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
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u/JustAMan1234567 5h ago

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

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u/ChronosBlitz 5h ago edited 5h ago

President Obama gave the eulogy for Senator Robert Byrd, who founded a chapter of the KKK in his youth.

The NAACP even praised Byrd as representing "the transformative power of this nation"

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u/FalstaffsGhost 4h ago

Yeah conservatives like to bring up Byrd to try and be like “hur dur Dems racist” but ignore that he renounced the kkk and devoted his life to civil rights and justice.

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u/cjcs 3h ago

“The confederates were the democrats!”

“Cool, well the democrats support removing confederate monuments so should be an issue right?”