9 BOMBINGHAM
Standing in the Door:
The vow of Alabama gov-
ernor George Wallace to
block black students from
enrolling at the University
of Alabama in 1963.
Sherrod, Charles(1939
- ): SNCC organizer of
the Albany Movement.
A
fter World War II, George Wallace launched his political career in
Alabama as a progressive Democrat who protected the poor and
avoided race-baiting. But when state attorney general John Patterson
bested him for governor with the klan vote, the former bantamweight box-
ing champion vowed never to be ‘out-nigguhed’ again. In his second guber-
natorial bid, Wallace underwent a dramatic metamorphosis, pledging to
cheering crowds that he would stand in every schoolhouse doorin the
state to defy desegregation. At his inauguration in 1963, Wallace breathed
racial fire: ‘In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth,
I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny and
I say, segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!’ Martin
Luther King regarded Wallace as the ‘most dangerous racist in America today.
...I am not sure that he believes all the poison he preaches, but he is artful
enough to convince others that he does.’ Within six months, Wallace and
his supporters lost two key rounds to the civil rights movement – one in
Birmingham, the other in Tuscaloosa.
At first, it appeared that the movement might not get off the ground in
Alabama because of a notable failure in Albany, a peanut and pecan com-
munity in southwest Georgia. In the fall, 1961, two scruffy SNCC organizers
and veteran freedom riders arrived to challenge segregation and job discrim-
ination head on. Charles Sherrod, a young Baptist preacher from Virginia,
and his 18-year-old companion, Cordell Reagon of Nashville, aimed at
mobilizing the entire black community, especially students at Albany State
College and the high school. Pushed by SNCC, the NAACP and other lead-
ing groups formed a partnership called the Albany Movement, which was
led by William Anderson, an osteopath and drugstore owner, and Slater
King, a realtor.
In November, hundreds of eager students were arrested for staging sit-ins
at bus and train stations that ignored the ICC’s order to desegregate. At their
first mass meeting, local blacks heard the testimony of students who survivedAlbany Movement:
SNCC’s stalemated cam-
paign in Albany, Georgia.