Editorial September 23, 2019 Issue

Planting seeds of love and reformation

Tony Lobl

Here’s a hypothetical question I asked myself recently: If I could be transported back to the inauguration rally at which George Wallace promised “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever,” would I simply write off the former Alabama Governor as racist, or would I behold an individual capable of being transformed?

The question was prompted by learning how the first African-American woman to run for the American presidency, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, suspended her campaign when Wallace was gunned down while running in the same presidential race. She wanted to visit Wallace in the hospital “to help him regain his humanity.” She told one of her aides (now a congresswoman herself) that “one act of kindness may make all the difference in the world.”

Wallace’s daughter, Peggy Wallace Kennedy, recently recalled how Chisholm’s visit to the hospital did just that. She said it “planted a seed of new beginnings in my father’s heart.” Over time, that seed bore fruit when Wallace publicly renounced racism, sought the black community’s forgiveness, and appointed a record number of African Americans to fill state positions in his final term as governor (see “How segregationist George Wallace became a model for racial reconciliation: ‘Voices of the Movement,’ Episode 6,” Cape Up with Jonathan Capehart, The Washington Post, podcast audio, May 16, 2019).

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