A ‘dream,’ high hopes, a tragedy in November: 1963’s sweeping change echoes at 50
A new year was just beginning — an extraordinary year, in which so much would change.
Half a century ago, on Jan. 14, 1963, George Wallace took the podium to give his inaugural address as governor of Alabama. His words framed a fiery rejoinder to a civil rights movement gathering strength.
“I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny,” he thundered, “and I say, segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!”
Fifty years later, the words still have the power to shock. In college classes like “The Sixties in History and Memory,” today’s students recoil....