(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Forgive Donald Trump? What we can learn from George Wallace, Shirley Chisholm and History. [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-28 George Wallace Stands in the Schooll House Door On June 11, 1963 George Wallace, Governor of Alabama announced his intention to stand in the school house door and not let Blacks enter the University of Alabama. Wallace did stand in the School House Door. Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard and Wallace faced a forceful removal. Wallace stepped aside. The students seeking entrance to the University of Alabama were the clear winners of the moment. Vivian Jones, one of those students stated: “I didn’t feel I should sneak in. I didn’t feel I should have to go around to the back door. If Wallace were standing in the door, I had every right in the world to face him and go to school”. Perhaps the real winner was George Wallace. He became the face of racism to the American Public and ran for President five times. His presence on the ballot in 1968 would have a significant impact. George Wallace did not enter politics hating Blacks. Before his first campaign for office Wallace stated, “You know, we just can’t keep the colored folks down like we doing around here for years and years.” “We got to start treating them right, like everyone else.” Wallace lost his first campaign for office. In response to his loss Wallace stated about his opponent, John Patterson, “he out niggaherred me.” Wallace would not let that happen again. Wallace sacrificed his beliefs, his integrity, to win a political campaign. In 1982 George Wallace once again ran for Governor of Alabama. The man who had stated in his 1963 inauguration speech: “Segregation Now, Segregation Tomorrow, and Segregation Forever” in his first inauguration speech, captured 90% of the Black vote in the 1982 election. How could this have happened, and what should we learn from it? George Wallace was shot while campaigning for President in 1972. The day after being shot, he won the Maryland and Michigan Primaries. He was also victorious in North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina. The attempted assassination of Wallace ended his viable campaign. He was paralyzed from the waist down, would spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair and in pain from nerve damage. This assassination attempt did not change the world, but it did change George Wallace, not because of him, but because of what the Black candidate in the race did. Shirley Chisholm, a Black woman was also running for President in the Democratic Party. She suspended her campaign to go visit George Wallace in the hospital. I imagine the tension in the hospital when Chisholm came to visit Wallace was palpable. Even Chisholm’s campaign aides were furious over this. Wallace was governor of Alabama when dogs were set loose on Children. Wallace was the Governor who stood in the schoolhouse door denying Blacks a college education. Wallace was the Governor of Alabama on Bloody Sunday when John Lewis and so many others were beaten crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Wallace was the Governor of Alabama who screamed in his thick southern accent: Segregation Now, Segregation tomorrow, Segregation forever.” Why did Chisholm do this? Responding to her campaign aide Chisholm replied: “C’mon now, you’re working with me in my campaign, helping me,” she said. “But sometimes we have to remember we’re all human beings, and I may be able to teach him something, to help him regain his humanity, to maybe make him open his eyes to make him see something that he has not seen.” And that is exactly what happened. Wallace’s daughter reports: “When Congresswoman Chisholm sat by my daddy’s bed, he asked her, “What are your people going to say about your coming here?” Shirley Chisholm replied, “I know what they’re going to say but I wouldn’t want what happened to you to happen to anyone.” Daddy was overwhelmed by her truth, and her willingness to face the potential negative consequences of her political career because of him — something he had never done for anyone else.” In 1979 George Wallace went to church: Not just any church, but to the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery – where Martin Luther King Jr. pastored in the 1950s. The visit was supposedly unannounced, not a media choreographed event. And Wallace spoke: “I have learned what suffering means. In a way that was impossible {before the shooting}, I think I can understand something of the pain black people have come to endure. I know I contributed to that pain, and I can only ask your forgiveness.” Chisholm succeeded. There is a lesson here. One beyond reality, but real it is. Can history repeat itself. Should we forgive Trump if he admits the truth, and apologizes? Well, Trump won’t do that, so we have no choice: Lock him up, but what if… [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/28/2155268/-Forgive-Donald-Trump-What-we-can-learn-from-George-Wallace-Shirley-Chisholm-and-History Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/