george corely wallace
governor of alabama
biography
George Wallace was educated at the University of Alabama, and having been an assistant attorney general of Alabama, a member of the state legislature, and a district court judge, Wallace was elected as governor, where he served from 1963 to 1967. In this position, he helped block the door of the University of Alabama to black students in 1963 but backed down when faced with federal troops.
Ineligible to succeed himself, his wife, Lurleen Burns Wallace, ran for governor in his place in 1966 and was elected. Wallace sought the United States presidency in 1968 as a candidate of the American Independent Party, running on antidesegregation issues, respect for law and order, and freedom from excessive federal control. In the end, he received 13.5 percent of the popular vote and 46 electoral votes from Southern states.
Once again, Wallace was elected governor of Alabama in 1970. On May 15, 1972, while campaigning for the Democratic party presidential nomination, he was shot while speaking in Laurel, Maryland by Arthur H. Bremer. Wllace, paralyzed, was later reelected governor of Alabama. On leaving office in 1979, he took post at the University of Alabama in 1982 and declared his retirement in January 1987.
