George Wallace’s inaugural address as governor of Alabama, delivered on January 14, 1963, served in many ways both to launch him into national politics and to symbolize the last futile public resistance of the American South in the 1960s to segregation. During the height of the civil rights movement, Wallace proclaimed in the opening of his inaugural address, “I say … segregation today … segregation tomorrow … segregation forever.” The Deep South had long been the worst place for African Americans to live, and the white attitudes that brought about this treatment are well evidenced in this speech. However, within six months of Wallace’s address, the University of Alabama was integrated, if just in a token manner. Wallace would nonetheless show the resiliency and pliability of politicians by winning office again in the 1970s and even the 1980s, with a majority of the black vote in his last election. He was a national force as well, running in the presidential primaries of 1964, 1972, and 1976 and in the presidential election of 1968, when during his best national showing he won 13.5 percent of the popular vote and five Deep South states with forty-six electoral votes, even though he ran as an independent candidate.