George Wallace to head the Alabama Highway Patrol, which he led until 1965 during turbulent years marked by marches and demonstrations that characterized the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S.
His anger was not limited to Blacks and "his own recruits learned to stay out of his path; he was a dangerously unstable man ...."[2] Lingo was reportedly a member of the Ku Klux Klan[3] and was widely seen as a Klan-sympathizer.
[4] Lingo was described by The New York Times editorial page editor Howell Raines as "an addled racist"[5] who derailed the state of Alabama's investigation into the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing due to either incompetence or in order to protect Robert Chambliss.
After the motel and the home of King's brother were bombed on May 12, 1963, authorities and civil rights leaders at first struggled to control conflict in the streets.
The operation was used to intimidate, blackmail or otherwise discredit several Black applicants who would have desegregated the University of Alabama, but failed when investigators, acting on the orders of Wallace, could find nothing useful in the history or family backgrounds of Vivian Malone and James Hood.