When Gov. George Wallace summoned Alabama lawmakers for a special session in pursuit of his personal ambitions 60 years ago, he was in some ways as dominant in state politics as Donald Trump is in American politics today.

Wallace, in his first term as governor, was revered by most white Alabamians because he vowed to preserve racial segregation and stand up against the “pointy-head” elites, the federal judges, and the liberal press that Wallace said looked down on the state.

In the 1962 election, Wallace received the most votes ever in an Alabama governor’s race until that time, according to the Encyclopedia of Alabama.

He would have been unbeatable in a bid for a second term in 1966.

But the Alabama Constitution prohibited governors and other constitutional officers from successive t

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