Biographer describes background of Wallace’s segregation speech
Published: Friday, January 18, 2013 at 3:30 a.m. Last Modified:
Thursday, January 17, 2013 at 11:31 p.m. MONTGOMERY | The year
1963 marked a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement, with
events in Alabama at the forefront. The year began with new Gov.
George C. Wallace’s Jan. 14 “segregation now, segregation
tomorrow, segregation forever” speech. The year included
Wallace’s infamous “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door” in June at
the segregated University of Alabama, where the governor
symbolically opposed a federal order to enroll two blacks
students. In September, four black girls were killed when
dynamite was detonated at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in
Birmingham. On Thursday at the Alabama Department of Archives
and History’s Architreats program, Wallace biographer and
historian Dan Carter explained the background of Wallace’s
speech, which contained major contributions by the late racist,
libertarian and anti-communist writer Asa Cart