Over the course of this year, the centenary of William F. Buckley’s birth, we will republish an article by him weekly. Over 60 years ago, the Yale Political Union invited Governor Wallace to speak. A year before, it invited Gus Hall — and asked Buckley to give the reasons why it shouldn’t have . . .
Considerable publicity has recently been given to the withdrawal by Yale’s Political Union of an invitation to Governor George Wallace of Alabama to address it. Exactly a year before, the PU had invited Gus Hall, Secretary of the Communist Party, USA, to address it. The previously scheduled speaker was William Buckley who, when he heard that Hall was to follow him, agreed to appear only on the condition that the PU address itself, on the night he spoke, specifically to the question whether to confirm the invitation to Hall, and vote on the question after Buckley’s speech. The text of his address follows. After the ensuing debate, by a narrow vote, the PU withdrew its invitation to Hall. There is, Buckley maintains, a significant difference between an invitation to a Communist Party leader and a Southern segregationist. . . .
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