Clio Heritage Mural, Starting Point of Barbour Co. Governor's Trail -- Clio AL
N 31° 42.537 W 085° 36.646
16R E 631638 N 3509015
A monument at this mural of Governor George Wallace asking for white votes for Governor (black citizens could not vote in AL at the time through operation of Jim Crow) at the intersection of AL SH 10 and AL SH 51 in downtown Clio AL
Waymark Code: WMWHKW
Location: Alabama, United States
Date Posted: 09/07/2017
Views: 1
A grey granite monument reads as follows:
"Clio Heritage Mural
Starting Point of
Barbour Co. Governor's Trail
This special Heritage mural marks the southern starting point of the Barbour County governors trail in the birthplace and childhood home of Ford term Alabama Governor George C Wallace, who lived in Clio from his birth on August 25, 1919 until after graduation from the original Barbour County high school in 1937. The mural features Gov. Wallace making one of his famous stump speeches from a flat-bed trailer. It also depicts other noted citizens, structures and scenes from Cleo's history. The Merrill, dedicated on June 1, 2002 was designed and painted by Barbour County artist Deborah Baxter Jackson and was funded by the Alabama State Council on the arts with matching funds from the town of Clio."
Gov. Wallace, of course, is famous for his 1963 inaugural address as Governeor, on which he declared "Segregation Now, Segregation Tomorrow, and Segregation FOREVER!"
Later that same year he physically stood in door to Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama to prevent prospective black students Vivian Malone and James Hood from enrolling there, thereby desegregating the college.
President John Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard, and Wallace stepped aside but not before making a national name for himself as the south's most vocal defender of segregation.
"Segregation Now, Segregation Tomorrow, and Segregation FOREVER!"
is what he was talking about in those stump-speeches from the flat-bed trailers portrayed in this mural.
Surely there is more to be proud of in Clio AL than this.
Group that erected the marker: City of Clio
URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: [Web Link]
Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary:
AL SH 10 at AL SH 51
Clio, AL
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