Wallace

In the late 1890's farmers were suffering from low prices and southern black farmers formed the Colored Farmers National Alliance. They were blocked out of the white farmers group because of their race. In time their membership grew to 1.2 million and they became a formidable force. Black republicans and white populist combined forming the fusion group and was able to elect a majority in North Carolina. It was not long, however, before black-white cooperation ended, as Democrats united in successful white supremacy campaigns to oust the Fusionists and discontinue "Negro rule." Nearly 100 years later not much had changed in the south. I was living in Alabama in 1970 when George Wallace was challenged in the gubernatorial primary by two other Democrats. One was a wealthy businessman from Dothan and the other was a black dentist from Huntsville. Early polls showed the businessman leading Wallace and to counteract this Wallace put out a racial appeal for help claiming that a black man might become the next governor. That is all it took and the people came out of the hills and pushed Wallace to victory. I remember seeing signs all around saying that a nigger is going to be the next governor if you don't vote.