Page 4 Portland Observer, November 10, 1982
The Wallace story
EDITORIAL/OPINION
by Dr. Manning Marable
turally, nobody was thinking about
barely " ju s t did finish the sixth
race back then like they got to think
grade.” In public statements, he
O f all the opponents to blacks'
ing about it later, but it was s till
suggested that the U.S. was "m an
c iv il rights in the 1960s, none
considered very liberal o f him to es
euvered into fighting the enemies of
equalled George C. Wallace in racial
tablish this contact with the Negro
communism” in W orld War II.
hatred and demagoguery. Wallace
community. And he was real proud
Wallace regretted "fig h ting against
was the personification o f bigotry
o f this connection with Tuskegee;
those anti-Com m unist nations.
One o f the most significant results in the No
The only way to stop this madness is fo r the
and white supremacy. Yet on
he'd tell everybody about it. Any-
Hell, we should have been in those
vember 2nd election was largely overlooked in
people o f the U.S. to put an end to it. The in itia
September 29, 1982, the symbol o f
body’d said back then he would be
trenches with the Germans. . . fight-
the excitement over the defeat o f Measure 3, the
racism won an election in the Alaba
tive w ill serve as an example to other cities and
where he is today on the racial ques
in’ the Bolsheviks.”
ma
Democratic primary, and is like
narrow success o f Measure 51 and the fate o f fa
tio n , we'd o f thought they were
Wallace's sordid career in nation
states to fo llo w P o rtla n d ’ s exam ple. It also
ly to become governor o f that state
vorite candidates.
crazy."
al politics is quite familiar, and can
should enable the O regon L e g isla tu re to pass
for an unprecedented fourth term.
During his first decade in Alaba
be summarized b rie fly . In 1964,
Measure 7— the E l Salvador in itia tive — puts
legislation this season. A s im ila r b ill n a rro w ly
(Since this was written, Wallace did
ma
politics, Wallace established
1968 and 1972 he was a major factor
the people o f M u ltn o m a h C ounty on record as
lost in the House last session; the people’ s vote
win that governor’s race—Ed.J In a
himself on the left wing o f the Dem
in the presidential races. 9.9 million
opposing U.S. m ilita ry aid to El Salvador.
should give those legislators more courage.
narrow race w ith a progressive
ocratic Party on the race question.
Americans voted for him in an inde
This measure passed by an overwhelming 75.4
Democrat, Lieutenant Governor
C o n g ra tu la tio n s and th a n ks to the sm all
A genuine populist on economic is
pendent presidential campaign in
George McMillan, Wallace succeed
percent m a jo rity , an even larger m a jo rity than
sues, Wallace urged his white consti
1968, comprising 13.5 percent of the
group o f hard w o rking people who not only put
ed
in
carrying
a
third
o
f
the
state’s
tuents to consider the plight o f
the nuclear freeze in itia tiv e . The vote dem on
electorate. In the Democratic p ri
this measure on the ballot, fought in court fo r its
black voters, and by that margin
blacks in the same terms as their
mary elections o f 1972, he carried a
strates that the people o f Portland do not want
adm ission, and p u b licize d i t — but fo r several
won the election.
own.
A
fte
r
his
election
as
circuit
42
percent plurality in Florida, and
their tax money used to buy helicopters, bombs,
years have spent many hours bringing the El Sal
In the campaign, the overwhelm
judge, Wallace subsequently an
also won in Michigan and M ary
bullets and napalm to k ill the people o f El Salva
ing m ajority o f black elected o ff i
vador re v o lu tio n to public a tte n tio n , p ro vid in g
nounced his candidacy for governor
land. It is entirely possible that had
cials supported McMillan. But Wal
d o r — la rg e ly peasants w ith o u t edu cation o r
e d u c a tio n a l in fo r m a tio n , ra is in g m oney fo r
in 1958. His principal opponent was
Wallace not been shot and paral
lace was able to co-opt the majority
medical care who only want to live in peace and
a "stridently irreconcilable segrega
yzed during this campaign that he
m edica l su p p lie s, etc. T he y have show n th a t
o f conservative rural black preach
tio n is t,” John Patterson. When
security.
would have become (he Democratic
hard w o rk and persistence can bring success—
ers into his cause, who in turn urged
Patterson
accepted
the
support
o
f
party’s
Vice Presidential candidate,
T h ro u g h o u t the w o rld the people cal, fo r a
but the battle is far fro m won. A ll those citizens
their congregations to "fo rg e t the
the Ku Klux Kian, Wallace issued a
perhaps
w ith conservative Henry
halt to the massacre in El Salvador. Mexico and
w ho voted fo r Measure 7 need to contact C o n
past” and " t o forgive Wallace” by
sharp denunciation o f the racist
Jackson at the (op of the ticket. As
Venezuela have recommended talks between the
casting their support for him. When
gress and the Oregon Legislature to demand that
group. Endorsed by labor, Jewish
it was, Wallace’s focus returned to
Mrs. Corctta Scott King and other
guerillas and the government and its patron, the
U.S. involvem ent be stopped now.
organization and the state's
state politics. Retiring in 1979, after
c iv il rights activists stumped the
U.S. Cuba has recommended negotiation. The
N A A C P chapter, Wallace lost the
serving three terms as governor,
I f this is a democracy we live in the wishes o f
state for McM illan, black ministers
ru
n
-o
ff
election
to
Patterson
by
guerrillas have repeatedly offered to meet w ith
most black and progressive white
the people should mean so m e th in g .. . .
denounced her as "an outside agita
64,902
votes.
After
his
defeat,
Wal
Southerners
breathed a sigh o f relief
g ove rn m en t and U .S . representatives. Even
to r.” Incredibly, several majority-
lace informed his supporters: "John
—until
this
fall.
Deane H in to n , U.S. A m bassador to El Salva
black counties— the sites o f the
Patterson out-nigguhed me. And
I f it is possible to say anything
d o r, has charged the E l S alvador governm ent
bloodiest civil rights demonstrations
boys. I'm not goin’ to be out-nig positive about the Wallace legacy in
—cast majorities for Wallace. The
w ith failing to stop the more than 30,000 civilian
guhed again.”
The passage o f M easure 51 should d e m o n
Alabama, one must admit (hat his
former governor even received 30 to
murders by government endorsed right-wing ter
The
am
bitious
p
o
liticia
n
who
administration
carried out substan
s tra te to e v e ry o n e — in c lu d in g the P o rtla n d
40 percent o f the black vote in
once
told
friends
that
"we
just
can’t
rorist groups and the m ilitary.
tial
liberal
socio-economic
reforms
Police A sso cia tio n , the police a d m in is tra tio n ,
Montgomery, the state capital.
keep the colored folks down like we
in
the
state.
Compared
to
the
"New
In spite o f all o f this, U.S. m ilita ry aid con
and the M a y o r — th a t the people o f P o rtla n d
For outside civil rights observers,
been doin’ for years and years” sud South" governor o f Georgia, Jim
tinues and an increase is planned.
the renaissance o f Wallace is noth
w a n t som e type o f p o lice review c o m m itte e .
denly became a raving demagogue,
my Carter. Wallace was far more
The guerrillas, who represent the people, are
ing
short o f a political nightmare.
The narrowness o f the vote indicates that they
more outrageous than Bilbo, Patter progressive. In ten years, he estab
Such interpretations fail to take into
gaining in strength and eventually w ill win. The
son, Vardaman, and the entire mot lished 14 new ju n io r colleges, 15
are n o t to o h a p p y a b o u t the in v o lv e m e n t o f
account
Wallace’ s chameleon-like
only question is how many people w ill die first.
ley host o f racist leaders through trade schools, and greatly expanded
elected o ffic ia ls .
ability to reverse himself according
out
Southern history. In the elec the size of Alabama's social services
The E l S a lvad ora n gove rn m e n t w o u ld fa ll i f
The C o u n c il’ s firs t order o f business should
to the prevailing p o litic a l condi
tion
o f 1962, Wallace’ s entire cam to the poor. By 1976 the proportion
U.S. support were w ithdraw n— so the U.S. is d i
be to re tu rn the c itiz e n ’ s a u d it c o m m itte e to
tions. During the recent campaign,
paign denounced "carpetbaggin* ”
o f the state's labor force employed
rectly responsible fo r the bloodshed.
fo r instance, Wallace not only de
the citizens.
and "ra c e m ix in ’ . " Anyone who
by state government and social ser
fended Mrs. K in g ’ s right to cam
opposed him was "a nigguh-lover, a vice programs was 34 percent, the
paign against him, but also noted to
p in ko, or a com m unist.” He a t second highest ra tio in the U.S.
the press that "one or both of Mrs.
tacked liberals as "sissy-britches in Wallace's advocacy of social spend
King’ s elderly parents, who live in
tellectual morons,” and was swept
ing was a key factor in the 1982 elec
Marion, Alabama, planned to vote
into office as governor. At his in tion.
by Frank W. Goheen
sands from diseases that would not
modern world is an evil that only for him .”
auguration in January, 1963, Wal
But a more disturbing issue re
exist, or at least not exist as virulent
The brutal and senseless system o f
To understand Wallace’ s recent
Nazi Germany in the Second World
lace declared, "From this very heart
mains. While in office, Wallace in
ly,
in
the
areas
from
which
they
racial segregation and exploitation
W’ar and the Cambodian regime o f victory, it is necessary to review his
o f the great Anglo-Saxon South spired a reign o f lynchings, m u r
have been fo rcib ly removed. The
in the Republic o f South A frica ,
Prime Minister Pol Pot from 1975- political career over the past forty
land, in the name o f the greatest
ders, and police b ru ta lity against
zealous white enforcers o f the
known as apartheid, is not just the
to 1979 has ever equaled. Until such years. In the 1940s, Alabama was a
people that have trod this earth, I blacks. His epigones raped and
"in
flu
x
control”
programs
to
keep
sick conception o f a small group o f
time as the West removes its sup strictly segregated society. Yet the
say Segregation now! Segregation
bludgeoned blacks with legal im
blacks out o f the cities and the o ffi
theologians and politicians in the
port from the South A frica n gov state’s white electorate, in the tradi
tomorrow! Segregation forever!”
p unity, in the name o f white su
cials
who
want
to
keep
"w
h
ite
South A frica n Dutch community.
ernment, both military and econom tion o f Southern Populism, put into
From 1963-1967 and 1971-1979,
premacy. In a very real sense, Wal
South A frica w hite” do not care
M illions o f members o f the Dutch
ic, the world will be confronted with o ffic e a number o f relatively en
Wallace reigned as the state’s gover lace is responsible for the bombing
about the suffering they cause, for
Reformed Church believe im plicitly
public
o ffic ia ls .
a grave and present danger o f race lightened
nor; his first wife, Lurleen, was elec o f the Sixteenth Street Baptist
they can always return to their com
in the God-given right o f white
Compared
to
the
v
itrio
lic
dema
war on a massive scale in southern
ted to the post in 1966. During most Church in Birmingham in 1963,
fortable homes at night and never
South Africans to treat black South
A frica . C om forting words about gogues o f neighboring Mississippi,
o f these years, Wallace fostered
which killed four little black girls.
hear the cries and lamentations o f
Africans like slaves or worse. We
" r e fo rm ” o f apartheid have been particularly Theodore Bilbo, Alaba
what his biographer, Marshall Fra- After all the human sufferings, Wal
those
who
suffer.
Such
is
apartheid,
know that this is just the sort o f
said many times before since 1948, ma Senators Lister H ill and Hugo
dy, terms "a totalitarian society."
lace stands before the black elector
a system several b illio n dollars o f
treatment these devout and deter
yet the shackles holding down the 70 Black, and Governor James Folsom
Wallace "le ft Alabama with a single ate, asking for the remission o f his
American investments support and
mined white men and women have
percent black m ajority have never were infinitely better. They were all
provincial vision o f itself in the na bloody crimes.
fortify. We must not be fooled into
meted out to 20 m illion black men
been more locktight than now, and segregationists, but they advanced
tion and the w orld, and a single
As heirs to a rich tra d itio n o f
believing that the white South A fri
and women in South Africa.
never more destructive o f human economic programs which benefited
ruthless expectation for unanimity black faith and forgiveness, black
cans
w
ill
get
rid
o
f
apartheid
to
at
The rationale behind the system
life and dignity. O f all the nations of poor blacks and whites alike. W al
—not only in ideas but also in hab Alabamians should have replied:
tract investment, for it is the guar
of apartheid is that eventually each
the w orld, only the Republic o f lace firs t emerged as a protege o f
its, in morality, even in dress: most “ Yes, we can forgive you. And to
antee o f cheap labor and a docile
"n a tio n ” in South A fric a —the
South Africa has elevated racial dis- Folsom, winning election as a state
youngsters in Alabama classrooms show your commitment to us, we
work force that attracts business
white, Colored (mixed race), Asian,
criminatin to an official policy writ representative from rural Barbour
regarded any deviation from short will allow you to sweep the streets of
from America, B rita in , and other
and black—w ill have their own
ten into its laws and constitution. County. Wallace served as Folsom’s
hair and neatly pressed clothes as a B irm ingham ’ s black com m unity.
places, and that apartheid provides
homeland wherein they w ill rule
That the United States has formed a alter ego for a dozen years, manag
sign o f perversion.” Mein K am pf Or raise money for a black school;
in abundance.
' themselves. Magically, all racial ani
kind o f "axis” between Washington ing his successful re-election cam
became “ the Bible o f Alabam a,”
or work as an orderly in a rural
mosity w ill disappear because all
and Pretoria is the most tragic, and paign in southern Alabama in 1954.
and friends and foes o f Wallace black hospital. Wc forgive you, but
i races w ill live compeltely apart, or
for Americans, shameful, aspect of In return for his support, Wallace
drew parallels between the governor under no conditions will we entrust
so the theological seminaries and
the situation. Perhaps the news that asked Folsom to appoint him to the
and H itle r. Wallace gleefully ap you with our votes. Never again will
political caucuses o f the South A fri
a white man, Dr. Neil Hagget, who board o f trustees at Tuskegee Insti
pointed semi-literates into positions you be allowed to occupy the most
can Dutch, or Afrikaners, believe.
had attempted to organized black tute. " I t was considered a very liber
o f public responsibility, and minor positon o f civil authority over
A combination o f ideological zeal
There are undoubtedly white South
workers into a union, was tortured al move at the time,” one prominent
bragged openly that one o f his ap our lives. Wc can forgive: but we
for apartheid and the desire to make
Africans who really believe in this
and killed by the South African po white politician recalled later. "N a
pointees as a state college president will never forget. ’ ’
as much money as possible has
utopian and impossible conception,
lice, should awaken us to the fact
brought tragedy to one o f the
and like all true believers they are
that it is not just blacks who are lia
world’ s most beautiful countries. A
willing to do great wrongs to achieve
ble to feel the heavy and implacable
measure of/he tragedy can be found
their ends. Since 1960, 3 m illion
boot o f the South A frica n police.
(Continuedfrom page I column 6)
in just one statistic: the infant mor
black South A fricans have been
Since 1960, at least 60 prisoners
press.
tality
rate
for
whites
in
South
Africa
transported by force from “ white”
have been killed while in ja il for po South A fric a in attem pting to tie
In the meantime the U.S. and
U.S. Investment In
is 12 per 1,000 per year, while for
areas to desolate and poverty-strick
litic a l viewpoints, while over the N am ibian independence to w ith
South
Africa are solidifying their re
blacks it is over 250 per 1,000.
South
Africa
- w
drawal
of
Cuban
troops
from
neigh
en "homelands” where they, by the
same period the Pretoria regime has
lationship. A consular convention
Billions o< dollars
Among older black children the
boring
Angola.
Angolan
president
stroke o f a pen, cease to be South
had thousands o f common criminals
was signed in October that strength
mortality is mainly due to malnutri
A fricans and start to be Zulus,
hanged for offenses that would mer Jose Eduardo dos Santos has said
ens
protections to consular staffs of
tion, even though South A frica ex
Transkeians, or what have you. By
it only a few years in ja il in Ameri that Cuban troops w ill stay u n til
the
two countries—a step toward
ports
over
$2
billion
worth
o
f
food
Namibia is independent and South
eliminating all blaiks from the cate
ca.
normal
relations. L is t week the
A fric a withdraws its troops from
gory o f being South A fricans, the. per year. The food to save these
Time is running out for a peaceful
number
of
attaches of each govern
children is there, but the political
Namibia and from southern Ango
white South Africans are relieved of
solution in South A fric a , but the
ment
in
the
o th e r’ s country was
will to use it to save lives is not. Am
la. Although Gen. Vernon Walters
the onerous burden o f ever having
United States government thinks
brought
to
full
strength. President
erica and Western Europe approve
spent the summer attem pting to
to deal with black South A frican
that business as usual is the correct
Jimmy
Carter
had
an attache after
o f this situation de facto even if they
change Santos’ mind, South Africa
grievances.
approach to this ghastly human
the
death
o
f
Steve
Biko
in 1977 and
make
perfunctory
speeches
from
has done its part by launching re
The practical effect o f this inhu
tragedy. We can’ t wait any longer to
South
Africa
expelled
two
more and
time to time against it. Actions,
peated invasions o f Angola. The
man and draconian policy is to k ill
make our individual views heard by
reduced
their
staff
in
Washington.
such as withdraw ing investments,
United States continues to claim
black children, who are the weakest
our government. Apartheid must
The airplane that South A fric a
would speak much louder than mere
that
a "breakthrough” is imminent
and most helpless members o f the
cease to exist if there is to be any
.a.
claimed
was used by the attaches for
words.
but Angola and Cuba say this is
community, by the tens o f thou
•71 ’7» -7a *77
TS •■«
peace and security for Africa or for
spying
was
returned
to
the
U.S.
Em
propaganda spread by the Western
The existence o f apartheid in the
sands and the hundreds o f t h o u
the world.
Source I M i anm»nt ol Commute»
bassy in Pretoria.
El Salvador initiative success
Return board to citizens
Time running out for South Africa
Analysis
U.S. closer to South Africa
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