In 1964 , Alabama Republicans stood to benefit from the unintended consequences of two developments : ( 1 ) Governor Wallace vacating the race for the Democratic presidential nomination against President Johnson , and ( 2 ) the designation of unpledged Democratic electors in Alabama , in effect removing Johnson from the general election ballot . Prior to the 1964 Republican National Convention in San Francisco , Martin met with Wallace and two gubernatorial aides , Bill Jones and Seymore Trammell in the Jefferson Davis Hotel in Montgomery . Wallace asked Martin to determine if Barry Goldwater , the forthcoming GOP presidential nominee who as a senator from Arizona had voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on libertarian and constitutional grounds , would advocate repeal of the law , particularly the public accommodations and employment sections . Bill Jones indicated that Wallace agreed with Goldwater 's anti-communist stance but opposed the Republican 's proposal to make Social Security voluntary . Jones stressed that Wallace had sacrificed his own presidential aspirations that year to allow a direct GOP challenge to President Johnson . It was later disclosed that during the meeting with Martin , Wallace proposed to become a Republican if he could be named as Goldwater 's running mate , a designation which later was given to Congressman William E. Miller of New York . Goldwater reportedly rejected the overture because of Wallace 's adverse image outside the Deep South . The unpledged electors in Alabama included the future U.S. senator , James B. Allen , then the lieutenant governor , and the later governor Albert P. Brewer . National Democrats balked over Johnson 's exclusion from the ballot but most supported the unpledged slate , which competed directly with the Republican electors . As '' The Tuscaloosa News '' explained , loyalist electors would have offered a clearer choice to voters than did the unpledged slate . '' The Birmingham News '' columnist Walling Keith wrote that while voters might " leave the Democratic Party -- at least for an election -- most of them really would not be too happy in the Republican Party . " Along with the GOP victory in Alabama at the presidential level , the first in state history since Reconstruction , Martin and four other Republicans were elected to the U.S. House in the heavily liberal 89th Congress . Joining Martin in victory were William Jackson " Jack " Edwards of Mobile County , John Buchanan , the defeated 1962 candidate from Birmingham , William Louis Dickinson of Montgomery , a former Democratic judge in Lee County , and Arthur Glenn Andrews , the Republican chairman in Talladega County . The Democrat whom Martin defeated was George C. Hawkins , also from Gadsden and the Alabama State Senate President Pro Tem . Martin had polled only 42.9 percent in the Seventh District in the 1962 Senate race . Including Jasper and Huntsville , as well as Martin 's Gadsden , the Seventh ( now the Fifth District ) is diversified — steel and rubber mills , farm machinery , electronics , military and space installations , poultry , livestock , cotton , and some coal mining . At the time the Seventh contained the state 's smallest black population — 7.7 percent — Martin did not benefit in 1964 from racial backlash as he had running statewide in 1962 . He had expressed a greater interest in Goldwater 's success than he had in his own election to the House . Some backers of unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate Congressman Carl Elliott threatened to withhold votes from Hawkins or even to vote for Martin on the theory that Elliott might be able to reclaim the seat in 1966 from a Republican but would not oppose a fellow Democrat . In his campaign against Hawkins , Martin hammered at the national vice presidential nominee Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota , who was the Senate floor leader for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 , which Martin claimed had " paved the way for the destruction of our liberties . " Martin 's opposition to the civil rights measure paralleled the views of Alabama 's twenty pro-Goldwater national convention delegates , who declared the measure an affront to " personal freedom of choice in association and employment . " Several of the Alabama Republican representatives made national headlines in 1965 when they denounced the voting-rights march led by Martin Luther King , Jr. , from Selma to Montgomery . Though King 's contributions to desegregation were subsequently commemorated through a national holiday , Martin called King a " rabble-rouser who has put on the sheep 's clothing of non-violence while he pits race against race , man against law , and whose actions have repeatedly resulted in violence , injury , and death . " Martin claimed that King had authorized the printing of stationery which listed King 's address as the Selma jail even before King 's arrest : " King reached Selma with intentions of breaking the law so that he could be arrested . His love of publicity is above the sacredness of the laws . " With promising prospects for continued growth , the Alabama GOP adopted a 1965 budget of $ 200,000 and proposed to offer a hundred candidates in hopes of winning a third of the seats in both houses of the Alabama legislature . Amid optimism , John Grenier left the chairmanship to prepare to run for governor . He later said that he considered the governorship out of reach in 1966 , but he wanted to lay a base for the future . Grenier epitomized his party 's " new breed " of leadership , which stressed political philosophy over patronage and appealed to business executive , lawyers , and the upwardly mobile . The revived Alabama GOP was a product of urbanization and industrialization . Samuel DuBois Cook , a political scientist who served as president of historically black Dillard University of New Orleans , pointed to the paradox of southern Republicans , then the most conservative in the political arena , who were nevertheless a " product of revolutionary industrial and technical change . " With Grenier in the governor 's race , Martin was initially poised to oppose John Sparkman , but '' The New York Times '' predicted that toppling the " tight one-party oligarchy " would be a herculean task . Though Sparkman trailed in some polls , '' The Times '' speculated that he would rebound because Alabamians were so accustomed to voting straight Democratic tickets . Several months later Martin made a crucial decision to run for governor , instead of the Senate , and Grenier also switched races in the process . The changed plans created friction between the two men that persisted for years afterwards . Martin 's opponent was initially uncertain , but it soon became apparent that he would face Lurleen Wallace , a former dime-store clerk of considerable charm and grace . What remained in doubt was whether she would be governor in her own right or a " caretaker " with her husband as a " dollar-a-year-advisor " making all the major decisions . The decision to run Mrs. Wallace crippled the Alabama GOP . Nearly overnight its fortunes vanished , for most expected George Wallace to succeed in nominating and electing his wife , who conveniently was running not as the former " Lurleen Burns " but as " Mrs. George C. Wallace . " Lurleen Wallace dispatched a primary field that included two former governors , John Malcolm Patterson and James E. Folsom , Sr. , Congressman Carl Elliott , and Attorney General Richmond Flowers . Neither Martin nor Mrs. Wallace sought support from the increasing number of African American voters , many of whom had been energized since passage a year earlier of the Voting Rights Act , following the impact of the Selma-to-Montgomery march . False reports of Republican strength in Alabama abounded . '' The New York Times '' predicted that Martin " not only has a chance to win the governorship , but at least for the moment must be rated as the favorite . " Political writer Theodore H. White incorrectly predicted that Alabama , instead of Arkansas and Florida as it developed , would in 1966 become the first former Confederate state to elect a Republican governor since Reconstruction . A consensus developed that Martin might lend coattails to Republican candidates in legislative , county , and municipal elections . The defections of three legislators and a member of the Democratic State Executive Committee reinforced such possibilities . '' The New York Times '' explained that Alabama Democrats had denounced the national party for so long that it was " no longer popular in many quarters to be a Democrat . " Martin claimed that the South must " break away from the one-party system just as we broke away from a one-crop economy . " He vowed to make Alabama " first in opportunity , jobs , and education . " Keener insight at the time would have revealed that Martin was pursuing the one office essentially off limits to the GOP that year . No Republican had served as governor since David Peter Lewis left office in 1874 , and George Wallace 's organization was insurmountable despite an early poll that placed Martin within range of victory
1964 Republican National Convention
1964 Republican National Convention
James D. Martin