Governor Wallace inherited a prosperous Alabama from Governor Folsom. And like Governor Folsom, he was a popular governor. However, the Ku Klux Klan, not content with having four more years of having a racial moderate. They thought if, more moderates were put into Montgomery every four years, it would spark the end of an institution which has existed for nearly a century.
They weren’t going to let Wallace, whom they called a “Puppet for Yankees and Niggers”, change anything about Alabama. The White Citizen’s council and the KKK gained membership. Governor Wallace was worried at the increasing strength of both these groups, and thought that they might make his Governorship into a living hell and make him get nothing done.
However, when an African-American church was bombed in Birmingham, the KKK began to lose members. However, segregationists were still in the Alabama Government, giving Wallace little power to pass some of his legislation.
The issue of Segregation was taken off the table for a little while after President Eisenhower died of a stroke on December 27th, 1959. Leading to President Nixon
The issue of segregation was bought back on the table when, on May 4th, 1961, the Freedom Riders movement began. When Boynton v Virginia ruled Bus segregation unconstitutional, the Southern States didn’t care and the government did absolutely nothing to enforce it. The Freedom riders began as a movement to challenge the status quo by putting Whites & Blacks in the same bus.
The ride started in Alabama. Birmingham, to be exact. Police Commissioner Bull Connor and Police Sergeant Tom Cook organized violence against the Freedom riders, with the help of the Klan.
As more violence, beatings, and even bus burnings continued against the Freedom Riders in Alabama Governor Wallace gave a speech, which put the blame on the failure of Law Enforcement in Alabama, which gave him a lot more enemies.
When a mob began at Ralph Abernathy’s 1st Baptist Church, which was honoring the Freedom riders, Governor Wallace dispatched the National Guard. The mob dispersed.
When more Freedom Riders from the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) arrived in Montgomery, the Nixon administration arranged a deal with the governors of Alabama and Mississippi. The governors agreed that state police and the National Guard would protect the Riders from mob violence. In return, the federal government would not intervene to stop local police from arresting Freedom Riders for violating segregation ordinances when the buses arrived at the depots (However, this only occurred in Mississippi, as Wallace had no problem with the Federal Government intervening to stop local police from arresting Freedom Riders).[1]
On May 24th, the Freedom Riders left for Mississippi. “Finally” said Governor Wallace, “It’s their problem now”
While Civil rights played a large role in Wallace’s administration, Wallace managed to put forward some legislation which helped Schools and labor unions.
After the 1958 election, educational leaders approached Wallace. Schools were in physical disrepair and suffered from poor curricula and teaching qualifications throughout the state. Many school districts had lost or were about to lose their accreditation and important university programs faced loss of accreditation because of inadequate facilities and equipment. The "salvation" plan devised by Wallace was presented to a special session of the legislature. It called for a $75 million bond issue for construction with two-thirds of the money going to K-12 and one-third to higher education. Wallace also developed a review mechanism to ensure that construction projects receiving the monies reflected the priority needs of each school system. Another set of measures sought to raise revenues for general operations through $42 million in new taxes.[2]
Governor Wallace also put some populist legislation into law, such as Old-Age pensions and farm aid
Wallace, like many before him, was barred from seeking a second consecutive term. Wallace tapped an ally, Alabama state senator Albert Brewer, to run in the primary. Bull Connor, on the other hand, thinks he can win as the segregationist candidate, and as expected, there are multiple other candidates as well.
[1]=abridged from Wikipedia, but modified slightly
[2]=abridged from the Encyclopedia of Alabama’s page on John Patterson, but modified slightly