All language subtitles for George.Wallace.1997.VHSRIP

Archie.

Make sure you come back now,
you hear?

- You take care.
- All right, buddy.

Tom 6, Tom 6, accident. No details.

County road, State Highway 31.

You forgetting a little something, Archie?

This is Tom 6, Dispatch, ten-four.

Tom 17 to Tom 9,
we got a family fight.

Both sound intoxicated.

Address 214 North Highway, 231.

Tom 17 en route to site.

Hey, hey!

Wait, come back here now!

Goddamn it, now.

I told that fella
I didn't want Archie going out there...

...to his mama's place in handcuffs.

Don't nobody listen to me?

What you doing?

I'm changing your tie.

Well, what's wrong with that one?

Well, don't go with your suit.

And it is out of style.

Oh, yeah.

I'm marrying
a goddamn fashion consultant.

Yeah, silk ties, Italian ties.

- Yes, sir, wife of the governor of Alabama.
- Mm-hm.

She's a real swanny gal.

More high-tone
than the governor his own self.

Be still, honey.

- Course, you know...
- Be still.

...the governor, he don't know.
He just a rough old country boy, now.

I want to see my husband looking sharp.

What the hell you doing?

You know what they told me
before I married you?

Cornelia is so fast, you're gonna
have to put a governor on her.

It's about all I can do
to just stay up with you, woman.

Yeah, you are pluperfect,
hungry animal again.

- Come on, that's enough, now.
- Oh, hardly.

We are a starring duo,
George, aren't we?

Yeah.

Firecracker pair.

Ooh.

How you feeling now? Hmm?
What you wanna do?

Come on.

Well, well.

Wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Oh, hey, wait.

- Wait a minute, now.
- No, no.

- Cut that out now.
- No, no.

Whoa. Come on, cut that out.

Now, wait.

- Yes, yes, yes.
- No, no, no.

No, no, cut that out.

Oh, damn.

I gotta get on up there in Maryland.

I'll be ready before you are, governor.

I always am.

Yeah.

That is about the damn truth.

Now, you hurry up.

They can't wait all day, now.

Good Lord, girl,
what are you gonna make of all this mess?

You dust this every day, Eddie...

...because Alabama loved this little girl.

We all still miss her.

This is everything.

Oh, thank you, Jamison.

Well, this is good for a start.

Miami paper.

"Wallace's political sun could reach
highest point at the primaries tomorrow."

Where's this thing in Maryland
supposed to be at exactly?

At a place called Laurels,
big shopping center.

Oh, yeah, I know.

Jamison, how come you let that trooper
put those damn handcuffs on Archie...

...just to drive him out to his mama's?

Goddamn,
he been trustee here since the '50s.

Get on out there
and put my bags in the car.

- Morning.
- Morning, governor.

- Morning, boys.
- Where the hell's Cornelia at?

- We're running behind here, you know.
- She's still upstairs fixing herself.

She'll be along soon.

What kind of devil they calling me today,
Ricky?

Well, sort of a different kind now,
governor.

Chicago paper here.

"Wallace could be a frontrunner
for Democratic nomination...

...at the primaries tomorrow."

Heh, heh, heh. Let me see that.

Give me the ketchup, Gerald.

Never made much difference to you
what you're gobbling down.

Could be eggs, steak, peas.

Could be the end of your tie.
You're gonna put ketchup on it, ain't you?

It's a little late for you to start
worrying about dining etiquette, Odum.

Here, governor.
Listen to this Los Angeles paper.

"Wallace likely to win Maryland tomorrow.
Possible two other primaries...

...could throw Democratic nomination
into a turmoil."

See what a good press secretary?
Ricky sure can read those headlines.

Yeah. Heh, heh.

- Yeah, he a talented man.
- Sure is.

Says here, governor, you a "pol...."

"Poltergeist
in the presidential campaign."

Poltergeist?
What's that supposed to mean exactly?

You're supposed to be able to tell me,
Odum.

That's why I made you president
of that state college down there.

Gerald, heard you threw another shindig
for your buddies...

...at Jeff Davis Hotel the other night.

Lookie here, George--

Fifty-dollar-a-month
walk-up law office downtown...

...ain't got no more sense than to live like
some millionaire goddamn Arab sheik...

...out for everybody to see.

You're my little brother,
but you gonna get me in trouble.

I'm running for president now.

- Quit getting on me about that, because I--
- Shut up.

- Can I tell you what?
- Shut up.

- Can I tell you what?
- Gerald, strain.

Hell.

Strain.

Lookie here, governor.

- Even the Boston paper.
- Let me see that.

George, remember when
we first started on this thing?

It was like guerrilla raids up north
back in '64.

Practically living off the land as we went.

Barely enough money
to pay for a hotel room, man.

Lot of them hotels wouldn't even take us.
Figured we'd short-sheet them.

Gave off a hellacious ruction
in places, Wisconsin, Cleveland.

Goddamn.

Yeah, but by God, wound up almost
winning some of them primaries then.

People started saying,
"Uh-oh. Them yahoos are loose again."

Yeah, we run again '68, what'd we get?

- Ten million votes.
- Yeah, and after these primaries tomorrow...

...governor,
you just win Michigan and Maryland...

...you be leading McGovern, Humphrey
the whole darn load of them...

...for the Democratic nomination
as president of these United States.

It's amazing. Now, just think about it.

Them national political bigwigs
and liberal press crowd.

We got them all crapping in their pants.

They all the time
trying to call me a racist.

Hell...

...what none of them understand yet...

...race is why all those people out there
come over to us.

Without me even having to say
the word "race"...

...people getting what I'm talking about.

Yeah, it'd be something, wouldn't it?

We might actually haul off
and win this goddamn thing.

You know where we are, Archie?

The famous Edmund Pettus Bridge...

...where Martin Luther King and his crowd
got their asses kicked.

Did finally cross it, though.

- Say what?
- Nothing.

Well, is there someone
sitting back there beside you?

Like somebody hadn't learned...

...that long as George Corley Wallace
is governor of Alabama...

...everything is gonna stay
just like it's always been.

Of course,
always some a little slow to learn.

Those handcuffs too tight for you,
Archie?

No, sir.

They're just about right.

Go on in. I'll wait for you here.

Uh-uh.

Just because you're a trustee, don't mean
you ain't still a convicted murderer.

Anyhow, your family won't mind.

Your mother won't notice.

Thank you for saying a few words.

Jim, come over here,
there's an opportunity....

Excuse me, governor, People mag--

Life magazine. Like to get
some photographs, right here.

- Governor George Wallace here.
- Good, very nice.

Get in a little closer. Very good.

I just love this music, don't you?

Yeah, I do. It's bluegrass.

Good, let me get one more.

All right, Jim, that's fine.
Thank you very much, thank you.

Everybody, everybody, thanks.

Everybody, he's here, y'all.

I give y'all-- For just a little
while now, I want him back.

--My husband and the next president
of the United States, George C. Wallace.

Governor.

We're with you all the way.

Isn't she something?

Yes, indeed.

What'd I marry, huh?

We're counting on you!

Thank y'all, a wonderful crowd.
We're glad to be back here in Maryland.

Amen to that.

I'm happy to see
all our law enforcement folks...

...out here with us today.

The court's now turning loose
people who shoot and steal and kill.

- People are getting sick of it.
- That's right, that's right!

We love you, governor. We love you.

I tell you, when I'm your president...

...I promise you, you'll be safe anywhere
in this country of ours from anybody.

Listen, these here bigtime
national politicians...

...like George McGovern...

...and Richard Milhous
"Tricky Dick" Nixon....

They all complaining
that we gonna hurt them.

But let me tell you something,
I wanna hurt them...

...because they been hurting us
long enough.

To them...

...she was just another old,
unimportant nigger woman.

Tended their children,
cooked their meals, cleaned their laundry.

But not once,
through all her life on this earth...

...did they pay her any dignity at all
as a human being.

All she was...

...was our mama.

First Daddy.

A 65-year-old man
trying to register to vote.

First real proud, free thing
he ever did in his life.

Shot to death
by them Klan Knight Riders.

Mama worked to death by white folks.

So they let you come out here
once more now she's dead.

Tell her goodbye.

And you are grateful to Governor Wallace
for that, ain't you?

Oh, yeah.

Grateful.

But don't you know
that's still slave thinking?

Something else
you ought to be feeling right now?

I know what you're saying, Neal.

You can strike the blow.

I know.

I've always known.

George, George, George....

George, George, George....

- I better shake some hands.
- Better go out there.

- Don't go out there, governor.
- No, it's all right. I'll take responsibility.

How are you?

You got great crowd here today.

Oh, thanks. How you doing over there?

How are you?

Hello, sweetie.
Thanks for coming out here today.

All right, all right.

Mr. Mayor, thank you so much
for coming out today.

It's always good to be here. Hi, darling.

Ricky, can't you do anything?

Oh, no. No, not when he's with people.

No, this is when he's really living.
Take a look at him.

Appreciate y'all being out here today.

George, George, George....

Good to see you, good to see you.
Appreciate y'all being out here today.

- Hey.
- Way to go.

You boys think
we're gonna get any votes up here?

Put this on your network, you hear?

Come on in here, Jim.

How are you? Thank you very much.

Stay back!

All right, we're gonna keep
these people back.

Stand back.

- I repeat, stand back!
- George, live.

- Live.
- I'm shot.

Honey, we're gonna go home now.

We're gonna go on back home now.

- I'm in pain.
- It's gonna be okay.

It's gonna be all right.
Somebody get us out of here, please.

- Everybody, move back.
- Somebody get us out of here!

- Give the governor some air.
- Leave me with him.

- I gotta be with him now!
- It's okay.

Don't. What are you doing?
What are you doing?

It's gonna be all right, honey.

I'm gonna take you home now.

We gonna go back home.

You're my whole life.

I don't know
what I would do without you.

You stay with me. Please hold on.

I love you so much.

What? Oh, yeah, heh-heh-heh.

- Come on inside.
- Yeah.

- Hello, George.
- Hi.

- Haven't seen you in a while.
- George?

Oh, come on, Lurleen.

- Is this all right?
- It's astounding.

My goodness, I didn't know
there was gonna be this many people.

Well, with Big Jim elected governor now,
a lot more folks discovered they his friends.

Hey, senator.

- Oh, yeah.
- Right.

Today, yeah.

Hey.

- Come on.
- Thank you, sir.

Excuse me.

Senator.

Excuse me.

Why, hi, George.

Hello, Velma.

Uh, this is my wife, Lurleen.

- Hi.
- Yes.

Well, how are you?

- Good.
- Hey, George.

- Lurleen.
- T.Y., how you doing?

- Fine.
- You know, uh, Velma.

- Velma, sure.
- You know.

Oh, come on over here a minute.

There's something I need
to talk to you about.

Come on, take it.

Yes, ma'am, you gotta help out....

- Who was that?
- Huh?

Oh, that's just some secretary
in the highway department, you know.

You know all of these people, George?

Well, not all of them. No, of course not.

- Hey, Danny.
- George, George.

- Look at who showed up.
- Goddamn, Billy Watson.

- Oh, Billy, I'm so glad you're here.
- Hi, Lurleen.

- Lovely to see you.
- Lurleen.

Decided to leave off
running politics in Barbour County...

...to come up to this hootenanny, huh?

I ain't up here to party, Wallace.
Here to keep my eye on my investment.

Go on, you celebrate.
Don't forget where you're headed.

Yeah, well,
you ain't ever gonna let me, Billy.

Where can you get a Coca-Cola
in all this liquor drinking?

Hey, hey, boy. Here.

- Goddamn, you ain't got no Cokes?
- I'll get you one right away, sir.

- Leave it in the bottle, okay?
- Yes, sir.

- Excuse us, gentlemen.
- Excuse me.

All right.

There's a lot of stuff out tonight.

What you got,
gland trouble or something?

Damn if you wouldn't hump a woodpile
if you thought there was a snake in there.

Well, look at that snake over there,
heh-heh.

How's that little gal
taking away your career...

...that's been picking up
steam here lately?

Who? Lurleen?

God help that little woman.

Oh, come on, she's happy enough.
She got the children, she got her fishing.

You know she loves to go fishing
in that pond out there.

You know it, she no trouble.

- Judge?
- Yeah.

I'd like you to meet this young lady
over here, an admirer of yours.

- Hi.
- Hi.

- What's your name?
- Lisa.

You all right, honey?

Such a big crowd.

Well, you better get used to looking
as beautiful as you do tonight, sweetheart.

Because your husband
is on the climb to big things.

All right, here he comes,
so we better batten down the hatch.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, Johnny,
I've known you from way back.

Hold on, Big Jim.

We love you, governor.

The big galoot hisself.

I'll tell you, Big Jim's the greatest thing
to come along since Andy Jackson.

Now, listen, you mean to go for governor,
you better face some realities now.

- Too liberal.
- Congratulations, Big Jim.

Who's the little one?

Well, that's his sister's girl.
It's another Folsom.

Why, she rides his shoulders
like a princess already.

A princess?

It's nothing that highfalutin
if it's a Folsom.

See you later, baby.

- You deserve it.
- We got a lot to celebrate tonight, huh?

- That's right!
- You bet we do!

This is it, Jim. This is it.

That big mule's running this state.

Used to be that every four years, they'd
pick out two candidates for governor.

And you could vote for one
or you could vote for the other.

That was your God-given choice, ha-ha.

But Big Jim's
changed that arrangement. Yeah!

And none of this
would've been happening...

...if it wasn't for my friend
and campaign manager, George Wallace!

Come on up here, son. It's your day too.

- Oh, no.
- Go on, go on.

Yes, sir. A big hand for George.

Yes, sir.

Now, me and George both know
that the big mules and the got-rocks crowd...

...are still trying to stop us
by stirring up suspicion among the races...

...the same as they always done.

But listen in.
Now, come up here, George.

Listen, all God's children,
red, yellow, black, white...

...they all just alike and all precious
in the sight of the Lord.

And that's the way it's gonna stay
in Alabama while I'm governor.

Yes, sir.

I call to everybody. Y'all come, now.

Let's have a little of that music.

- George looks good.
- Yeah, George.

- Yeah.
- George looks great.

There you are, little woman.
Give us a kiss, huh?

Oh, you're too good for any of us here.

Billy Watson?

- Political bishop of Barbour County.
- Yeah, that's right.

I'm just loaning you George for a while.

- Don't you be giving him any trouble.
- Don't you worry about that.

We were fighting
the good fight a long time.

- Ain't we, George?
- That's right.

- Big Jim?
- Yes, ma'am.

- She's such a beautiful girl.
- Thank you.

- What's her name?
- Darling, sugar dumpling?

I want you to remember this man's
name right here, George Wallace.

Start remembering names
for when you move into public life...

...which you will, because you a Folsom.

Ain't that right, sugar dumpling? Yeah.

So remember, this is George Wallace,
okay?

George, I need to talk to you
for a second.

Would you excuse us for a minute?

John, you wanna help me here?

- Y'all excuse us a second?
- Good job, Big Jim.

Next stop, White House.

Make way, make way for Big Jim.

Folks, can we have this room
for a few minutes?

- George and I need to talk. Thank you.
- Excuse me.

Lock the door on your way out.
Shut the door.

I swear, all this campaigning...

...working up the crowds,
is gonna ruin my voice.

Now, George....

I've known you since you was that
skinny little giblet-assed kid...

...back in the legislature, in them
chartreuse pants and cowboy shirts.

Oh, introducing about 80 bills a week...

...trying to help out
just everybody who had a pulse.

Some people was even calling you
a dangerous left-wing radical.

Yeah, well, that's that country-club,
high-hoi-polloi crowd.

They always giving us trouble,
ain't they?

I know, but what I'm saying is--

George, sit down here. Sit down.

Now, it ain't too early
to be talking about this...

...because I know there's this law
that says I can't succeed myself.

And I know that you gonna be wanting
to run for governor then.

Now, when that time comes....

George, look at me here, look at me.

When you make your go for governor...

...I'm gonna be behind you
100 percent, all-out.

All right?

Only thing is, I'm counting on you...

...to still be battling for all those things
we always been for.

Equal deal for the common folk...

...just like you did back in the legislature.

Well, I ain't ever gonna be forgetting
none of what we been for.

But I'm talking about the Negroes too,
George, the Negroes too.

I know the weather out there's
getting a little bit stormy...

...but we got to keep holding on
to what's right.

You hear me, George?

Sure, you know....

Hell, they just like everybody else.

You know, I always believed like you
on the colored issue.

- Oh, excuse me, governor.
- Oh, yes, ma'am. Hello.

Judge Wallace.

Here it is.

- Congratulations, governor.
- Oh, thank you kindly.

Oh, George, you really do remind me
of my own self starting out.

George, there's only one thing
that sort of worries me...

...is you believe
in the common folk so much.

I mean, it's almost like
you're in love with them, all right.

Well, this need of yours
to be at one with the folks...

...you might need a little bit too much.

See, it's almost like
your connection to the folks...

...is all you feel
gives you any personal meaning.

Like it's all you really feel
you are yourself.

Will of the people. That's where
everything comes from, don't it?

Majority of folks ain't ever gonna
wanna do anything that ain't right.

Oh, well, I don't know, George.
Sometimes they can go both ways.

See, they just like you and me.

They got goodness and meanness in them.
Angel and a demon.

A leader can't just be a reflection.

A leader got to encourage them sometimes
to listen to that angel.

I only trust
that you won't ever be scared...

...to risk that connection to the people
in order to do what's right.

Do you hear me, George?

Well, Big Jim...

...there ain't nobody stronger for you
than me.

I don't have any doubts
about you, George.

You gonna be a good one.

Here you go.

- T.Y., don't let him drive, all right?
- That's it, Jim.

Here.

- What's your name?
- Archie, sir.

- Well, thank you, Archie.
- You're welcome, sir.

You ought to get yourself one of these.

Lurleen, come on, let's go.

We gotta get back to Clayton now.
Come on.

- Good night, George.
- Good night, Billy.

- What you doing over there with Billy?
- He's good to me.

Just one last second, George.

Hello, sweetheart.

I never did get your name,
you know that?

- It's Cornelia.
- Cornelia.

What a lovely name
for such a lovely little girl.

Lurleen, come on.

Bye-bye, sweetheart.
Now, you be good, you hear?

George, the surgeon said that
everything went just fine, darling.

What are you feeling?

Feeling nothing down here. Just pain.

Y'all, the surgeon said
that everything went just fine.

- Who was that shot me?
- It was some fella named Bremer.

- White, wasn't he?
- Yeah, but nobody--

- He ain't nothing.
- They've questioned him.

He'd been following you around
for weeks. He's a....

You know yet how it's going?

- How's what?
- Maryland, Michigan.

Oh, yeah, I just heard.
You taking Michigan and Maryland.

Just like when you was talking
in the kitchen yesterday.

- You're leading them all now, sir.
- Oh, honey.

Honey, isn't that fantastic?
Darling, you're wonderful.

It's good news.

Well, looks like we got ourselves
an FDR candidate on our hands, huh?

Ain't you kind of leapfrogging ahead
of the situation we have here, Cornelia?

My brother has just been shot,
almost killed.

Yes, but he is alive.

And he's not gonna die.

That's the only thing
that could ever stop that man.

- He's stronger than any damn....
- It's all right, it's okay.

- It's all right.
- Mrs. Wallace.

I'm afraid you gentlemen
will have to wait outside.

No, no, let them in.

- I'm his brother, damn it.
- Mrs. Wallace first.

- You hear me? I wanna see him.
- Come on, Gerald, easy.

Let's go back to the waiting room.

Nurse, could you give us
a moment, please? Thanks.

Governor, I thought you'd wanna
hear it all straight-out now, instead of....

Yeah, how bad is it?

You were shot five times.

Right arm, left shoulder, abdomen.

The problem is with the fifth bullet.

It penetrated the spinal column
and severed a bundle of nerves.

As a result....

Do you wanna hear this now?

Governor, I'm afraid you're not
gonna be able to walk again.

Well, neither could FDR either.
He even went on--

Just a minute, Mrs. Wallace. I'm sorry.

Also, governor, you're not gonna
be able to control bodily functions.

That means bladder and bowel.

I'm sorry.

- Well, what about--?
- Sex?

All this pain, can't you do something
about it? It's killing me here.

Of course.

But that's another thing, governor.

I'm afraid you're not gonna have
another day without pain.

Well, I ain't accepting all of this yet.

Can you just give me another doctor?

None of us mean to just accept it.

We're doing and are gonna continue to do
everything we possibly can.

All right, go on.

I ain't out of this campaign yet,
goddamn it.

Of course you're not.

It's gonna take a hell of a lot more
than this to stop you.

That's goddamn right.

Well, there's hundreds of press
downstairs.

I've gotta go down there
and tell them something.

Well....

You go tell them....

Tell them you're still running
full-force for president?

Yeah.

You're only wounded in the abdomen.
Nothing's changed.

You're running just as strong as ever.

That's right.

God, I am so proud of you.

I just wish old Billy was here.

Old Billy.

Oh, goddamn. This is it, Wallace.
You made it to the big leagues now.

Your first campaign for governor.
This is what we've been waiting for.

Since that Trailways bus
brought you back from the war...

...and dropped you off
looking like a skinned rabbit.

Yeah, after getting here finally...

...a little nervous, you know?

What the hell are you talking about?
Of course you're nervous.

A racehorse is always nervous
when it gets in the gate.

But the bugle's blowing now.
You go get running.

All right.

- Hi, George.
- Hi, Patsy, honey, how are you?

- Fine.
- You still working at the beauty parlor?

Good, you're coming
to hear my speech, now, right?

You're gonna make
a wonderful governor.

How are you?
I saw your daddy the other day.

- Billy's your campaign manager, ain't he?
- No.

Billy's not my campaign manager.

You all are
the only campaign managers I got.

I'll see you, Marvin.
Come hear my speech, now.

The fighting little judge,
George Corley Wallace.

You see how popular he is
with the folks here.

Thank you. Hey, how y'all doing?

Etta Jane, you got so big. How are you?

- It's a great day, y'all.
- Yeah.

- We all known each other all our lives.
- We love you, George.

I grew up in this county.

My granddaddy, he planted
most of these pecan trees around here.

In fact, while he was a doctor,
he delivered a lot of y'all too.

Well, Lurleen and me been raising up
our three children here.

And now, from this town of ours,
out of Barbour County, as of today...

...I am running for governor
of this whole great state of Alabama.

Of course, the last four years,
been Folsom up there in Montgomery...

...but he can't run again this time.

So let me tell y'all
what I'm gonna do when I get up there.

- Tell us.
- Your children gonna have free textbooks.

We're gonna build more schools...

...and more junior colleges
and trade schools too.

And nursing homes and medical clinics
and TB hospitals and mental hospitals.

Gonna throw the public welfare program
open to anybody needing it.

He's just getting started, Paul.

- Just give him a second.
- Yeah, yeah.

There's gonna be more for social security,
more for the crippled children in this state.

All I been fighting for since y'all
first sent me up to the legislature.

Doing for the people
is what government's for, right?

Yeah.

He's not just a liberal,
he's worse than that.

Now, listen, this fellow over here
wants to talk to you here in a second.

Soon as your brother gets through.

This is the Klan, and they can
do your brother some good.

Well, that ain't me.

Whatever it takes to build you
more roads and bridges, let them fuss.

You elect me,
I'll borrow as many millions as I have to...

...and I'll build y'all a bridge
straight up in the air, if you want.

Tell them, George!

That slick-haired national-press crowd
up there in New York and Washington...

...they started calling us
Dogpatch folks down here.

Talking like me and you
ain't got the sense to tie our shoes.

When I'm your governor,
I'm gonna let them know...

...that the people I represent
are just as fine and cultured...

...as anybody in this country.

I'm gonna make them
respect us down here.

I'm gonna make y'all proud...

...that you were raised right here
in the great state of Alabama.

Thank you.

It was a wonderful day, George.

- Yeah.
- A wonderful evening.

I love this place so much.

Yeah, well, we gonna be
moving on soon, honey.

I think it went pretty good today,
don't you?

You know it did.
It always does with you.

Well, it always goes good.
I've got you helping me.

I want you to know that, here and now.

You got a way with the people
of your own that I just--

Oh, it's suddenly like a dream, almost.

Only that we might be leaving
everything here.

And for what, hm? Scares me a little.

Well, we going on to bigger
and better things now.

- George.
- Yeah.

- George, you remember--
- Al Lingo.

- Another Barbour County boy, heh-heh.
- Thank you, Susan.

For a short-term state trooper
turned building-supplies salesman...

...you sure been getting around
a lot here lately.

I've been out here
working for you on my own, judge.

In fact, uh, those fellas
like to see you a minute, if you can.

Oh, George....

Sorry, it's been such a long day.
Don't you think we should just--?

T.Y., you wanna do me a favor
and take Lurleen and the kids home?

- All right.
- Honey....

Come on, kids,
I gotta do some business now.

- George, I really think--
- T.Y.'s gonna take you home now.

- Bye, Daddy.
- Bye, Daddy.

Bye.

Lurleen, I'll be home in a while.
Go on, now.

- Judge, those fellas are with the Klan.
- Why did I figure that?

But they're good old boys.

It won't hurt to listen
to what they got to say.

The Klan's been rising up strong again
all over the state, George.

All over the South for that matter.
You got--

Gerald, strain. I know that.

You know, Wallace,
I sort of got a feeling...

...it might be better to have this
particular chat in the back of my store.

Lingo, fetch your friends,
meet us there in a few minutes.

All right.

Judge, all those things
you was saying out there today...

...didn't hear a single word
about the real trouble now.

- What's that?
- The nigger trouble.

That's the real test for any candidate...

...running for anything
in Alabama these days.

You need to let folks know you backing us
in the war for white civilization, judge.

The fella you running against,
John Patterson...

...he got a little bit ahead of you
on the nigger issue.

Here, listen to what he's saying.

"Patterson promises that
as governor of Alabama...

...he'll permit absolutely
no mongrel-mixing of the races...

...in any way, at any time,
now or tomorrow.

His opponent declines
to make that promise."

- Here.
- You read what all he's saying.

Yeah, well, lookie here, boys.

As far as this particular issue is concerned,
I'm for the same thing he is...

...only we got to have
decent order about it.

- Now, we can't go raring off--
- Judge, let's get one thing straight.

We talking about saving the white race
by any means necessary.

Not about order and decency.

We just want you
to keep it in mind, judge.

Be seeing you on down the road.

Thought you should hear that, judge.
Only trying to help you.

When you get up there to Montgomery,
maybe you can find something for me to do.

Yeah, well, we'll cross that bridge
when we get there, Al.

- That's fair enough.
- All right.

- Well, I'm going home.
- Good night, gentlemen.

- Good night.
- Good night.

Billy, what's started breaking loose here
all of a sudden?

Hell, we grew up among colored folks.
We got along fine.

Yeah, but that was back when
they was just happy-go-lucky niggers.

The government's set out
to make us live with them.

Folks ain't gonna stand for that.
If you're hoping to whup Patterson...

...you just got in the governor's race with,
you better listen.

Those fellas don't represent
hardly nobody but themselves.

They just like wolves
running around on the edges of things.

I never did trust the Klan, anyhow.

Can't control them. They close to wild.

They go upsetting everything
with violence.

Yeah, but lots of folks coming
to feel an awful lot like they do, Wallace.

People getting awful hot
on this race thing.

And that's why
you gotta cut loose from Big Jim.

Yeah, well....

Hey, everybody's thinking
Folsom appointed you as his political heir.

And that's the real trouble, George.

He's as liberal as he ever was
on the nigger issue...

...like he don't even realize
what's begun happening.

Now there's this highfalutin young
nigger preacher up there in Montgomery.

This Martin King Luther,
whatever the hell his name is...

...carrying on that bus boycott mess.

Race fever's just spreading
all over the state now.

Yeah, but folks in Alabama,
they don't want this Klan kind of ugliness.

They want it all worked out orderly.

Anyhow, it's just one of them hot winds
that's gonna blow past.

Folks still care a heap more
about an even chance to live decent.

Well, there's one thing I know...

...it's the folks.

No way, he isn't.

Looking sort of hopeless.

Well, didn't help none, George.

You had to go on
and openly denounce the Klan now.

Of course, it did get you the support
of the ACLU, NAACP.

And all our Israelites here in the state.

Only problem is, you let yourself
get out of touch...

...with everybody else in Alabama,
George.

Klan might be just a bunch out there
hooting on the fringe...

...but I tried to tell you,
times gotten tense.

You shouldn't have kept trying to be that
nice, open-hearted young fella you was...

...back there in the legislature.

You just didn't distance yourself enough
from Big Jim.

There's whiffs of sulfur out there
in the air now.

Can't be compromising, George.

Not these days.

Only way back now is, you gotta
get back in grace with the people.

Bill, the only problem is--

Honey, I really am so sorry.

I just heard.

Well, maybe there's some good, huh?

Maybe at least now
we can head back home...

...and live a normal life.

Goddamn it to hell, Lurleen!

Normal life?

That ain't life.

I just been hit like this...

...you wanna start getting on me again
about our home life.

That's all I need right now.

Excuse me here a minute.

Now, be sweet to her, George.

Honey, look, I only meant--

I've had it.

How do you think you can treat me?

And you never even notice.

- Now, look here, honey, I just--
- No, I'm through.

Those strange women
who keep showing up...

...acting like they know you better
than I do.

- Like they know me.
- Who you talking about?

- They ain't nothing--
- Oh, don't.

It's not even that, anyway.

It's....

You've hardly lived at home
since we were married.

You've left your children
almost half-orphans.

I don't want them growing up like that
just because you did.

You know I already almost
left you once because of this.

And you sent your... buddies in there
to talk me out of it.

This time, it's enough.

So help me.

This time, I'm doing it.

I'm leaving you, George...

...to the only thing
you ever cared about, anyway.

Lurleen, God almighty, come on--

From the first, I knew you had some hunger,
some need in you I didn't really understand.

But that would've been all right.

Only that thing, that need,
it's made you forget who I am.

Forget us.

Look at me.

Remember when it was just us, George,
and then the babies?

You remember that time?

We're your family, George.

Now it's money and power.

Power and money.

That's what counts?

That's what you tell the kids. You do.

You are no different
than all them other wives.

What y'all always saying.

Same old scene.
"Why can't it be like it was?"

"Why ain't you home more?"

Well, it might be enough for you
just living at home...

...and for excitement,
going out there fishing.

But it's not enough for me!

It never will be enough for me!

Oh, goddamn it.

Honey, honey, I'm sorry.

You just don't....

No, you can't know.

After losing this vote today,
it's like I'm just....

Like I just disappeared or something.

Like I'm not worth nothing.

Nothing to nobody.

Nothing.

Not even to you.

George, you were always
everything to me.

It's just that things got to change
between us.

Some.

Maybe you could, uh,
start traveling with me or something.

Maybe or something.

I've got to go pick up the children...

...head back to Clayton.

Just hang on a little bit, honey.

Don't go off and leaving me now.

Don't stay up here too long.

Good night, everybody.

- Good night, Lurleen.
- Good night.

Sorry about that, boys.

Ain't the first time.

It's a....

She's a good little gal.

She always comes around.

Lookie here now.

What y'all were saying...

...I know now y'all been right
about this race thing.

Everything's different now.

Big Jim just never caught on to that.

And the folks
have turned their face against him.

And if I don't flat-out cut free of him,
he's gonna take me on down with him.

No.

Me and Big Jim, we over with.

He was always wrong, anyhow.

Niggers hate whites.

Whites hate niggers.

Everybody's always known that
deep down.

All right, boys.

I just let myself get out-niggered,
but I'm never gonna get out-niggered again.

Today, I have stood
where Jefferson Davis stood...

...and took an oath to my people.

In this day, I feel a deep obligation
to renew my pledges...

...my covenants with you,
the people of this great state.

General Robert E. Lee said
that duty is the most sublime word...

...in the English language.

Come on.

And I have come increasingly
to realize what he meant.

And I shall do my duty to you.

God help me, I shall stand up
for Alabama, as governor of our state.

You stand with me...

...and we together
can give courageous leadership...

...to millions of people
throughout this nation...

...who look to the South
for their hope in this fight to win...

...and preserve our freedom and liberty...

...so help me God.

From this cradle of the Confederacy...

...this very heart of the great
Anglo-Saxon Southland...

...today, we sound the drum of freedom.

Let us rise to the call
of the freedom-loving blood that is in us.

In the name of the greatest people
that have ever trod this earth...

...I draw the line in the dust...

...and toss the gauntlet
before the feet of tyranny.

And I say segregation now,
segregation tomorrow...

...and segregation forever.

- Segregation tomorrow,
and segregation forever.

Sworn in on this bitterly cold
January day as Alabama's new governor...

...George Corley Wallace....

Oh, Cathy.

Try and get him to sleep early.

He's so tired.

I love you, sweetheart.
If you can, with all that noise downstairs.

Bye.

Do I look okay?

Like a pluperfect queen.

Oh, nothing that fancy if it's a Wallace.

Well, then, Alabama governor's wife.

That's even better.

We've made it, haven't we, George?

Yeah, I reckon we have.

This does look a lot like
the governor's mansion to me.

No.

I mean, us.

I did hang on.

And you have gotten
what you've always wanted.

And I did support you,
because you've wanted it so much.

We've survived.

You and me.

We're celebrating more
than your election tonight.

We're celebrating us.

I just hope you know though...

...you're not gonna have much time
to go out there fishing at that pond now.

Oh, yes, I will.

You're not taking that away from me,
George Wallace.

Only place I know any peace.

Don't be nervous.

But I am.

Well...

...don't be.

This is a little different
than the first time you were here.

But you remember who you are now.

No, I'm still the 16-year-old girl
behind the cosmetics counter...

...of Kresge's dime store.

Hey, pretty girl.

My name's George Wallace.

And I wanna buy a bottle of hair oil.

- Oh, yeah?
- Yeah, yeah.

I'm about to go into the Army, and....

You wanna go to the picture show
with me Saturday night?

And I'm thinking
you got the nicest dark eyes.

But you could stand to eat
a little more. You're so skinny.

You are such a pretty little thing.

I think I'm already falling
slap in love with you, sweetie.

And I think....

Well, now...

...let's go on and live our life,
Mrs. Wallace.

George, do you still--?

Here they are, folks!

You go, George. Yeah.

Ha!

George! Looking good there, George.

George, you look like a million bucks!

Congratulations, governor.

Now, you boys come see me
about 9, you hear?

We all used to be with Big Jim once,
but I need y'all with me now.

- All right.
- Yes, I am.

We'll be there.

Where's my wife?

She's seeing to the children, governor.

- Can I get you something?
- Yeah. Bring me a glass of buttermilk.

It's about time to turn in here.

Yes, sir.

- Watson.
- Yes, George?

What's that you're drinking?

Liquor drinking at the mansion's
against the rules.

All right.
Well, the rules were made for niggers.

White trash.

Not for me and Odum.

Hey, what do you think
of our new state police commander?

Al....

Lingo.

In all his finery.

I do appreciate it, governor.

- Me and all the boys appreciate it.
- Well, I'm counting on you, now.

- You've got it.
- All right.

Look, I'm gonna need y'all
staying around me now.

Sort of my unofficial kitchen cabinet.

There's a lot
we got to get going on right away.

It looks like that Martin Luther King's
stirring up insurrection in Birmingham.

He's got all them nigger school kids
involved in it now.

Ain't got no shame.

Don't worry.

I'll tend to his ass for you, governor.

Now, I always dreamed we'd have a chance
like this back when it was Judge Wallace.

Yeah.

He's trying to test me.

That's what he's doing.

We're gonna settle his hash real fast.

Gonna need y'all in my office
in the morning at 7:00.

Well, in that case, Wallace, I better
be getting me a good night's sleep.

Night, governor.

- George.
- Good night.

I've seen you before, ain't I?

It was Folsom's inaugural, wasn't it?

Yes, sir.

- What's your name again?
- Archie, sir.

Archie Weathers.

Been a trustee here how long?

Since 1952.

Who'd you up and kill, Archie?

A man.

He was messing with my wife.

Hmm.

And what were you doing before that?

Just working or what?

- I was a fighter, sir.
- That right?

Any good?

Won 16 and lost once.

Whew. Ha.

- Yeah?
- Yes, sir.

You know, I boxed once myself,
Golden Gloves.

It was the Alabama
bantamweight champion, yeah.

I guess all us fighters
got hot tempers, huh?

Yes, sir.

Let's see how good you are, Archie.

- Governor, I have to clean up around here.
- No, come on.

Just a second or two, huh?

We'll go at it.

Just a little play sparring, you know.

Come on. Come on.

Yeah, that's it.

Come on.

One time up in Birmingham,
night of a high school boxing tournament...

...I jumped in
and saved this little colored boy.

I saw a couple of white roughnecks
picking on him.

The only thing was, he broke my hand.

Lost my fight that night.

I'll tell you what.

You can help me get back in shape.

Count on you for that?

Yes, sir.

Yeah.

Gotta be getting on to bed now.

Gotta get up early tomorrow.

Now is when the real stuff begins.

- We're on the move now.
- Yes, sir.

- Like an idea whose time has come.
- Yes, sir.

Not even the marching of mighty armies
can halt us.

And all the world today knows
that we are here.

We are standing
before the forces of power...

...in the state of Alabama, saying we ain't
gonna let nobody turn us around.

They started erupting again
in Birmingham.

I want you to get there with your troopers
and do what you gotta do.

- I'll slap them under martial law.
- Yes, sir.

Okay, boys. Next stop, Birmingham.

Yeah.

Martin Luther King
and his group of pro-communists...

...have instigated these demonstrations
by lawless Negro mobs in Birmingham.

But the law-abiding citizens
of both races there...

...are fed up with this rioting and disruption
led by so-called clergymen...

...and their communist-inspired followers.

I am therefore sending
250 state troopers into that city...

...supported by 500 other law officers
of this state.

I will meet our enemies face to face.

I will not surrender!

Freedom now! Freedom now!

Get back, I said.

Come here.

Watch your hands.

That's what I'm gonna need.

Three more squads of boys down here,
because the niggers are running.

Bite him.

- Get a hold of him.
- Get off me.

I'll get him, I'll get him.

That way. Come on, let's go.

Come on, come on.

Get away from me.
Get away from me. Get away from me.

What's the real purpose
of what you've been doing in Birmingham?

Couldn't your defiance there spark
a major escalation of racial violence...

- ...in this state and all over the South?
- No, I don't believe so. No, not at all.

The action I took in Birmingham
was to maintain law and order...

...and to prevent violence.

Now, we have a system.

They use the water, they use the dogs,
bitten only 22 people in 45 days.

Twenty-two Negros in 45 days been injured,
and not a single one seriously.

Speaking more generally, governor...

...seems like your lawmen here
are especially fond of using cattle prods.

Yeah, that's correct. That's right.
Electric cattle prods.

I would like to tell you
that we have no apologies...

...for using electric cattle prods
for the simple reason...

...they are harmless, and when you're
having these demonstrations...

...a cattle prod is a lot better
than putting in tear gas...

...and hitting people with nightsticks.

Governor.

You say you're only representing the will
and feelings of the people of Alabama.

Do you mean to include
the Negro community?

Well, of course, the system
under which we operate in this country...

...the minority viewpoint
is certainly considered...

...but I'm expressing the sentiments...

...of the overwhelming majority
of the people in my state.

White people, you mean?

They're the majority, yes, that's correct.

Now, look here.

Look at all the folks
been writing me in here from all over.

Places like Montana...

...Ohio, California, Michigan.

Idaho, even.

Now, look at all the folks I got in here.

Governor, you're moving into
a confrontation with federal government...

...over these two Negro students
who have applied for admission...

...to the University of Alabama.

Now, in this case, can you tell us
what you could expect?

Just what I promised
in my campaign for governor.

Any attempts
to integrate any schools in Alabama...

...I shall stand in that schoolhouse door
to resist that.

That's what I said,
and that's what I meant.

You mean that literally?

Y'all excuse me for just one minute?

- One more question.
- One more question, governor.

- Just one more question.
- Mr. Wallace.

What's so urgent about a call
from the attorney general?

- Richmond Flowers ain't ever--
- No.

Attorney general of the United States.

Bobby Kennedy.

Says he needs to talk to you about
this pending problem at the university.

You tell him the governor's busy
with a press conference.

If he wants to call back later,
the governor might be available.

Busy.

We ain't transacting this thing
by phone to Washington.

- No, sir.
- Sure.

Hold on just a minute.

He says he don't know
why you won't talk to him.

You just tell him
I just plain don't want to, Odum.

You're gonna hurt his feelings.

Yeah, that's too bad, isn't it?

George Wallace,
standing in the schoolhouse door...

...against the might and power
of the federal government.

That'll make them sit up
and take notice all over this country.

We gonna make them bring troops
in this state.

- Now we're talking.
- You watch.

They're gonna have to put Alabama
under military occupation.

We gonna set the stage on this one.

Bobby Kennedy wants to talk to me,
he's gonna have to come down here.

- Welcome to Alabama.
- Thank you.

Well, you know,
his old man's a bootlegger.

He just running that....

- Gentlemen.
- Thank you.

Governor.

Hello, Mr. Attorney General.

Hello.

- Welcome to Alabama.
- Thank you.

Archie.

This here's my handyman,
Archie Weathers.

He's about the biggest fan
y'all got down here.

- Ain't that right, Archie?
- Yes, sir.

Hello.

This is Deputy Attorney General
Nicholas Katzenbach.

- Pleasure to meet you.
- Governor.

I've got a few fellows with me.

That's T.Y. Odum,
one of my close advisors.

Hello, sir.

Ricky Brickle there,
he's my press secretary.

Billy Watson,
he's sort of my senior advisor.

Hello.

Well, governor, you've got
quite a crowd outside too this morning.

Have we?

Well, I don't know.
I came up the back way.

Y'all have a seat.

- Mr. Attorney General, over here.
- Thank you.

- Mr. Katzenbach.
- Nick.

Here, you'll recognize him.

We're taping this conversation.

Thought we might wanna
save this for posterity.

Well, I don't know anybody
who would wanna listen to it, governor.

Well, you know, people in this state
feel like us talking to you folks...

...who have so much charm and wit...

...you gonna get us
in a compromising position.

But we're glad to have you in Alabama...

...and we feel like this is
the courtesy capital of the nation.

So if you wanna
pay a courtesy visit, we, uh....

Well, this is the courtesy capital
of the world.

- Ain't that right?
- Yes, sir.

- Sure is.
- Yes, sir.

Well, terrific.

But I wonder if we might talk about
the problem of integration...

...we are perhaps facing
at the university?

I don't hear good.

Too many bombing missions
over in Japan, there.

Integration of the university.

Oh, yeah. You wanna discuss that?

Well, you're here as my guests so....

Do you think it would be horrifying,
governor...

...to have a Negro attend the university?

I think it's horrifying for the federal courts
and the central government...

...to force upon the people
that which they don't want.

Yes.

Y'all want a Coke?

I might have one.

- How about you?
- No, thank you.

Boys?

- Sure.
- All right.

Archie, bring us four bottles of Coke.

Yes, sir.

Getting back to this...

...what's gonna happen with this attempt
to integrate the university.

Of course, now, you folks are the ones
who will control that matter.

Because you have control of the troops.

Well, we do have a responsibility
to ensure...

...with all the force behind the government,
that the orders of the court are followed.

I know that. You're gonna use
the force of the government.

Just like you did
over there in Mississippi.

At old Miss, last fall, to get that
James Meredith fella enrolled there.

Fact, what you're telling me, if necessary,
you're gonna bring troops into Alabama too.

- No, I did not say that, governor.
- You didn't?

You did say all the force
of the federal government...

...and all the force
includes troops, don't it?

Just like at old Miss,
all those bayonets and all.

Well, I'm planning and hoping
that won't be necessary, governor.

Maybe somebody here wants us to use--

You seem to, uh, want me to say
that I'm going to use troops.

Well, you did say that you'd....

You said that--

No, governor,
you are the one talking about force.

Look.

Thank you.

We trying to do a lot of real things
for the Negro people down here.

You know, give them jobs, education.

But all this agitation and all this
business with Martin Luther King...

...who's a phony and a fraud,
marching and going to jail and all that.

They just living high on the hog, now.

But now,
if you could use your influence...

...because the NAACP
and all those other groups...

...you know, they feel like you people...

...are almost gods.

If you could just exert some influence
to persuade those people...

...to stop this integration movement,
this business of marching.

For instance,
if you could persuade these people...

...trying to get into the University
of Alabama...

...to withdraw their applications, we--

Governor, that would be
neither right nor possible.

Just to use our persuasive power
on the other side, you're saying?

Yes, that's right.

Because I'm not for you using
persuasive power on us to integrate.

I'm against integration.

I just don't believe
in social and educational mixing.

And I think I've made it clear
that what's involved for us...

...for President Kennedy, is the integrity
and the orders of the court, governor.

- All set here, Al?
- We all set up here.

Help us out a little bit now.

Governor of Alabama. Help him out.

Come on. Step back, now.

Morning, boys.

Yeah, I'm ready for this scrap, huh?

Sir.

Like climbing in the ring again.

Only with the whole country watching.

Governor, I don't know
what the purpose of this show is.

I'm here to see that the orders
of the court are enforced.

I'm asking that you step aside
and permit these students...

...who want an education at a great--

Now, we don't need for you to
make a speech, just make your statement.

I was making my statement. I was in
the process of making my statement.

I'm asking your unequivocal assurance
that you will not bar these students.

"As governor of the state of Alabama,
I, George C. Wallace...

...deem it my solemn duty
to stand before you...

...and seeking to preserve and maintain
the peace and dignity of this state...

...and the individual freedoms
of the citizens thereof...

...do hereby denounce and forbid...

...this illegal, unwarranted
and force-induced intrusion...

...upon the campus
of the University of Alabama...

...by the might
of the central government."

So, governor, I take it from your statement
that you intend to stay in the doorway.

- I stand by my statement.
- You stand by your statement.

Governor, James Hood and Vivian Malone
will register today.

And they will go
to school here tomorrow.

You keep the press humming here.

They gonna have to federalize
the Alabama National Guard now.

Detail, halt.

Go on.

It is my sad duty to ask you
to step aside...

...under orders from the president
of the United States.

If not for this unwarranted federalization
of the National Guard...

...I would be your commander in chief.

It is a bitter pill to swallow.

We shall now return to Montgomery...

...to continue this constitutional fight.

We are confronted primarily
with a moral issue.

It is as old as the scriptures...

...and is as clear
as the American Constitution.

The heart of the question is...

...whether all Americans are to be afforded
equal rights and equal opportunities.

Whether we are going to treat our
fellow Americans as we want to be treated.

If an American,
because his skin is dark...

...cannot eat lunch in a restaurant
open to the public...

...if he cannot send his children
to the best public school available...

...if he cannot vote for the public officials
who represent him...

...if, in short, he cannot enjoy the full
and free life which all of us want...

...then who among us
would be content...

...to have the color of his skin changed
and stand in his place?

Who among us would then be content
with the counsels of patience and delay?

One hundred years of delay have passed
since President Lincoln freed the slaves...

...yet their heirs, their grandsons,
are not fully free.

They are not yet freed
from the bonds of injustice.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy
and his little brother, Bobby.

They just ain't caught on
to what really happened over there today.

A couple of niggers got registered,
but it don't matter.

Because I stood in the doorway against
the full force of the federal government...

...and millions of Americans
stood with me.

The Kennedys, they got no idea...

...how the common, ordinary folks
all over this country...

...really feel
about this race-mixing question.

They start catching this mess up north...

...and everywhere else, it's gonna
Southernize the whole country out there.

Gonna make what's happening in Alabama
seem like a Sunday school picnic.

George Corley Wallace...

...sure enough
got a lot to say about that.

Yeah, I think the time's come, Billy.

I'm going national.

I accept the nomination.

You don't belong here!

Where's your horn, George?

I wanna say-- I wanna say
that I'm very proud....

You're a racist.

I'm very proud to be amongst all you
very intelligent-looking folks...

...up here at Harvard tonight.

Of course, I realize you all
more genteel up here, more civilized.

Well, I do sense there might be
some disagreements among us.

Yeah!

But I want us all to be in a good humor
this evening, you hear?

Fuck you, George Wallace.

Now, didn't you ever learn any manners?

You sound like
you ain't had much raising.

Why don't you try
using another four-letter word...

...like W-O-R-K or S-O-A-P?

Why don't you try those?
You don't know those.

Actually, a lot of people
been asking me here lately...

...if I'm gonna be running for president
in 1964.

If somebody like you
can run for president...

...I might run myself,
as a revolutionary for president.

Well, now-- Well, now,
between you and me both...

...we might manage to kick out
that crowd in Washington.

Maybe we should run on the same ticket.

I don't think so.

Hey, what would you call it,
the Lynch Party?

Yet they now forcing parents to bus
their little children clear across town...

...just so they can sit in a class
with those from the opposite race.

We don't wanna hear
your Southern racist demagoguery.

Yeah!

Then what all y'all doing here?

Just wait, just wait.

But you wanna talk
about this race matter a minute?

Yeah!

All right, then.

It is well-known by now...

...that I do not believe in social
and educational mixing of the races.

But the liberal left-wing press has tried to
make segregation synonymous with hatred.

It's a sin against human dignity.

Well, now, I believe
that separation is good...

...for our white citizens
and our Negro citizens alike.

Did you bring
your Birmingham dogs with you?

Oh, my goodness, fella,
you gone and made me lose my place here.

We shall overcome

Of course...

...people in the states
with 1 percent Negro population...

...and the rest white...

...they can always talk about things
in Alabama...

...where you got 30 percent
Negro population and the rest white.

Governor, we need to get out right now,
for your personal safety.

Well, they tell me we got to leave y'all...

...because we got little unrest
developing outside.

I appreciate y'all
coming out here tonight. Thank you.

Yellow commie brats.

Throw their asses in jail!

Shut up, you dumb brats.

- Kick his ass!
- Yeah, you bunch of freaks!

Get out of here, you commie punks!

Good God almighty, look what we done
set off, even way up here.

- Watch it, George.
- Take him, take him!

Give them hell, George!

Come on, George.

God sakes alive, George.
Look what they're doing to our car.

Get down from there, you little....

- Get off there, you little....
- Damn you.

Get off there.

- This way, sir. Try to get by.
- All right.

Get out of the way, now.

You nigger-loving little commie punks.

- Get out of the way.
- Ahh!

Damn.

You left-wing pinko radical.

You should appreciate me
for putting money in your riot treasury.

Sing, damn it, sing. I'm too old to run.

I don't know the words.

Well, pretend, goddamn it.

We shall overcome

Take this back to the hotel.
I'll meet you there.

All right.

Get out of there.

- Come on.
- My shoulder.

- Get in the car.
- Damnedest party I've ever....

Jesus.

All right, there you go.

Kiss my Alabama ass goodbye.

Move.

Stay back!

Good Lord,
I'm too old for this kind of wretch.

Sure are a lot of them Zulus.

They go right
with all those hairy beatniks.

Damn ignorant, uncultured intellectuals.

I know that most of the American people
feel the way I do.

Like those working fellas.

You see them? One kicked this
professor four feet straight up in the air.

You see that?

Tell you what,
you're speaking for them now.

That's right, the real people.

That's who this all's really been for
tonight, of course.

Why, down home, I tell you...

...nigger comes up to you like they just
been doing up here, he gonna get shot.

Get his head busted.

That's why we don't have none
of this business at home.

They start this kind of riot,
first one to throw something...

...gets a bullet in the brain, that's all.

You walk over to the next one, you say,
"All right, let's see you throw something."

Let them see you
shoot down a few of them.

You got it stopped.

Is that right?

Liberals, all the time
whining about compassion and mercy.

Hell, we got too much compassion
and mercy in government already.

What we need is some meanness, right?

Yeah, but keep on making your speech
about big government...

...telling everybody what schools
their children gotta go to.

That's what a candidate for president
ought to be saying right now.

They'll know what I'm talking about.

Ain't that right?

The 16th Street Baptist
Church has served as a major staging point...

...for the recent series of civil-rights
demonstrations here in Birmingham.

This Sunday morning, it was wrecked
by a powerful dynamite bomb...

...an explosion which killed
four young Negro girls...

...in a Sunday-school Bible class.

Mrs. Wallace watching TV?

Yes, sir.

You want something to eat?

Yeah, have Mary fix me up
a tomato sandwich.

Yes, sir.

Scores of Sunday school children came
running out of the church screaming...

...some bleeding.

Police, firemen
and emergency medical units....

George.

- Amid a rising sound of wails....
- It's terrible.

They and neighborhood residents began
grappling through the wreckage...

...searching for possible victims.

They soon found them.

After one rescue worker spotted....

And we just got back
from church ourselves.

--Hand, and the edge
of a bloodied white dress.

The white dress shoe of one was found
and identified by her grandfather.

All four girls had been dressed
for this morning's special services...

...entirely in white.

They had just heard their teacher
deliver a lesson...

...entitled, "The Love that Forgives."

Police have been trying to contain
the upheavals of protest...

...and outrage that have since swept
the Negro sections of Birmingham.

Archie.

--Hurled a barrage of stones
at white people.

Archie!

--In cars flying Confederate battle flags.

Governor's.

It's Colonel Al Lingo, sir.

Yeah, I just got in.
What the hell happened?

But a 16-year-old Negro boy
was fatally hit in the back.

At least three fires have....

Hang on a minute.

Peggy Sue, Bobbi Jo,
you don't wanna watch this mess.

Go on up to your rooms or something.

Come on, come on, do as I say. Let's go.

- You wanna go with your sister?
- Let's go, come on.

--Racial warfare could now finally
break open in this city.

President Kennedy interrupted a visit to
Rhode Island to return to the White House...

...for emergency discussions
of the situation....

- Ain't you got something better to do?
- Yes, sir.

Everybody gawking, like....

It's so awful.

--Full-scale investigation.

Police inspectors believe at least 15
sticks of dynamite were used in the bomb...

...judging from its impact.

It left a sizable crater....

You know
I never wanted nothing like this.

All but one of the church's
stained-glass windows were blown out.

The one remaining
seems to have been damaged....

Governor,
the governor's at the back door.

What governor?

Governor Folsom. He's at the back door.

He said he need to talk to you
for a minute.

- Big Jim?
- Yes, sir.

At the back door?

That's all I need right now.

Well, let him in, Archie, let him in.
Shut the door.

All right, now, what we gonna say was....

Was obviously these nigger agitators
themselves trying to rouse sympathy.

That's who done this thing.

Yeah.

All right, all right. I gotta go.

As of yet, there has been no comment
from Governor Wallace himself.

- You out here?
- George. Heh-heh.

Damn, Big Jim, what happened to you?

I got a broke foot.

Lord have mercy.

Lot of great old rampaging times
in this old place, wasn't there, George?

But doctors made me quit drinking now.

What can I do for you?

I hope it's all right for me to be here.
I don't wanna embarrass you.

That's the reason I came in
through the back way.

Sure, governor, that's fine.
Always glad to see you.

It's them sons of bitches
over there in the Department of Pensions.

I need a little more help, I'm about broke.
But they won't help me on.

They wouldn't give me potato chips
if I was starving.

If they was hurting, I'd help them out.

That's why you come over here?

Get your pension increased?

Yeah.

Tell me how much more you need.

They already know.
I done told them sons of bitches.

Well, I'll see if I can't work something
out somehow, you know that.

Thank you, George.

That, uh...?

- That all you wanted to see me about?
- Yeah, I won't bother you no more, George.

I sure appreciate it, though.

It's all right. That's all right.

I guess you heard what happened up there
in Birmingham this morning.

It was terrible, wasn't it?

Oh, now, goddamn, George.
Didn't I tell you?

You went ahead and done it anyway.

What the hell's the matter with you?
You wasn't no race bigot back then.

What'd you do, chatter yourself into it?

- Look, Big Jim, I don't need--
- George.

Me and you was populists together.

Times got ugly. You got scared,
you lose that connection to folks.

If you lose that, then you're nothing.

It's like it's all you feel
gives you any personal meaning, huh?

Like the terror
of not being able to breathe.

Lookie here, now. What you think
you're doing, talking to me like that?

George, I said I knew you...

...because the need for the people
was in me too.

Only I never go so desperate
to stay politically alive, I'd let--

I mean, good God, they're four
little girls in a Sunday school class!

I knew you were coming in here
about that.

What the hell you saying?

That ain't nothing I done.

- I'm as sick about it as you.
- No, you ain't.

You let loose all them low dogs in people's
necks. You've let them out loose.

I could've done the same damn thing,
probably still be governor.

I could've hung a nigger
on every stump too.

- That don't get you nothing in the long run.
- Oh, yeah.

You're somebody be giving folks advice
about the long run.

That's right, let loose them old dogs
of hatred and violence...

...and sooner or later,
they're gonna turn on you, hit at you.

Mad dog don't differentiate, George.

You get devoured by what you yourself
turn loose, that's what happens.

- What's the matter?
- I ain't feeling so good.

I gotta go home.

George, I didn't mean
to lose my temper in there.

I know, I know.
You're right, George, I'm sorry.

I ain't really been well lately.

They tell me they're gonna have
to operate on my brain for something.

Yeah.

I know you ain't too well right now,
but you'll be getting better before long.

George, I really do be needing some help.

It's all them damn bills.

Yeah, well, I'll look into it tomorrow.
Don't worry.

Okay.

How'd you get over here?

I got my new wife driving me, George.

She ain't much over 30 years old.

Found her in this county fair up yonder.

Oh, I still get my exercise every evening,
don't you worry about that.

You like an old grizzly.
Why didn't you bring her in?

Oh, she didn't wanna come in
for some reason.

Well, George.

Sorry to bother you.

Hey, George.

Y'all come, now.

Darling, you have been getting
so many calls, you wouldn't believe.

That's where you been?

George McGovern called you
personally a little while ago.

So did Hubert Humphrey.

Ah, see there?

They know.

They know just because I been shot...

...that don't mean there ain't still all those
millions of folks out there voted for me.

That's right.

I showed them all.

Nixon too.

Those folks are out there.

I ain't out of this thing yet.

I'm going to that convention.
Miami Beach.

Of course you are, darling.

Ahh!

Oh, now, goddamn it, George.
The doctors ain't said yet you can just go--

Oh, what do they know, anyway?

They got no idea how far
I've already come since I started out.

Excuse me, governor. Mrs. Wallace.

I haven't seen those boys before.
Who are they?

Just some troopers I'm taking with me
up to New York tomorrow.

There's that speech I'm giving for you
up at the Waldorf.

What speech?

A very big group
of very important businessmen.

And even some entertainment
executives gonna be there.

I tell you, I'm going
to that convention, Miami Beach.

I'm going.

And we're gonna make sure
you do too, honey.

You're gonna make it.

You're gonna make it. Right, Archie?

Don't you think you should ease up, sir?

Why don't you rest a little bit here?

Don't wanna overdo it.

Damn.

Don't wanna do too much.

I'm going to Miami.

Ahh!

Damn pain.

It's burning.

It burns.

This, after I come this far.

What you're seeing is footage
just into our station and unedited...

...of the clash on this Sunday
between civil-rights marchers...

...and state law officers
at the Pettus Bridge in Selma.

Lookie here a second, George.

--As part of Martin Luther King's
campaign for voting rights.

Barricading their way
were some 100 of Al Lingo's....

It's kind of strange, think about it.

Just over yonder, there's
Martin Luther King's old church...

...that Dexter Avenue Baptist.

Within a hollering distance of here,
and that's where he started...

...this goddamn
so-called civil-rights movement.

Yeah.

And this is where it's gonna be stopped.

--Nonviolent coordinating committee.

Lewis himself was struck down
by a blow to the head in today's clash.

One Selma movement leader,
Mrs. Ophelia--

Son of a bitch.

I didn't know it was gonna
be turning out this big a showdown.

Never thought King's crowd
would have the nerve for it.

Archie, bring me a cigar.

By the way, Archie.

Been meaning to tell you
since I heard last night.

Mighty sorry about your daddy
getting shot over there in Hayneville.

Just awful things happening now.

How a fine old man like him could get
mixed up with these agitators, I can't....

Just terrible.

You can go over there
to his funeral if you want to.

Thank you, governor.

George, lookie here at what's happening.

Lingo's troopers were reinforced
by a county sheriff....

They ain't showing a whole
lot of fear, are they?

Archie.

Gerald, turn it up.

--Voting rights campaign of Selma
has been accompanied of course...

...by weeks of disturbance
and violence in that city...

...and the counties around,
including now even some deaths.

This is, I believe, Colonel Lingo's
second-in-command, Major John Cloud.

Lingo's exact whereabouts right now--
I don't know, I don't see.

Go home or go back to your church.

Troopers advance.

Stand clear.

Don't push.

Get back there!

Move it!

I should say this is the first look
at this footage for some of us here.

We are also told that the marchers
were pursued on back...

...into the Negro section of Selma.

The injured have been spilling
into a hospital there...

...over 50 at last report.

Holy smokes, George.
What's this gonna do to us?

The injuries reportedly range
from severe head lesions...

- Down, turn it down.
- ...to broken teeth to fracture ribs.

Well, it's not gonna hurt us at all.

King's mob of agitators marched,
and we turned them back.

It's a victory for us.

Of course, the editorial writers in
big-city papers, they gonna be howling...

...about "this is what's happening
in George Wallace's Alabama."

But the people gonna be saying,
"That's right.

And he don't allow any of these
wooly-bully agitators...

...to take over the public highways
and streets."

It's gonna take a whole lot more
than singing and revival preaching...

...and whooping to stand
against the will of the majority.

And the majority of folks in Alabama
stand with George Wallace!

We have the right to walk the highway.

We have the right to walk to Montgomery
if our feet can get us there.

We must let the nation know,
and we must let the world know.

I'm calling into federal service...

...selected units
of the Alabama National Guard.

And also we'll have available police units
from the regular Army...

...to help meet state responsibilities.

These forces should be adequate
to assure the rights of American citizens...

...pursuant to a federal court order...

...to walk peaceably and safely...

...without injury or loss of life
from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

You still up, huh?

I'm just reading my Bible, sir.

Get me a glass of buttermilk, Archie.

Yes, sir.

Can't seem to get to sleep.

Must be all that hullabaloo
went on over there in Selma today.

Book of Judges, huh?

What's in here?

I was just flipping through.

Like I said, Archie,
real sorry about your daddy.

I guess you know they arrested
a couple of Klan fellas this evening.

You know, I never have trusted that bunch,
though they tried to get close to me.

You know I don't hate colored folks,
don't you, Archie?

Yes, sir, governor.

I ever tell you about
old Carlton McKinness?

He's a old colored handyman
around our place when I was growing up.

He must've been 80 years old.

Illiterate.

We loved him like one of our own family.

Old Carlton got it into his head one time
that he wanted to live up there...

...in Detroit with a daughter of his.

So we finally gave him a little money.

Wasn't long, though...

...before he showed up again
at our back door.

He said:

"The way those folks
live up there is something terrible."

But....

We were as glad to see him
as he was to see us.

When he got too old to get around...

...we'd take stuff down to him,
to his little place.

And, like, every Christmas or so.

And I can still see old Carlton...

...just trembling and laughing
when we'd tote in those hams to him.

Old Carlton.

Made us mighty sad when he passed on.

We sure loved him.

He loved us too.

What's the matter? You all right?

Oh, yeah.

Believe me,
I know it's hard losing a daddy.

You better get on to bed now.

Yes, sir.

That, uh, Martin Luther King,
you ever seen him preach, Archie?

No, sir.

I never quite had the chance.

I've never seen him myself, actually.

I mean live, in person.

But the federal court's probably
gonna let him make his march...

...from Selma anyhow in the end.

Expect we'll both be seeing him out there
on that capital lawn sooner or later.

Despite everything.

Seems like hardly any way
to hold them back finally.

Well....

See you in the morning.

Yes, sir.

In the dusty roads
and streets of this state.

Yes, sir.

So I stand before you this afternoon...

...with the conviction that segregation
is on its deathbed in Alabama...

...and the only thing uncertain about it...

...is how costly the segregationists
and Wallace will make the funeral.

--All over Alabama that prevents a Negro
from becoming a registered voter.

No, we will not allow Alabama
to return to normalcy.

- Because no lie can live forever.
- Yes, sir.

How long? Not long.

Because you shall reap what you sow.

That's right.

- How long? Not long.
- Not long.

Truth forever on the scaffold
Wrong forever on the throne

Yes, sir.

Yet that scaffold sways the future

And, behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow

Keeping watch above his own

- How long? Not long.
- You tell them.

Because the arc of the moral universe
is long, but it bends toward justice.

- How long? Not long. Because:
- Not long.

Mine eyes have seen the glory
Of the coming of the Lord;

He is trampling out the vintage
Where the grapes of wrath are stored;

I do believe

We shall overcome someday

All right.

How'd it all go up in Cleveland,
governor?

Hey, just like I figured. That
march of King's only made folks more for us.

Auditorium up there was plumb packed.

You'd just go to say
something, and damn...

...those folks would be out
of those seats hollering.

You should've seen it.

Public works secretary needs you
to call him as soon as you can.

That fella from Newsweek
has called three times already.

American Legion has added a second
appearance. First one is sold out.

I scheduled a conference with the
Alabama Women's League...

...on Thursday morning at 10.

What's this?

Captain Alexander sent
that over this morning.

Look at that, boys. How about that?

We just put that right over here.

- Get that Newsweek fella on the phone.
- Yes, sir.

Yeah, all these magazine writers...

...they always calling me and asking me
how I wanna be remembered by history.

History can take care of itself.

The governor of Alabama,
he's just going on ahead.

Ain't you forgetting
a little something, Wallace?

You can't just go on ahead.
Not as governor, anyway.

Four-year term's all you get.

State constitution says
you can't succeed yourself.

- You remember that little technicality?
- We just gonna have to fix that.

After coming all this far,
I gotta hold on to this public office...

...to keep this national thing going.

Sort of my aircraft carrier
for launching the whole thing.

I ain't governor,
suddenly I'm in oblivion.

I ain't nothing.

Can't be running for president
in '68 like that.

Now, I've been thinking...

...what I'm gonna do is call
an emergency session of the legislature.

Have them draw up a little amendment...

...for the people to vote on,
wiping that thing out of the constitution.

Well, now, Wallace,
you may be going a little too far this--

Let me get this straight, now.

You wanna call an emergency session...

...for a constitutional amendment
so you can succeed yourself?

Legislature's gonna be a little bit
reluctant to go along with that one.

Yeah, well, the people won't be.

Goddamn, boys,
what's the constitution, anyway?

The people are the first source of power.

I sure as hell ain't letting
a few pissant legislators...

...get between me
and the people on this.

Anybody opposing us...

...I'll just damn well cut off state funds
to every project in their counties.

Roads, colleges, clinics,
everything I have to.

Governor, you're the one that put
a lot of them things there in the first place.

Yeah, and I can damn well
take them back too.

- That's all getting a little rough, George.
- Billy...

...you don't seem to understand.

I'm gonna be running for president
of the United States in 1968.

Here I got to waste some time now
just fighting to stay alive.

And we got to go all-out
to get this thing fixed fast.

Because I got
a whole lot bigger fish to fry.

You see, it's about 2 centimeters
by 4 centimeters, and as you can see....

- Well, you can see it in this one better. No--
- Jeff, Jeff, just....

Yeah.

Sorry, George.

Now, I'm sure you remember
when Lurleen gave birth to little Lee.

And we did a cesarean,
and we found some growths, and, uh....

- Well, several pathologists examined them.
- Yeah.

- They just weren't sure--
- They were wrong, Jeff.

No. Listen to me, George.

They weren't wrong.

- They just weren't sure, but now, in fact--
- You're not telling me that....

I am.

I am afraid that I am telling you
that she has cancer.

And, well, we're gonna
have to do a rather extensive--

Well, a hysterectomy, you know.

Damn it, George, if we'd have found
that tumor in time--

- It's just--
- Well, she is gonna be just fine.

I know her.

Always been a tough little gal.

She'll whup this thing.

- She know yet?
- No.

We gonna have to tell her, George.

All right, then.

I guess you better tell her, Jeff.
I mean, I couldn't.

Yeah, no, all right now.
All right, no, I understand, George.

You just wait right here.

Order.

Ladies and gentlemen,
please come to order.

I call for order.

Please respect that, folks.

Neither do you, sir. Neither do you!

Ladies and gentlemen,
please listen to me.

I asked for order.

Citizens of Alabama...

...I am here to ask the members
of this body before you tonight...

...do you trust the people
to have the sense to decide...

...whether a governor can
succeed himself in this state...

...or is it you're afraid
to let the people vote on that?

So I challenge this body.

Send this amendment for letting
the governor succeed himself.

Send it on to the people of Alabama
to vote on.

Let the people speak.

Wallace, Wallace, Wallace....

Hi, honey.

Why, George,
you came all the way out here?

Figured this is where I'd find you.

Feeling some better?

Just fine.

I decided to let them handle
the state themselves for a while.

Seems what they set on anyway.

I am sorry
you didn't get that amendment.

Maybe this time you were
a little too overbearing, honey.

You know, make them feel bullied?

They still have some pride too,
you know.

- Anyway, I don't mean to be--
- You know that, uh, operation?

It's gonna take care of everything.

Don't you worry about that.

What is it, George?

You wanna ask me something,
don't you?

We need that office.

To keep on campaigning for president...

...we got to have the name Wallace
out there as governor.

I see.

You'll make just a dandy governor,
honey.

I'm gonna be right there
helping you all the way.

- The power behind the throne.
- Exactly.

Exactly. We just come
too far now to let all this--

No, George.

Only reason, it'll be because I love you.

We better be going, huh?
You about through here?

I guess I am.

--And build more and better
schools for your children...

...and great parks for your families.

And I promise you, I will.

So I am happy
to offer the voters of Alabama...

...the opportunity
for enjoying a continuation...

...of the progress
and honest government...

...which has been so much in evidence
during the administration of my husband.

With his wise counsel to call upon
and God's help...

...I pledge to you that we will continue
to stand up for Alabama together.

And I shall do my duty to you
with conviction.

And I shall make you a good governor.

We love you, Lurleen.

And now,
may I, at this time, present to you...

...the man who
will be my number one assistant...

...my husband and your governor--

God bless you both!

--George C. Wallace.

- Good crowd tonight, give them hell.
- Oh, you know I will.

- How you doing? Good job.
- I'm gonna wait in the car.

No, no, stay here, honey.
It won't look good.

Billy, go on over
and walk Lurleen to the car.

Thank you. How y'all doing?

All right.

- And I wanna let y'all in on something...
- What's that, George?

...that I haven't told you yet.

And all you married folks will know
what I'm talking about here.

My wife's been actually running that show
up there in Montgomery anyway...

...for the last three years.

She's just agreed to let me help her
for the next four years, now.

Well, Billy, I guess I'm to be
just one of the boys now, huh?

Are you all right?

- I been a little worried about you here lately.
- Oh, hell, I'm getting along.

- It's you that concerns me, Lurleen.
- Oh.

Too many cigarettes.

Too much coffee.

I'm probably a hell of a one to talk,
but I'm worried about you.

I'm fine.

I mean, aren't I?

I never knew so many people in Alabama
chewed tobacco.

Seems they all for me.

- Yeah, they all kissed you too.
- Heh.

- Thank you.
- No, you doing just fine, honey.

They say she's only making this race
for the office so I can run....

You know, this campaigning
can take a hell of a lot out of anybody.

I promised George.

Well, I made that little varmint.

He knows I can unmake him.

I'm gonna talk to him
about lightening up on you a little bit.

It wasn't supposed to involve you.

It's gone too far.
I don't like it a damn bit.

No, it's what I promised to do.

Least....

Least it will be one way finally
to be spending more time together.

Can't beat them, join them, huh, Billy?

Would you mind shutting the door?
I'm gonna try to rest a little bit.

Sure, little girl.

Anyhow, I'll let you all in
on a little secret...

...these bigtime national politicians, like
Lyndon Johnson, Humphrey and Nixon...

...they don't hang their pictures
on the wall....

Today, the eyes of the nation
are on Alabama...

...because Alabama is making of herself
an example of leadership...

...and is contributing
toward a strengthening of our nation.

Today, wherever you may be...

...be proud to be called an Alabamian.

We have always taken pride
in the great people we represent.

We have always endeavored
to stand in the front ranks for you...

...in defense of your philosophy.

It is because of our respect...

...for the great people of Alabama
and for their principles...

...that we have often said that we see
no reason why a man from Alabama...

...would not make just as good a president
as a man from New York.

- Yeah!
- Or California.

- Yeah!
- Or maybe a better one than from Texas.

Yeah!

President Johnson's only encouraging
these mass demonstrations.

And I tell you this.

I'll tell you this,
when you elect me your president...

...a bunch of anarchists wanna lie down
in front of my automobile...

...I'm gonna cure them of lying down
in front of automobiles ever again.

I'll tell you that much.

When some street thugs go out...

...and murder a bunch of people
and burn down half a city...

...the pseudo-intellectuals claim it's because
they didn't get enough broccoli to eat...

...when they were little boys.

Or didn't get any watermelon
when they were 10 years old.

Common, ordinary folks
in this country work hard...

...save their money,
teach their children to respect the law.

That's right.

We people in the South feel
it's gonna take the good people...

...and the rest of the country
all combined...

...to force this country back to sanity.

Because they all had enough...

...of these hippies and beatniks,
atheists...

...civil-rights agitators, welfare cheats
and anti-Vietnam rioters...

...overrunning this government.

We're not going to allow
hundreds of American servicemen...

...to be killed every week
in Southeast Asia.

That's right. Throw something else.

You're a real fella, throwing things.

You better throw them now...

...because you're not gonna throw them
after November 5th, I guarantee you that.

You may can chant here
against us in Vietnam...

...but if you lived in North Vietnam, you
couldn't chant for this country over there...

...I assure you of that.

And anybody stands up
and waves a Vietcong flag...

...and says they long for victory
by the Vietcong...

...and goes out raising blood
and money for the Vietcong...

...against our American servicemen
over there...

...then they ought to be drug by the hair
on their heads before a grand jury...

...and indicted for treason,
because that's what they're guilty of.

Could we clear the room, please,
ladies and gentlemen?

Officers, open the door there,
let's get some air in here.

Please, just clear the room.

Look at me.

You were always first, Lurleen.

I know that, George.

Deep down here,
you're always first, you know?

Ever since...

...I first walked into that dime store
and saw that--

Shh.

And I've always known that...

...deep down too, honey.

It's all right.

I do know you.

It's who I've always loved.

My blessing
will always go with you, George.

Through whatever, it'll be all right.

Oh, God.

Please, let me live.

I wanna live.

But if I can't live...

...please, give me the strength
and faith...

...to face whatever I have to face now.

Lurleen?

Lurleen?

Jeff. Jeff.

Is she gone?

I'm afraid so, George.

Say, that's who?

Oh, her?

- She's just a friend I met, George.
- Mm-hm.

- What's her name?
- She a runner-up Miss Alabama.

Waterskiing champion
at Cypress Gardens.

Country singer too.

Sang backup to Roy Acuff.

Don't say.

Been to Hollywood.

Got a divorce.

George, Lurleen, she been gone
more than a year and a half now.

A man needs a woman, governor.

All these road bunnies not enough.

Get you into trouble real fast.

That is one hell
of a splendid beast of a woman.

Mm-hm.

Hello, Gerald, T.Y.

- Howdy.
- Welcome aboard. Here.

Let me help you dry off, sweetie.

Cold, huh? Heh, heh, heh.

Ahem. This here's my brother, George.

Yes, of course.

Everybody knows him.

Everybody.

Well, that feels awfully good, governor.

Why don't you turn around, then?

We've met before, you know.

I was wearing a night gown?

I met your wife Lurleen then too.

She said I had a lovely name
and gave me a kiss.

Of course, I looked a lot taller than you
at the time...

...riding as I was on the shoulders
of my uncle.

Son of a....

Folsom. You were riding
on Big Jim's shoulders?

You're Big Jim Folsom's niece?

Mm-hm.

And my name?

- Cornelia.
- Heh, heh, heh. Yes.

Cornelia, yeah, that little girl?

Well, I'll be damned.

But I've grown up now.

Here she is, here she is.

Bring that camera over here now
and get ready. Cornelia, Cornelia, honey.

Cornelia, honey. Tell the gentlemen what
it's like to be at your first convention.

Oh, well, this is my first time
at a national political convention...

...as the wife of a candidate.

I believe I'm the only candidate's wife...

...who's traveled with her husband
to every single campaign stop.

It's all been very exciting.

Mr. Chairman, and delegates
to the Democratic National Convention...

...ladies and gentlemen.

I do appreciate this chance
to address the convention tonight...

...though I guess I've already spoke
to one political rally too many this year.

But anyway, I'd like to point out...

...that as a result of our campaign...

...other politicians are beginning to say
identically the same thing we been saying.

And you gonna be hearing even more
in the years ahead, I guarantee you that.

The average citizen is sick and tired
of their tax money...

...going to every country from A to Z that
spits in our face in the United Nations...

...and actively aids our enemies
in Vietnam.

And to wind up my brief remarks,
ladies and gentlemen...

...I just wanna say that I believe
in quality of education.

I wanna see the American dream realized
by everyone in this country...

...but every poll shows that 75
to 85 percent of the American people...

...are against the senseless, asinine
busing of little school children...

...to achieve racial balance
throughout the United States.

I can tell you...

...that any party
that doesn't confront this issue...

...and confront it in the right manner...

...is going to be in jeopardy
as far as success is concerned...

...this coming November.

I'm here because I wanna help
the Democratic Party.

I want it again to become the party
of the average citizen in this country.

As it used to be.

And not the party
of the intellectual, uh, pseudo-snobbery...

...that has controlled it
for so many years.

Thank you very much,
ladies and gentlemen.

Are you sure
you don't want any champagne?

No.

What time you want us tomorrow?

Ten.

- Ten it is.
- Cheers.

That'll be all for tonight.

- Good night.
- Good night.

How come those two fellas
all the time with you these days?

Because I need protection.

I have to do a lot of traveling
for you now.

Well....

After that speech of mine tonight, I don't
know how damn much it really matters.

Didn't seem to connect there.

Couldn't connect.

Honey, no, no.

You were great.

There's nothing left you need to prove.

They know who George Wallace is.

And you were there.

And for actually making it here
to give that speech...

...we are gonna have
our own celebration.

Just you and me.

Honey, what you doing?

I'm dancing with you.

I can't dance.

Well, I'll dance you like this
for both of us.

Honey, I want to but I can't....

I missed you.

Hm?

- This ain't working, honey.
- Yes, it can, honey.

Try to touch me.

Just touch me.

Ugh, ow!

What's--?

It's burning, honey.

Oh, the pain.

Okay. It's okay, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

It's all right. It's--

It's all right.

Goddamn it.

Oh, it's like fire.

It's like fire, honey.

- God, I'm sorry.
- It's all right.

It's all right.

Come here.

Where's George?

Hey, y'all, I'm home.

Eddie, you help with the rest
of the bags back there in the trunk.

Come on. Hurry up, now.

Where is he? Honey?

Honey, I'm home.

Hurry up now, Eddie.
I got to be at TV station in an hour.

Oh, honey, there you are.

Leave those in the middle.
I'm gonna change quick.

Oh, excuse me, ma'am.
Shall I open it for you, Miss Cornelia?

That's fine.

Oh, honey, if you just
could've been with me in San Diego.

There were hundreds
and hundreds at that dinner.

And I got up to speak and whoo!

Lord, you've never heard
so much cheering in your life.

I expect I have.

And next week, the correspondents'
banquet in Washington.

And a publisher up in New York
wants to talk about my doing a book.

I got a call from a record company
about doing an album of country ballads.

You believe that?

That's all you doing now.

You just running around on these
TV shows and personal appearances.

You got your own starring role now.

Honey, it's all to help you.

You're running for president again in '76.

It's gonna be your best time ever.

You've just been elected governor again
and all. And so you got that base.

And you named a lot of blacks
to state positions...

...so they can't throw
that old race thing at you again.

That'll be all, thank you.

Besides, George, people gonna forgive you
for all that stuff back then, anyway.

They feel for you because you were shot.

It could turn out a political blessing,
you know that?

What the hell are you saying?

You telling me this is a blessing?

Goddamn you, woman!

You-- Well, you just wanna
keep riding me, don't you?

Just riding me, riding me,
even though I'm like this now.

Don't you feel anything for me
anymore at all?

I'm still your wife.

Yeah.

How you fitting your trooper boys
into that?

You're my husband.

I threw my body over you
to protect you from death.

I want you out of the mansion.

What?

Even taping my goddamn telephone calls.

Yeah, I did. I did, because you have
shut me out so completely...

...it was the only way to find out
if I still meant anything to you.

I want you gone from here.

And where am I supposed to go?

I have made you my whole life.

- I don't have anywhere else to go now.
- Get out!

But you don't understand
the emotion of loyalty or Lurleen.

- Lurleen and Uncle Jim.
- You shut up.

You don't understand.
No, you don't-- You don't understand.

- You don't understand.
- Get out!

You don't understand
how I could still love you...

...just because you can't.

I want you out of here!

You won't let me keep loving you,
because you can't trust that.

It's like you wish I were playing around.

Because that's something
you can understand...

...can trust and feel safe in.

And anger and fighting and hatred!

Those old low mean fevers...

...they've finally burned out everything
else that was inside of you.

It's all you're left with now.
It's all you feel now.

You don't know what all I feel.

I have loved you so much, George.

I didn't have nothing to do
with that thing.

You know that, don't you, Archie?

With what thing, governor?

That church in Birmingham.

Wasn't nothing I did.

I grieved about it, like everyone else.

Ma'am.

I'm Governor Wallace.

Oh, I know who you are.

Is, uh, Big Jim in?

I wanted to see him
for a few minutes, if that's all right.

What about?

I just need to talk to him
for a minute or two, ma'am.

Wait out here.

He doesn't wanna see you.

Doesn't want...?

But, uh....

I just wanna--

I got to talk to him, ma'am.

He said he's got nothing left
to say to you anymore.

Well, can't--?

Please, uh.

Please, just go on back in there
and tell him...

...I ain't the same now.

- And I wanna tell him that--
- He's finished.

It's all over.

No, no, wait, wait, wait.

Ca-- Can't--?

You're, uh....

You're his wife
that was waiting out in the car...

...that one time
you came by the mansion, ain't you?

Yes, I am.

You broke his heart, you bastard.

Come on, governor.

It's time to go home.

Now it's money
and power. Power and money.

George, I--

That's four little girls
in Sunday school class.

Never gonna get out-niggered again.

--Tomorrow and segregation forever.

I will not surrender.

He don't allow any of these
wooly-bully agitators...

...to take over
the public factories for us.

Stand with George Wallace.

- It's not enough for me!
- Please let me live.

Anger and fighting and hatred!

No.

Reverend.

Would you give me permission...

...to say a few words
to your congregation?

Yes.

I, uh....

I don't hardly make
many speeches anymore.

This could even be my last ever.

I don't know.

Lord could take me this very night.

Because the Bible says
no man knoweth the hour.

So I didn't wanna wait any longer...

...to do this.

Because this was
Martin Luther King's church...

...I wanna...

...tell y'all this evening...

...that I have learned...

...what suffering means.

I've learned it in a way...

...that I probably never would have
if I hadn't been shot.

But...

...if that's what it took...

...well, I'm almost thankful for it.

Because as the hymn says:

"I once was lost...

...but now--"

I hope. "--Am found."

Since I've been shot, I....

I have been in pain.

I think I now understand...

...the pain...

...that I caused the people...

...the black people of Alabama.

And the black people of the nation.
And....

I'm sorry.

I was wrong.

And...

...knowing that...

...is hard for me...

...to bear sometimes.

And for what I'm doing here tonight...

...I'm finally turning to you all...

...and I'm asking you--

Whether you will or not...

...I'm asking you...

...to forgive me.

Thank you for coming today, governor.

Thank you. Sure appreciate it.

God bless.

Bless you. Bless you.

God bless you.

Heavenly peace.

You want me to leave the nightlight on
again tonight, governor?

No, you can cut it out.

Archie?

Yes, sir?

You been mighty good to me.

I wanna thank you.

Sure.

Good night.

You get some sleep now.