Published September 18, 2024
It was long after midnight, and we were hurtling at 90 miles an hour down the interstate between Scottsboro and Montgomery, Ala. There were no other cars on the road. It was early September 1982, and George Wallace Jr., son of the former and future governor, was at the wheel of the black Cadillac. I’d gone with him to a political meeting in Scottsboro—a resonant place name in America’s racial history, home of the Scottsboro Boys. On our trip back to the capital, “Little George” fell into a wondering monologue, talking as much to himself as to me. I could see his face—an innocent face—in the glow of the dashboard lights.
He was remembering a night in Michigan when he was a boy and his father, George Wallace, brought him to a political rally at which his father was the hero, visiting from the defiant South. “I watched, and my father set those people on fire! He just set them on fire!”
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Lance Morrow was the Henry Grunwald Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. His work focused on the moral and ethical dimensions of public events, including developments regarding freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and political correctness on American campuses, with a view to the future consequences of such suppressions.
