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A. I can't help that, because the main thing when you die is what happens to your soul. I'm a born-again Christian. I love everybody; I don't hate anybody. I even pray to the Heavenly Father for the fellow that shot me to ask forgiveness of his sins, because I have forgiven him. (During his 1972 presidential bid, Wallace was shot by Arthur Bremer, which left him paralyzed from the waist down.) I don't feel bitter toward him. I would have wasted myself away if I had been hating all these years. I don't hate him at all.
Lyndon Johnson was a segregationist. He also led filibusters against civil rights bills, but later on he got them passed. So I have been in the same position that he has been in. He's been rehabilitated, so I should be also. In the long run, it doesn't make all that much difference, because I know that I love every citizen of Alabama, black and white.
Q. What do you see as your lasting legacy in race relations?
A. I just know they improved in my state under me. ((Wallace then calls Eddie Holcey , a longtime aide, who is black, from an adjoining office.)) We love each other too, don't we, Eddie? You know, I don't even want to come to the office without him. Isn't that right? We've been to funerals together. We went to a funeral not too long ago, didn't we? He knows I don't hate black folks.
Eddie Holcey: You don't hate me.
A. He voted for me too. His wife did too. We have been good close friends, and when I die he is going to be one of my pallbearers.
Q. Would you have done anything differently, looking back on it all?
A. Anybody that's been in public life as long as I have would do different things, yes. There are things that I could do different, but I can't think of all of them now. But every President and every other person would do some things different if they had to go over it again.
Q. How do you think history will remember you?
A. I don't know what they will say. I just know that I pray I will be in God's heavenly kingdom when that time comes, so I don't worry about what anybody thinks when I leave this world, which won't be long.