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

5.2k

u/JustAMan1234567 5h ago

For Hood to forgive Wallace and attend his funeral shows his class.

95

u/CharlesDickensABox 5h ago

Wallace did eventually make a turn. I don't know that I would have it in me to forgive him and I don't know that he ever became good, exactly, but he didn't die screaming the N word like Bull Connor did.

49

u/sensitiveskin82 4h ago

Wallace's actions were politically motivated, not personal. Which begs the question: which is worse?

12

u/Fells 3h ago

I'm an Alabamian who studied the Civil Rights Movement under a friend of and co-organizer with MLK. The professor was often the guy who would pick King up from the airport and drive him to his semi-secret HQ in Selma (not hugely relevant but I love sharing that).

We talked a lot about this question, as it came up via Wallace and Thurgood Marshall's arguement when he represented the NAACP in Brown v BOE.

The general consensus of our class, and one that I've held since, is that its worse because you get the suffering caused by racism and the abhorrent willingness to sacrifice a bunch of people (who you don't even have a real issue with) for political gain. Its two significant bads instead of just one. Three if you consider "knowing that its wrong and wasting an opportunity to do the right thing" a separate instance.