Alabama Swears In First GOP Governor in 112 Years

Guy Hunt, Alabama’s first Republican governor since Reconstruction, was inaugurated today, marking the end of the era of George C. Wallace, whose last act before leaving office was to swear in his son as state treasurer.

In a speech in front of Alabama’s white-domed Capitol, not far from the spot where Wallace once proclaimed “segregation forever,” Hunt pledged an administration of legal and social reform.

He promised to improve the state’s image that critics blame on Wallace and his segregationist policies of the 1960s.

“Now, today, have we arrived at that long awaited moment in Alabama history, the moment when we have finally put to rest the forces that have divided us in this terrible struggle,” Hunt said.

‘Economic Revolution’

Hunt, 53, pledged a new “economic revolution.” Carefully avoiding Wallace’s controversial past, he praised Wallace for paying “a grievous price” in the civil rights struggle and told him “your sacrifice will be forever remembered by all Alabamians.”

Wallace, nearly deaf and confined to a wheelchair since an assassination attempt in 1972, sat quietly near the Capitol steps where he was first inaugurated in 1963.

That same site, where Wallace administered the oath of office to his son, George Wallace Jr., was one block from the church where slain civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. once served as pastor.

The ceremony paused for the ringing of the Liberty Bell replica on the Capitol lawn in memory of King. The inaugural, bringing Republicans to power for the first time in 112 years, fell on the same day that Alabama observed a holiday for both King and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

In 1965, Wallace ordered club-wielding lawmen to stop marchers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, sparking a bloody confrontation that eventually led to Congress passing the Voting Rights Act.

Served Four Terms

Wallace, 67, who served an unprecedented four terms, is expected to take a consulting job with Troy State University. His son said that Wallace, who said in a recent interview he is worried about how history will treat him, was “feeling all right” and had no regrets about stepping down.

Wallace broke down and cried at many events that marked his final days as governor last week. Besides the consulting job, he is expected to begin writing his memoirs.