Pay attention to your own statement here. Black leaders does not a people make. As much as you'd like to believe they do, they truly do not represent the African American opinion as much as you'd like to believe. They do love the white press/public as that is where they get that anointing. But I must tell you, it's not as solid a gauge as you might wish to believe.
Now as for George, he (and history) still has to live with that first impression that he left with many of the older African American generation. They are not as vocal as they need to be outside of the whispering circles. They live with a different credo. They don't openly complain and air the dirty laundry, feelings or emotions. Especially to white folks and the press. I am sure you can understand what that represents to them. Or maybe you can't. They will politely smile and quietly sit and stew on their disgust with an issue. And in that case, they still do!
You want me to research and look at him differently. You wish me to ignore his past transgressions? Not a chance. Forgive him for them, ok. But I still have to remember them and the pain and hurt for what it was. That's just reality. If I kick your teeth in and then say I am sorry you still will remember it for what it was. Even if I promise to never do it again. My becoming an excellent dentist won't change that fact either.
Black voters did what got them more funds. They learned how to use the system also. And just as he used them to get office, they used him to get funds. A parasite relationship that was enjoyed by most politicians of the south (actually everywhere). Don't read too much into the vote totals as a way to say they loved him. We do vote our wallets too you know?
I had relatives at Ole Miss and it still is an issue with them. My grandmother vividly remembers lynching in Mississippi from her youth. The horror is there after all these years. The scares still hurt.
Well, for many George represented a time of horror in this country. Rightly or not, that is a solid stain. Do you tell a Jewish person to move on and get over the Holocaust? I don't need to read about George, I can ask some of my older relatives how they feel about him.
And I don't have to hope that I'm not going to get the PC answer that you might get. You see you can write about it differently to reflect a softening attitude. But they lived it! You care not to write the pain because it won't reflect the change that you need to show. If you happen to write the true pain, the apology might not get enough credit.
You said that he was saddened by all that garbage? Who was a major player in all that garbage? A central figure slinging it everywhere he could. All the vile and hatred that came about was caused by who's hand in there? And who forced him to be that way again? Don't un-write history here. The rewrite comes further away from the whole truth and sanitizes your pallet a little too much.
I am sure that the elderly Alabama coalition of my family would differ with your adjustment of history also. The movie that I spoke of allowed a few of the active folks of the period to say what was on their minds. And as nice as they were, you saw and heard that they still hurt from that time.
The movie played his sorrowful apology. Right after it showed his statements of hatred made to spark the whole mess. Properly framing the period and the reasoning for all the apologies so that you knew why they were being made. And it also showed the elderly African American gentleman that actually became his caretaker. It's a DVD that you need to rent/buy.
You too can see the pain and rough edges of the people in the film as they react to his statements. They forgave, they just didn't forget! Nor will I.
Quote from claywilk:
I haven't seen the movie but I know that George Wallace did not have anything to do with that. He was a liberal at heart and proved it with his policies. Is why black leaders ( and black voters) embraced him. I'm sure some people not "in the know" were surely swayed by the politics he used getting elected. But the ones whose children were educated by his Junior Colleges and Trade Schools that werent available anywhere else understood. Knee-jerk Conservative Whites are too large of a voting block to buck, especially in the degregating South of the 1960's and 1970's. Do some real research on George Corley Wallace and look at him in a little different light and you will see an entirely different picture. His schoolhouse stand was a perfect example. He gave the nation what it needed in a dramatic performance where he delivered the students AND pacified the Nazi's. I'm sure you wouldn't have wanted what happened at Ole Miss to have happened at Bama would you? He knew what he was doing. He WAS a master. I am, and I am sure Governor Wallace was saddened by the fact that so many African Americans such as your grandparents were caught up in that garbage. Have you ever seen his apology for the things he did? Are you or your grandparents from Alabama?
