic Party. Wallace unsuccessfully sought the presidential nomination as a Democrat three times, and once with the American Independent Party, in which he carried five states in the 1968 presidential election, resulting in a rare moment not seen since the 1948 presidential election where a third party managed to secure electoral seats independent of the de-facto 'two-party system' of the United States. Born in Clio, Alabama, Wallace was fascinated with politics from age ten. In 1935, he won a contest to serve as a page in the Alabama Senate, and confidently predicted that he would one day be governor. After earning a Bachelor of Laws at the University of Alabama School of Law, he served in the United States Army Air Force 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. Initially a moderate on racial issues, Wallace adopted a hard-line segregationist stance after losing the 1958 nomination. Wallace ran for governor again in 1962, and won the race. In his first term, seeking to stop the racial integration of the University of Alabama, Wallace earned national notoriety by standing in front of the entrance of the University of Alabama, blocking the path of black students. He left office when his first term expired in 1967 due to term limits. His wife, Lurleen, won the 1966 election and succeeded him, with him as the de facto governor. His period of influence ended when Lurleen died of cancer in May 1968;...