(2 of 2) Governor George C. Wallace – State Rights

Via: Alabama Department of Archieves and History

On June 11, 1963, Alabama’s Governor George Wallace came to national prominence when he kept a campaign pledge to stand in the schoolhouse door to block integration of Alabama public schools. Governor Wallace read this proclamation when he first stood in the door-way to block the attempt of two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, to register at the University of Alabama. President John F. Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard, and ordered its units to the university campus.

Wallace then stepped aside and returned to Montgomery allowing the students to enter.

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 “I stand here today, as Governor of this sovereign State, and refuse to willingly submit to illegal usurpation of power by the Central Government. I claim today for all the people of the State of Alabama those rights reserved to them under the Constitution of the United States.”

http://www.archives.state.al.us/govs_list/schooldoor.html

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personal thought:

I think if the current ‘Roberts Court’ had been the ‘court at that time’; we’d still have segregated schools, and ‘COLORED’ drinking fountains.

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