If there’s one blemish on Arkansas’ history during the 20th century that gets overlooked, it’s probably the election of 1968.
Fifty years ago, Arkansas was one of five states to vote for American Independent Party candidate George Wallace for president of the United States.
Yes, that George Wallace, the man made infamous by the following lines:
“Let us rise to the call of freedom-loving blood that is in us and send our answer to the tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South. 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 today … segregation tomorrow … segregation forever.”
Wallace delivered that speech from the portico of the Alabama State Capitol, the exact place where Jefferson Davis had been sworn in as the president of the Confederate States of America.
It’s rather difficult to resolve “freedom” and “segregation” as going hand in hand. But, for Wallace, that was his rallying cry.
And 235,627, or 36.65 percent, of Arkansas voters agreed that year. Fifty of…
