Thread by @LaChapellePete

A visual thread about the decades of support the country music industry & @Opry members gave to the nation's most famous segregationist, George C. Wallace.

This research comes from a chapter of my book: I'd Fight the World: A Political Hist of CM. 1/ #blm press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book…

Perhaps the most noteworthy Wallace performers--George Jones and Tammy Wynette--came out in 1972 for a campaign fundraiser, deemed a "Wallace Woodstock," after the segregationist governor was shot.

But the story really starts in the 1950s. 2/ digital.archives.alabama.gov/digital/collec…

You see, Wallace learned a lot from Gov. Big Jim Folsom who once argued that when Black people are held back "the other poor people will be held down." Folsom rarely went out w/out his string band, the Strawberry Pickers.

But Wallace went a completely different direction. 3/

Wallace also borrowed little bits from other country music politicians-the swagger of Huey Long, his yellow donation buckets from Pappy O'Daniel (ie O Brother) & even some of the performers used by raccoon cap-wearing Estes Kefauver: Hank Snow, Minnie Pearl, Billy Grammer. 4/

In 1958 after breaking w/Folsom, circuit court judge Wallace threw his hat in for AL governor appearing on the trail w/ Minnie Pearl (1940), Webb Pierce ('52) & later Little Jimmy Dickens ('48). He preached a "dignified segregation without ill will."

()=year of Opry induction 5/

Wallace lost in 1958 to an even more racist KKK-backed candidate. In 1962, he ran again, turning up his racial rhetoric & use of country music. Joining him were Pearl, George Morgan ('48) & his own "pretty good" country band. Opponent Bull Conner had his own country bands. 6/

Wallace won that election. At his inauguration, he applauded "Great Anglo-Saxon Southland, attacked Civ Right activists, & threw down “the gauntlet” of “segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever. 7/

Four years later, Wallace could not succeed himself so he convinced his wife Lurleen to run. Wallace was criticized for the expense of hiring Pearl, but now country music support came out of the woodwork. 8/ newspapers.com/clip/12330583/…

George Morgan, the Wilburn Brothers ('56), Hank Thompson & Billy Walker ('60) were among those who entertained the crowds for the Wallaces while they campaigned. Lurleen won but died in ofc in 1968. 9/

Wallace by then had his own country campaign band, Sam Smith and the Alabamians. They were a popular attraction but also drew criticism for being too pop and using trumpets and Broadway songs. Here they are in their dinner jackets. 10/

In his 1968 run for the presidency,he bolted the Democrats, threatened violence against protesters & brought his racial views to national audience, Wallace renamed his band, Sam Smith and American Independents,& promoted this country album by a close associate of Hank Wms Jr. 11/

Wallace's potential in the Midwest and South so frightened Nixon that he enlisted country superstar Roy Acuff ('38), who had once run for TN governor w/ his own band, to campaign for him and got country artist Stuart Hamblen to record a TV commercial for him. 12/

Wallace rejoined the Dems & ran for president '72 & '76. Still not recanting, he regularly campaigned with the Opry's Billy Grammer('59) but also brought out occasional big names: Hank Snow('50), Marty Robbins('53), Ferlin Husky('54), Hank Locklin ('60) & Grandpa Jones ('46).13/

Wallace was shot of course in 1972, just after Grammer and his Travel On Boys finished playing “Under the Double Eagle." This is said to have launched Wallace a journey of self reflection, but he had not fully reneged on his racial views until the very late 1970s. 14/

The assassination attempt led Nashville's royalty to circle around Wallace. Tammy Wynette ('69)& George Jones ('56)organized a “Wallace Woodstock” in Lakeland, Florida, bringing Ferlin Husky('54), Melba Montgomery, Del Reeves('66)& 10,000 fans to raise funds for the candidate.15/

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