In a nutshell: The fiftieth anniversary of George Wallace’s 1963 inaugural address provides an opportunity for teachers to explore the painful and difficult history of civil rights.
Fifty years ago this week, Gov. George Wallace, Republican of Alabama, delivered his infamous defense of segregation from the steps of the Alabama State Capitol.
“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, segregation forever.”
Wallace’s inaugural speech was a turning point in white segregationist opposition to the burgeoning civil rights movement. Dan T. Carter, Wallace’s biographer, discussed the importance of the speech on AL.com. “Words matter and the speech was a kind of raw, unbridled attack on the enemies of Alabama as [speechwriter Asa] Carter and Wallace saw them: federal judges, the Kennedys, the U.S. Justice Department and civil rights groups.”
The fiftieth anniversary of George Wallace’s 1963 inaugural address provides an opportunity for teachers to explore the painful and difficult history of civil rights, including the history of segregation in the United States and its basis in racism and ideas about white supremacy. This milestone anniversary of a historic racist speech dovetails nicely, from a pedagogical perspective, with the death this week of Eugene C. Patterson, renowned as a white Southern voice of opposition to racism at the height of the civil rights struggle (covered on Pedagogishness earlier this week).