The war in Vietnam escalates after a U.S. destroyer is allegedly attacked off the coast of North Vietnam. The war will continue through the Johnson and Nixon administrations. Wallace enters the Democratic presidential primaries in Wisconsin, Maryland, and Indiana, showing surprising strength as a national candidate, winning as much as a third of the vote. Voting rights advocates attempt to march from Selma to the state capital. Wallace had tried to prevent the march by calling on the highway patrol.
State troopers hold back the marchers with tear gas, clubs, and extreme violence.
More than 25,000 march to the Alabama Capitol Building to ask Wallace to remove all remaining obstacles to black voter registration. Although the 15th Amendment prohibited racial discrimination in voting, state laws and practices were in place which made it difficult, if not impossible, for blacks to register to vote. Wallace orders the Alabama state legislature to draw up an amendment to allow a sitting governor to run for a second term, which was until then forbidden. When he doesn't get the necessary number of votes, he encourages his wife, Lurleen, to run as his stand-in. Shortly thereafter, Lurleen Wallace is diagnosed with cancer.