It was at the University of Alabama that he crossed paths with future political adversary Frank Minis Johnson Jr., who would go on to become a prominent liberal federal judge.

In a 1963 letter to a social studies teacher, Wallace stated they were inclined to criminality – especially "atrocious acts ... such as rape, assault and murder" – because of a high incidence of venereal disease.

As noted above, Democratic dominance had been achieved by disenfranchising most blacks and many poor whites in the state for decades, which lasted until years after federal civil rights legislation was passed in 1964 and 1965.[how?]

Wallace took the oath of office on January 14, 1963, standing on the gold star marking the spot where, nearly 102 years earlier, Jefferson Davis was sworn in as provisional president of the Confederate States of America.

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy's administration ordered the U.S. Army's 2nd Infantry Division from Fort Benning, Georgia to be prepared to enforce the racial integration of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

In a vain attempt to halt the enrollment of black students Vivian Malone and James Hood, Governor Wallace stood in front of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama on June 11, 1963.

Wallace and his aides sought to determine if Barry M. Goldwater, the forthcoming Republican presidential nominee who as a senator from Arizona had voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on libertarian and constitutional grounds, would advocate repeal of the law, particularly the public accommodations and equal employment sections.

Bill Jones indicated that Wallace agreed with Goldwater's anti-communist stance but opposed the Republican's proposal to make Social Security a voluntary program.

It was later disclosed that Wallace proposed at the meeting with Martin to switch parties if he could be named as Goldwater's running-mate, a designation later given to U.S. Representative William E. Miller of New York.

The Republican tide also brought to victory five Republican members of the United States House of Representatives, including William Louis Dickinson, who held the Montgomery-based district seat until 1993, and James D. Martin, the Gadsden oil products dealer who defeated then State Senator George C. Hawkins for the U.S. House seat formerly held by Carl Elliott.

In the Democratic primary, she defeated two former governors, Jim Folsom and John M. Patterson, Attorney General Richmond Flowers Sr., and former U.S. Representative Carl Elliott.

He felt somewhat vindicated when Republicans in Idaho denied renomination in 1966 to Governor Robert E. Smylie, author of the article entitled "Why I Feel Sorry for Lurleen Wallace".

"[46] Richard Nixon feared that Wallace might split the conservative vote and allow the Democratic nominee, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, to prevail.

[47] In Wallace's 1998 obituary, The Huntsville Times political editor John Anderson summarized the impact from the 1968 campaign: "His startling appeal to millions of alienated white voters was not lost on Richard Nixon and other Republican strategists.

First Nixon, then Ronald Reagan, and finally George Herbert Walker Bush successfully adopted toned-down versions of Wallace's anti-busing, anti-federal government platform to pry low- and middle-income whites from the Democratic New Deal coalition.

"[23] Dan Carter, a professor of history at Emory University in Atlanta, added: "George Wallace laid the foundation for the dominance of the Republican Party in American society through the manipulation of racial and social issues in the 1960s and 1970s.

Wallace retracted the invitation, and (after considering Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Colonel Harland Sanders)[46] chose former Air Force General Curtis LeMay of California.

His four-star military rank, experience at Strategic Air Command and presence advising President Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis were considered foreign-policy assets to the Wallace campaign.

[51] Indeed, at least one case has been documented of the pro-Nazi[52] and white supremacist[53] Liberty Lobby distributing a pro-Wallace pamphlet entitled "Stand up for America" despite the campaign's denial of such a connection.

[55] In 1970, Wallace sought the Democratic nomination against incumbent governor Albert Brewer, who was the first gubernatorial candidate since Reconstruction to seek African American voter support.

[56] Although in the 1966 gubernatorial election then state Attorney General Richmond Flowers championed civil rights for all and, with the support of most of Alabama's black voters, finished second in the Democratic primary.

[58] In what later U.S. President Jimmy Carter called "one of the most racist campaigns in modern southern political history",[58] Wallace aired television advertising with slogans such as "Do you want the black bloc electing your governor?"

[57] Wallace, whose presidential ambitions would have been destroyed by a defeat for governor, has been said to have run "one of the nastiest campaigns in state history", using racist rhetoric while proposing few new ideas.

Wallace resumed his gubernatorial duties and easily won the 1974 primary and general election, when he defeated Republican State Senator Elvin McCary, a real estate developer from Anniston, who received less than 15% of the ballots cast.

During Wallace's final term as governor (1983–1987) he appointed a record number of black Americans to state positions,[81] including, for the first time, two as members in the cabinet.

In 1961, in keeping with the practice of many at the time to shield patients from discussion of cancer, which was greatly feared, Wallace had withheld information from her that a uterine biopsy had found possibly precancerous cells.

[85] Wallace continued to make campaign stops nationwide during Lurleen's last weeks of life and persistently lied to the press about her condition, claiming in April 1968 that "she has won the fight" against cancer.

[86] After Lurleen's death in 1968, the couple's younger children, aged 18, 16, and 6, were sent to live with family members and friends for care (their eldest daughter had already married and left home).

[92] Wallace eventually apologized and met with Vivian Malone Jones and James Hood, the black students who he had attempted to block from integrating the University of Alabama via the Stand in the Schoolhouse Door.

Wallace praised her during the award presentation the next day, saying "Vivian Malone Jones was at the center of the fight over states' rights and conducted herself with grace, strength and, above all, courage.