Alabama Governor. He was an American politician who served as the Governor of the State of Alabama from January 14, 1963 to January 16, 1967, January 18, 1971 to January 15, 1979 and January 17, 1983 to January 19, 1987 with the viewpoint of being a staunch racial segregationist. He was a Democrat candidate. When he could not be a candidate for governor as a consequence of term restrictions, his wife Lurleen Burns Wallace ran as a gubernatorial candidate in his place, serving from January 16, 1967 until her death from cancer on May 7, 1968 with him having the title of First Gentleman of Alabama. Before becoming governor, he graduated from the University of Alabama Law School, served in the United States Air Force during World War II, was the assistant attorney general of Alabama, and served two terms in the Alabama state legislature. As the Governor of Alabama, he became famous for standing in the door of the University of Alabama on June 11, 1963, trying to block the Federal court-ordered integration. In 1965, he ordered Alabama State Troopers to stop the Selma-to-Montgomery Civil Rights march with tear gas and billy clubs. Running as a third-party presidential candidate representing the American Independent Party in 1968, he received thirteen percent of the popular vote, mainly from five deep south states. On May 15, 1972, while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination in Laurel, Maryland, he was shot in an assassination attempt but survived with spinal cord damage. He was left partially paralyzed and unable to walk for the rest of his life. Asking for forgiveness in 1974, he made a concerted effort to amend the harm he had sponsored against African Americans. He once again campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976. Admitting defeat in the primaries, he threw his support to fellow Southerner, Jimmy Carter, telling an ABC newsman, "I had to do things -- say things to get elected in Alabama, that made it impossible for me to ever be President." After his first wife's death, he remarried twice but both ended in divorce. He and his first wife had four children. He died of septic shock as a complication of his paralysis and more recently diagnosed Parkinson Disease.