This Day in Republican History 6/01/06

June 1, 1963 Democrat Governor George Wallace announces defiance of court order issued by Republican federal judge Frank Johnson to integrate University of Alabama

Alabama Gov. George Wallace stood at the door of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama in a symbolic attempt to block two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from enrolling at the school. The drama of the nation's division over desegregation came sharply into focus that June day. It was the same year that civil rights marchers had been turned back with police dogs and fire hoses in Birmingham, Ala. The year began with Wallace vowing "segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever" in his inaugural speech. During his campaign, Wallace talked of physically putting himself between the schoolhouse door and any attempt to integrate Alabama's all-white public schools. This was 1963, three years after the Democrats pledged in their platform to obey civil rights legislation -- nearly 100 years after the Democrats were beaten into a bloody pulp over the issue of slavery -- a year before the Democrats voted AGAINST the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Once again, these weren't slave-era Democats, these weren't Reconstruction-era Democrats, these were 20th century Democrats -- in my lifetime!