An Indian tale

There are things can drive you nuts. But India politics can drive you crazy. But don't think that it originated in India. Here is one story that any Indian observer can relate to. This is about former Governor of Alabama, George Wallace. Maybe some of you heard of him. The man who said "Segregation today, Segregation Tomorrow, and Segregation Forever." Ordering police to beat on Martin Luther King and civil rights demonstrators during the 60's. But this man is from the United States of America. Yes, I know but his story is an Indian story.

Believe it or not, George was actually a liberal out of law school. When he ran for governor in 1958, he supported the NAACP. But his opponent, John Patterson, had support from the KKK and won the election. Patterson as Attorney General got the NAACP out of Alabama. Then as governor, he tried to send Martin Luther King to jail on tax evasion, and the Freedom Riders out of Alabama. George realized that people in Alabama cared about race more than roads, education, and the future. So when he ran for governor in 1962 (Alabama was a one term state), he played the race card and won on the segregation platform.

As governor, he was responsible for the church bombing which killed four black girls and other racial crimes in Alabama. But in 1966 due to the one term policy, he couldn't run for governor. However, because white Alabamans loved his attitude on race, they were willing to elect his wife, Lurleen, a homemaker over the 1958 winner, John Patterson. She married George straight out of high school at 16 years old. They met a store where she was a cashier. With Lurleen as governor, George ran state government behind close doors. George or Lurleen passed laws for allowing more than two terms.

Unfortunately for Lurleen, she was holding a secret. She had been fighting cancer for 5 years due to the pregnancy of her last child when a doctor noticed a growth in her tissue. At the time, the man was told first of his wife's condition. George insisted on not telling his wife the diagnosis. Four years later, she visited a gynecologist for abnormal bleeding and the doctor's diagnosis of cancer was a complete shock to her. She was particularly outraged at George when a staffer told her that he knew her diagnosis in 1962.

Despite the cancer, she ran a full campaign and made a 24 minute inauguration speech promising to uphold her husband's political platform. Meanwhile, she was going through radiation treatments and a hysterectomy before the campaign started. She would have to go to Houston, Texas for her treatments because Alabama didn't have a center. Her life would end on May 7,1968 and lieutenant governor, Albert Brewer would finish her term. He lost in the 1970 Democratic run-off to George who ran a brutal racial campaign on Albert and his family. In her short term, Lurleen pushed funding for the developmentally disabled and state parks in Alabama. In finishing her term, Brewer established a cancer research center at the University of Alabama Birmingham in her name.

In the end, George "changed" his attitude after he got shot and paralyzed in the 1972Presidential campaign. He asked for forgiveness of his racial past by going to NAACP meetings and black churches. In his last term of governor (1983-1987), he appointed a racially diverse government. As for his 1958 and 1966 opponent, John Patterson, he endorsed Barack Obama. Later on, both men said that they had run on a segregation platform to hold office at that time. They also mentioned about the good things and the changes that came about in due time. However, all this would not have happened without Lurleen Wallace.