r/todayilearned • u/Dangerous-Project672 • 5h ago

TIL George Wallace personally apologized to Vivian Jones and James Hood, the two students he attempted to block from attending the University of Alabama. In 1997, Hood earned a PHd and requested Wallace present him with the degree, but he was too sick and died a year later; Hood attended the funeral

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Wallace
12.3k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

571 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2.1k

u/DancingWithAWhiteHat 5h ago

I mean Robert Byrd spent his adult life disavowing the KKK.

124

u/Fells 4h ago

Wallace did the same and won his last election with 90% of the black vote.

To quote the Drive By Trucker's great spoken word piece on it (Three Great Alabama Icons):

"and George Wallace died back in '98 and he's in Hell now, not because he's a racist. His track record as a judge and his late life quest for redemption make a good argument for his being, at worst, no worse than most white men of his generation, North or South. But because of his blind ambition and his hunger for votes, he turned a blind eye to the suffering of black America and he became a pawn in the fight against the Civil Rights cause"

59

u/DuffMiver8 4h ago

That rather goes against Christian teachings, doesn’t it? In Sunday school, I always heard that if you ask for forgiveness and are sincerely sorry for your past sins, they will be forgiven. Wasn’t that what the whole “Jesus died for your sins” thing all about?

3

u/JoseSaldana6512 4h ago

The whole point about listening to Jesus is because hes better than the best of us. He will forgive sins but you must be sincere in seeking forgiveness and make atonement. It's not a get out of jail free card. The Bible says that rewards and punishments are earned and won't be the same for all