George Wallace’s presidential campaign came to an abrupt halt on May 15, 1972, when he was shot five times by Arthur Bremer while campaigning at the Laurel Shopping Center in Laurel, Maryland, at a time when he was receiving high ratings in national opinion polls. Bremer was seen at a Wallace rally in Wheaton, Maryland, earlier that day and two days earlier at a rally in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Wallace was hit in the abdomen and chest, and one of the bullets lodged in Wallace’s spinal column, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life. A five-hour operation was needed that evening, and Wallace had to receive several units of blood in order to survive. Three others who were wounded in the shooting also survived.

Segregated Alabama Schools

He was well known for physically barring black students from entering the University of Alabama in 1963.

Former Alabama Gov. George Wallace vowed “segregation forever” and stood in an Alabama school house door to keep blacks from enrolling at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (Calvin Hanna/AP)