A reader notes that the Lynyrd Skynyrd song I quoted from has, later on, a friendly reference to the late George Wallace. My reader thinks this puts the song out of court for a respectable website. Sorry, I don’t agree. The following long quote is from Rogers, Ward, Atkins & Flynt’s Alabama, The History of a Deep South State, p.567:

.”It became fashionable in the 1960s and 1970s for the national media to depict Wallace as a mean-spirited racist, a demagogue who appealed mainly to ignorant Southerners who shared his prejudices, a fanatic allied to the John Birch Society, the Minutemen, and other well-financed and eccentric right-wing groups. Actually none of these characterizations was correct. He was in fact an opportunist with populist instincts, who could be racially moderate by the standards of his time and culture, who appealed to many voters outside the South, and who derived most of his support from blue-collar working-class whites….
“…He won election to the state legislature as a candidate who advocated improved veterans’, old-age, and welfare benefits and more money for mental hospitals and schools. One opponent attacked him as ‘the number one do-gooder in the legislature.’….
“….As a judge he earned a reputation for treating blacks fairly. When attorney J.L. Chestnut, Jr., came before Judge Wallace representing a group of poor black farmers who had been fleeced by large processing companies, corporate attorneys from Birmingham insisted on referring to the black plaintiffs as ‘these people.’ Every time they used the phrase, Wallace’s face grew redder until finally he interjected in an ice-cold voice: ‘Please refer to Mr. Hall’s and Mr. Chestnut’s clients as “the plaintiff” or don’t refer to them at all.’….”

[Derb] George Wallace was from the old South and of the old South; and, let me tell you from my own efforts: If you think you understand the old South, you don’t.