Peggy Wallace Kennedy

Today during our Martin Luther King Jr assembly Peggy Wallace Kennedy was our guest speaker.  Her father George Wallace was the governor of Alabama three times and ran for president  four times.  Our speaker told the story of how her father ran for governor as a racial moderate and lost.  He then ran as a racist and won.  Peggy Wallace Kennedy was twelve years old when her dad gave a speech that encouraged segregation, and she was sixteen when her dad stood on the doorstep of the University of Alabama to try and stop the desegregation of the school.  She talked about how her parents never discussed racial issues with her at home and how she felt like she needed to uphold her families reputation.  She eventually realized that she could express her own beliefs and ideas against racism.