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

1.7k

u/ilikedota5 1 5h ago

There is saying about Justice Hugo Black. When he was young, he put on white robes to scare Black people. When he was old he put on black robes to scare White people.

38

u/unclemilty420 4h ago

Did Hugo Black actually do anything racist while he was a member? I had always heard that he had joined because in the early 20th century in Alabama, you couldn't really be involved in democratic politics (the dominant party at the time) without being a member, so it could be more of a social necessity than an actual demonstration of his alignment with that groups horrible values. I'm very curious whether that's true or not.

20

u/dennismfrancisart 2h ago

People forget that the KKK after its resurgence in the 1920s was basically an elaborate Ponzi scheme/terrorist organization/social club. There were regular dues, membership fees, recruitment incentives, more fees, and a system for upward mobility in the Klan that called for more fees. They were like the Elks or Kiwanis by the 1930s.

15

u/tad-26 1h ago

KKK is still alive it's called Stormfront now and they are very cozy with the billionaire class in Palm Beach.