Lurleen Wallace
Encyclopedia
Lurleen Brigham Wallace born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama
, was the 46th Governor of Alabama from 1967 until her death in 1968. She was the first wife of Alabama
Governor George Wallace
, whom she succeeded as governor. She succeeded her husband as he was forbidden by Alabama law to succeed himself. She was Alabama's first, and to date, only female governor. She was also the first and so far only female governor in U.S. history to die in office.
’s Five and Dime
in Tuscaloosa, where she met George Wallace. At the time he was a member of the U.S. Army Air Corps. They were married on May 21, 1943 when she was 16.
Over the next 20 years, she focused on being a mother and a homemaker. She and her husband had four children. They were Bobbi Jo (1944) Parsons, Peggy Sue (1950) Kennedy, George III (1951), and Janie Lee (1961) Dye, who was named after Robert E. Lee
. George Wallace's political career and neglect of his family resulted in his wife filing for divorce in the late 1950s; she later dropped the suit.
Mrs. Wallace assumed her duties as First Lady
of Alabama in 1963 after her husband was elected governor. She opened the first floor of the governor's mansion to the public seven days a week. She also refused to serve alcoholic beverages at official functions.
. He could have easily won a second term in 1966 had he been eligible to stand for one. In Alabama (as in many states at the time), governors were not allowed to serve two consecutive terms. This provision was incorporated in the current state constitution
in 1901.
Wallace got around this problem on two fronts. First, Wallace worked for the repeal of the term limiting provision. Second, Wallace devised a plan in which his wife, Lurleen, would run for governor while he continued to exercise the authority of the office behind the scenes, duplicating the strategy in which Ma Ferguson won the 1924 election for governor in Texas
.
Wallace's attempt to change the succession rule before the 1966 campaign failed. He eventually succeeded in getting the term limit repealed, however, and would go on to serve three more terms, two of them consecutive. However, using his wife as his electoral surrogate succeeded, and Mrs. Wallace won the Democratic
nomination for governor in 1966. In those days, the Democratic nomination was tantamount to election
in Alabama, and she was inaugurated in January 1967. To assuage voters who might have been concerned about the transfer of power, she stated that her husband would be her "#1 assistant".
Mrs. Wallace made her gubernatorial run carrying a tragic secret: she had been diagnosed with cancer as early as April 1961, when her surgeon biopsied suspicious tissue he noticed during the cesarean delivery of her last child. As was common at the time, her physician told her husband, not her. George Wallace insisted that Lurleen not be informed. As a result, she did not get appropriate follow-up care. When she saw a gynecologist for abnormal bleeding in 1965, his diagnosis of uterine cancer came as a complete shock to her. When one of her husband's staffers carelessly revealed to her that Wallace had discussed her cancer with them, but not her, during his 1962 campaign three years earlier, she was outraged.
In order to facilitate his plan to use her as a surrogate candidate in 1966, Mrs. Wallace cooperated with a campaign of dissimulation and misdirection as she began radiation therapy
in December, 1965. This was followed by a hysterectomy in January 1966. Despite her ill health, Mrs. Wallace maintained a brutal campaign schedule throughout 1966 and gave a 24-minute speech her longest ever at her January 1967 inauguration.
Early in her term, Mrs. Wallace's condition began to deteriorate. In June 1967, an abdominal
growth was found. During surgery on July 10, this proved to be an egg-sized malignancy on her colon. She endured a second course of radiation therapy as a followup. In January 1968, after extensive testing, she informed her staff (but not the public) that she had a cancerous pelvic tumor which was pressing on the nerves of her back down through her right hip. Even with the prior surgeries on her uterus and colon, and despite the radiation treatment, the cancer
spread.
Her last public appearance as governor was at the 1967 Blue-Gray Football Classic
, followed by a campaign appearance for her husband's presidential bid on the American Party
ticket on January 11, 1968. Her illness was obvious and worsening. The pelvic tumor was removed in late February. This was followed by surgery to treat an abdominal abscess
, and in late March 1968, more surgery to dissolve a blood clot in her left lung. By April, the cancer was in her liver and lungs, and she weighed less than eighty pounds.
Her husband, George Wallace, persistently lied to the press about her condition, claiming in April 1968 that "she has won the fight" against cancer. He continued to make campaign stops nationwide during her last weeks of life, but her doctors warned him she was in unstable condition on May 5, the day he was to leave for a Michigan sweep. At her request, he cancelled a television appearance May 6, when she was too ill to be moved back to the hospital. Lurleen Wallace died in Houston, Texas
, at 12:34 a.m. May 7, 1968, with her husband beside her and the rest of her family, including her parents, just outside her room.
Lurleen Wallace lay in state in the Capitol building on May 8, and 21,000 mourners waited as long as five hours to view her silver casket. Despite her emphatic pre-need planning request for a closed casket, her widower insisted that her body be on view, with a glass bubble over the open part of the coffin. The day of her funeral, May 9, all public and private schools closed, all state offices closed, and most businesses closed or had abbreviated hours. She was buried in Greenwood Cemetery.
At the time of her funeral, George Wallace had moved out of the governor's mansion and back to a home they bought in Montgomery
in 1967. He did not take his children, ages 18, 16, and 6, with him. They were sent to live with family members and friends. (Their eldest daughter had married and left home.) George Wallace had two subsequent marriages to the former Cornelia Ellis Snively
and Lisa Taylor, both of which ended in divorce.
Mrs. Wallace's most notable independent action as Governor was her attempt to get her husband to increase appropriations for the Bryce Hospital and the Partlow State School, a residential institution for the developmentally disabled. She had visited them in Tuscaloosa on her own initiative in February 1967 after reading a news story about overcrowding and poor staffing. She was horrified by what she saw in the filthy, barracks-like settings.
Mrs. Wallace was succeeded by Lieutenant Governor Albert Brewer
, a one-time ally of her husband who soon showed a strong interest to govern in his own right and retain the office in the 1970 election. Brewer gained a seemingly unlikely ally in this quest in President
Richard Nixon
, who wanted to neutralize Wallace as a Presidential adversary in 1972. Wallace beat Brewer in the Democratic primary and returned as governor in January 1971, remaining in office for two consecutive terms. George Wallace won and served a fourth term from 1983-1987.
Counting Lurleen Wallace's term as his surrogate, George Wallace had the remarkable achievement of winning five terms distributed over three decades to Alabama's governorship, totaling over 17 years in office (1963–67, 1971–79 and 1983–87). It would have been 20 had Lurleen served four full years instead of the 16 months she survived. As of early 2012, Governor Terry Branstad of Iowa
will be closing in on the 17-year-plus record, having served four four-year terms (1983–99) before returning to office in January 2011. The record is approached, but not matched, by the nearly-15-year tenure of Governor Nelson Rockefeller
of New York
(January 1959-December 1973) as well as the 14-year tenures attained by Branstad's first gubernatorial predecessor, Robert D. Ray
of Iowa
(1969–83); Governor James R. Thompson
of Illinois
(1977–91); and Governor Tommy Thompson
of Wisconsin
(1987–2001).
in central Alabama is named in her memory.
Since Alabama was lacking adequate cancer treatment facilities at the time, Mrs. Wallace had to travel to the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas
for diagnosis and treatment. This underscored the need for improved cancer care in the state. Following her death, the Lurleen Wallace Courage Crusade was spearheaded by her successor, Gov. Albert Brewer
, leading to fundraising for building a new cancer center. The University of Alabama Hospital
at the University of Alabama at Birmingham
was selected as the site for the cancer center, and a formal cancer center program was begun in 1970. Funding was received from the National Cancer Institute
, and the center became one of the first eight NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers. Dr. John Durant served as its first director. Construction of the Lurleen B. Wallace Tumor Institute at UAB was begun in 1974 and was completed in 1976. The Wallace Patient Tower, an addition to University Hospital, was built in her honor, as was Lurleen B. Wallace Community College in Andalusia, Alabama.
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Tuscaloosa is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west central Alabama . Located on the Black Warrior River, it is the fifth-largest city in Alabama, with a population of 90,468 in 2010...
, was the 46th Governor of Alabama from 1967 until her death in 1968. She was the first wife of Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
Governor George Wallace
George Wallace
George Corley Wallace, Jr. was the 45th Governor of Alabama, serving four terms: 1963–1967, 1971–1979 and 1983–1987. "The most influential loser" in 20th-century U.S. politics, according to biographers Dan T. Carter and Stephan Lesher, he ran for U.S...
, whom she succeeded as governor. She succeeded her husband as he was forbidden by Alabama law to succeed himself. She was Alabama's first, and to date, only female governor. She was also the first and so far only female governor in U.S. history to die in office.
Early years
Lurleen Brigham Burns was born to Henry and Estelle Burroughs Burns of Fosters, Alabama, in Tuscaloosa County. She graduated from Tuscaloosa County High School in 1942 at 15 by taking summer classes. She then worked at KresgeKresge
- People and characters :* Cliff Kresge , an American professional golfer* Geoff Kresge, songwriter, guitarist, bassist with the band AFI* George Joseph Kresge , American mentalist better known as Kreskin or The Amazing Kreskin...
’s Five and Dime
Five and Dime
Five and Dime is a cartoon short by Walter Lantz which features Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. It is the 74th Oswald short produced by Lantz and the 125th overall. It also is among the number of shorts that feature Oswald in his fully clothed appearance....
in Tuscaloosa, where she met George Wallace. At the time he was a member of the U.S. Army Air Corps. They were married on May 21, 1943 when she was 16.
Over the next 20 years, she focused on being a mother and a homemaker. She and her husband had four children. They were Bobbi Jo (1944) Parsons, Peggy Sue (1950) Kennedy, George III (1951), and Janie Lee (1961) Dye, who was named after Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....
. George Wallace's political career and neglect of his family resulted in his wife filing for divorce in the late 1950s; she later dropped the suit.
Mrs. Wallace assumed her duties as First Lady
First Lady
First Lady or First Gentlemanis the unofficial title used in some countries for the spouse of an elected head of state.It is not normally used to refer to the spouse or partner of a prime minister; the husband or wife of the British Prime Minister is usually informally referred to as prime...
of Alabama in 1963 after her husband was elected governor. She opened the first floor of the governor's mansion to the public seven days a week. She also refused to serve alcoholic beverages at official functions.
Governorship and illness
George Wallace had become very popular during his first term as governor (1963–1967), largely due to his opposition to racial desegregationDesegregation
Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in...
. He could have easily won a second term in 1966 had he been eligible to stand for one. In Alabama (as in many states at the time), governors were not allowed to serve two consecutive terms. This provision was incorporated in the current state constitution
Alabama Constitution
The Constitution of the State of Alabama is the basic governing document of the U.S. state of Alabama. It was adopted in 1901 and is the sixth constitution that the state has had....
in 1901.
Wallace got around this problem on two fronts. First, Wallace worked for the repeal of the term limiting provision. Second, Wallace devised a plan in which his wife, Lurleen, would run for governor while he continued to exercise the authority of the office behind the scenes, duplicating the strategy in which Ma Ferguson won the 1924 election for governor in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
.
Wallace's attempt to change the succession rule before the 1966 campaign failed. He eventually succeeded in getting the term limit repealed, however, and would go on to serve three more terms, two of them consecutive. However, using his wife as his electoral surrogate succeeded, and Mrs. Wallace won the Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
nomination for governor in 1966. In those days, the Democratic nomination was tantamount to election
Tantamount to election
"Tantamount to election" is a phrase to describe a situation in which one political party so dominates the demographics of a voting district, that the person winning the party nomination for a race will virtually be assured of winning the general election...
in Alabama, and she was inaugurated in January 1967. To assuage voters who might have been concerned about the transfer of power, she stated that her husband would be her "#1 assistant".
Mrs. Wallace made her gubernatorial run carrying a tragic secret: she had been diagnosed with cancer as early as April 1961, when her surgeon biopsied suspicious tissue he noticed during the cesarean delivery of her last child. As was common at the time, her physician told her husband, not her. George Wallace insisted that Lurleen not be informed. As a result, she did not get appropriate follow-up care. When she saw a gynecologist for abnormal bleeding in 1965, his diagnosis of uterine cancer came as a complete shock to her. When one of her husband's staffers carelessly revealed to her that Wallace had discussed her cancer with them, but not her, during his 1962 campaign three years earlier, she was outraged.
In order to facilitate his plan to use her as a surrogate candidate in 1966, Mrs. Wallace cooperated with a campaign of dissimulation and misdirection as she began radiation therapy
Radiation therapy
Radiation therapy , radiation oncology, or radiotherapy , sometimes abbreviated to XRT or DXT, is the medical use of ionizing radiation, generally as part of cancer treatment to control malignant cells.Radiation therapy is commonly applied to the cancerous tumor because of its ability to control...
in December, 1965. This was followed by a hysterectomy in January 1966. Despite her ill health, Mrs. Wallace maintained a brutal campaign schedule throughout 1966 and gave a 24-minute speech her longest ever at her January 1967 inauguration.
Early in her term, Mrs. Wallace's condition began to deteriorate. In June 1967, an abdominal
Abdomen
In vertebrates such as mammals the abdomen constitutes the part of the body between the thorax and pelvis. The region enclosed by the abdomen is termed the abdominal cavity...
growth was found. During surgery on July 10, this proved to be an egg-sized malignancy on her colon. She endured a second course of radiation therapy as a followup. In January 1968, after extensive testing, she informed her staff (but not the public) that she had a cancerous pelvic tumor which was pressing on the nerves of her back down through her right hip. Even with the prior surgeries on her uterus and colon, and despite the radiation treatment, the cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
spread.
Her last public appearance as governor was at the 1967 Blue-Gray Football Classic
Blue-Gray Football Classic
The Blue–Gray Football Classic was an annual American college football all-star game held in Alabama usually on Christmas Day. It was begun in 1939 and held annually through 2001 at the Cramton Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama. The game was not contested in 2002 and was subsequently revived in 2003 in...
, followed by a campaign appearance for her husband's presidential bid on the American Party
American Independent Party
The American Independent Party is a right-wing political party of the United States that was established in 1967 by Bill and Eileen Shearer. In 1968, the American Independent Party nominated George C. Wallace as its presidential candidate and retired Air Force General Curtis E. LeMay as the vice...
ticket on January 11, 1968. Her illness was obvious and worsening. The pelvic tumor was removed in late February. This was followed by surgery to treat an abdominal abscess
Abscess
An abscess is a collection of pus that has accumulated in a cavity formed by the tissue in which the pus resides due to an infectious process or other foreign materials...
, and in late March 1968, more surgery to dissolve a blood clot in her left lung. By April, the cancer was in her liver and lungs, and she weighed less than eighty pounds.
Her husband, George Wallace, persistently lied to the press about her condition, claiming in April 1968 that "she has won the fight" against cancer. He continued to make campaign stops nationwide during her last weeks of life, but her doctors warned him she was in unstable condition on May 5, the day he was to leave for a Michigan sweep. At her request, he cancelled a television appearance May 6, when she was too ill to be moved back to the hospital. Lurleen Wallace died in Houston, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, at 12:34 a.m. May 7, 1968, with her husband beside her and the rest of her family, including her parents, just outside her room.
Lurleen Wallace lay in state in the Capitol building on May 8, and 21,000 mourners waited as long as five hours to view her silver casket. Despite her emphatic pre-need planning request for a closed casket, her widower insisted that her body be on view, with a glass bubble over the open part of the coffin. The day of her funeral, May 9, all public and private schools closed, all state offices closed, and most businesses closed or had abbreviated hours. She was buried in Greenwood Cemetery.
At the time of her funeral, George Wallace had moved out of the governor's mansion and back to a home they bought in Montgomery
Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located on the Alabama River southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 census, Montgomery had a population of 205,764 making it the second-largest city...
in 1967. He did not take his children, ages 18, 16, and 6, with him. They were sent to live with family members and friends. (Their eldest daughter had married and left home.) George Wallace had two subsequent marriages to the former Cornelia Ellis Snively
Cornelia Wallace
Cornelia Ellis Wallace, previously Cornelia Ellis Snively , was the First Lady of Alabama from 1971–1978 and the second wife of Democratic Governor George C. Wallace . Mrs...
and Lisa Taylor, both of which ended in divorce.
Mrs. Wallace's most notable independent action as Governor was her attempt to get her husband to increase appropriations for the Bryce Hospital and the Partlow State School, a residential institution for the developmentally disabled. She had visited them in Tuscaloosa on her own initiative in February 1967 after reading a news story about overcrowding and poor staffing. She was horrified by what she saw in the filthy, barracks-like settings.
Mrs. Wallace was succeeded by Lieutenant Governor Albert Brewer
Albert Brewer
Albert Preston Brewer is an American politician who was the 47th Governor of Alabama from May 7, 1968 until January 18, 1971.-Life and political career:...
, a one-time ally of her husband who soon showed a strong interest to govern in his own right and retain the office in the 1970 election. Brewer gained a seemingly unlikely ally in this quest in President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
, who wanted to neutralize Wallace as a Presidential adversary in 1972. Wallace beat Brewer in the Democratic primary and returned as governor in January 1971, remaining in office for two consecutive terms. George Wallace won and served a fourth term from 1983-1987.
Counting Lurleen Wallace's term as his surrogate, George Wallace had the remarkable achievement of winning five terms distributed over three decades to Alabama's governorship, totaling over 17 years in office (1963–67, 1971–79 and 1983–87). It would have been 20 had Lurleen served four full years instead of the 16 months she survived. As of early 2012, Governor Terry Branstad of Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
will be closing in on the 17-year-plus record, having served four four-year terms (1983–99) before returning to office in January 2011. The record is approached, but not matched, by the nearly-15-year tenure of Governor Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States , serving under President Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York , as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations in a variety of positions...
of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
(January 1959-December 1973) as well as the 14-year tenures attained by Branstad's first gubernatorial predecessor, Robert D. Ray
Robert D. Ray
Robert Dolph Ray served as the 38th Governor of Iowa from January 16, 1969 to January 14, 1983. He served in the United States Army. He received his B.A. in Business from Drake University in 1952 and his Law Degree in 1954...
of Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
(1969–83); Governor James R. Thompson
James R. Thompson
James Robert Thompson, Jr. , also known as Big Jim Thompson, was the 37th and longest serving Governor of the US state of Illinois...
of Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
(1977–91); and Governor Tommy Thompson
Tommy Thompson
Thomas George "Tommy" Thompson , a United States Republican politician, was the 42nd Governor of Wisconsin, after which he served as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. Thompson was a candidate for the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election, but dropped out early after a poor performance in polls...
of Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
(1987–2001).
Legacies
Among her major accomplishments during her brief tenure were major increases in expenditures for Mental Health including modernization of Partlow State Hospital for children and a big funding increase for State Parks. Lake LurleenLake Lurleen
Lake Lurleen is a public reservoir located in Tuscaloosa County, in west central Alabama. It is named after Lurleen Wallace, the only woman elected Governor of Alabama to date. It is also the location of Lake Lurleen State Park....
in central Alabama is named in her memory.
Since Alabama was lacking adequate cancer treatment facilities at the time, Mrs. Wallace had to travel to the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
for diagnosis and treatment. This underscored the need for improved cancer care in the state. Following her death, the Lurleen Wallace Courage Crusade was spearheaded by her successor, Gov. Albert Brewer
Albert Brewer
Albert Preston Brewer is an American politician who was the 47th Governor of Alabama from May 7, 1968 until January 18, 1971.-Life and political career:...
, leading to fundraising for building a new cancer center. The University of Alabama Hospital
UAB Hospital
The University of Alabama Hospital , is a Level I trauma center hospital located in Birmingham, Alabama....
at the University of Alabama at Birmingham
University of Alabama at Birmingham
The University of Alabama at Birmingham is a public university in Birmingham in the U.S. state of Alabama. Developing from an extension center established in 1936, the institution became an autonomous institution in 1969 and is today one of three institutions in the University of Alabama System...
was selected as the site for the cancer center, and a formal cancer center program was begun in 1970. Funding was received from the National Cancer Institute
National Cancer Institute
The National Cancer Institute is part of the National Institutes of Health , which is one of 11 agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NCI coordinates the U.S...
, and the center became one of the first eight NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers. Dr. John Durant served as its first director. Construction of the Lurleen B. Wallace Tumor Institute at UAB was begun in 1974 and was completed in 1976. The Wallace Patient Tower, an addition to University Hospital, was built in her honor, as was Lurleen B. Wallace Community College in Andalusia, Alabama.
In popular culture
- Nina SimoneNina SimoneEunice Kathleen Waymon , better known by her stage name Nina Simone , was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music...
refers to Lurleen Wallace and expresses disappointment towards her opposition to racial desegregationDesegregationDesegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in...
in the song 'Mississippi Goddamn'. - Tom LehrerTom LehrerThomas Andrew "Tom" Lehrer is an American singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, mathematician and polymath. He has lectured on mathematics and musical theater...
sang 'See Cassius ClayMuhammad AliMuhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist...
and Mrs Wallace dancing cheek to cheek' in the version of his song 'National Brotherhood WeekThat Was the Year That WasThat Was the Year That Was is a live album recorded at the hungry i in San Francisco, containing performances by Tom Lehrer of satiric topical songs he originally wrote for the NBC television series That Was The Week That Was, known informally as TW3...
' he performed at a concert in Oslo in 1967. - In the 1997 TNT movie George Wallace, the part of Lurleen Wallace was played by Mare Winningham. Winningham won an Emmy and was nominated for a Golden Globe and SAG Award for her performance.