Playing with Fire: The 1968 Election and the Transformation of American Politics

by Lawrence O'Donnell

George Wallace, stood at the entrance of the University of Alabama flanked by Alabama state troopers to block the entry of Vivian Malone and James Hood, who, with the backing of a federal court order, would become the first two black students enrolled at the university. With President Kennedy and Attorney General Kennedy monitoring the situation from Washington, Katzenbach marched up the stairs flanked by U.S. marshals, and backed up by the National Guard, to confront Governor Wallace in the doorway of the registration office. It was the most vivid armed confrontation between the North and the South since the Civil War, and the nation watched it unfold on television. After complaining that America was becoming “a military dictatorship” and declaring that his side was “winning,” Wallace left the campus, and the University of Alabama enrolled its first black students. Nicholas Katzenbach became the most famous deputy attorney general in history.