Реферат: George Wallace Essay Research Paper Former Gov
cynical use of a sick woman. But he was only shifting gears. He reclaimed
the governorship in 1970 with the most flagrantly racist campaign of his
career, warning that his progressive opponent, Albert Brewer, was using a
black “block vote” to install a regime of federal oppression. With
Wallace’s clear approval, the Klan circulated fliers falsely accusing the
clean-living Brewer and his wife and daughters of sexual perversions and
miscegenation.
It was a historic election for Alabama in two ways. First, Alabama was
resisting the epochal progressive wave that swept the region in 1970 and
installed New South governors like Jimmy Carter in Georgia and Reubin
Askew in Florida. Secondly, Wallace openly committing himself to the
presidential race track.
By Wallace’s reckoning, his appeal to blue-collar voters outside the South
had “shaken the eyeteeth” of both major parties in 1968. Indeed, President
Nixon so feared Wallace’s disruptive potential in 1972 that he supplied
$400,000 to Wallace’s opponent in the 1970 campaign for governor. But
Wallace won with his racist attacks and his invitation to Alabamians to
“send them a message” by launching him toward the 1972 presidential race.
For a few months, Wallace was the hottest thing going. Gone were the
pomaded hair and the bargain-store threads. His stylish new wife, Cornelia
Ellis Snively, a niece of former Governor Folsom, decked out Wallace in
modish, wide-lapel suits and taught him to use a blow dryer. Wallace
talked less about race because he could afford to. His attacks on school
busing let conservative whites know where he stood.
As Wallace moved toward victory in the Florida primary, Nixon himself made
an anti-busing speech that was regarded as a tribute to Wallace’s growing
appeal. Wallace finished second behind Sen. George McGovern in the
Wisconsin primary and second to former Vice President Hubert Humphrey in
Indiana. Having established himself as a force in the Democratic Party, he