Civil Rights & Constitution
Looking Back on 1963 Fifty Years Later
At his inauguration as Alabama’s governor in January 1963, George Wallace infamously and defiantly declared in a speech written by a former Ku Klux Klan leader, “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever.” Earlier that month, the Kennedy administration, hesitant to alienate white southern constituents who been indispensable to his narrow victory in the 1960 election, had declined to issue any statement recognizing the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Instead, the administration would hold a reception for African-American leaders on President Lincoln’s birthday in February 1963.