Date: 26 June 2020
Location: Zoom
About a dozen of us met via Zoom to discuss Peggy Wallace Kennedy’s book, with the full title, The Broken Road: George Wallace and a Daughter’s Journey to Reconciliation. In this memoir, Kennedy describes growing up with George Wallace as her father and how she has tried to live a life free from the hatred and intolerance of her segregationist father, a master of the politics of rage and fear.
Most, but not all, of us were glad that we read the book. Even though many of us lived here in Alabama during those troubling days, Kennedy raises issues and mentions events that we had forgotten or maybe never even realized, and I think we all probably learned something from the book.
One of the main things we noted was what a lousy father and husband George Wallace was. On the other hand, Kennedy’s mother Lurleen came across as a much more sympathetic, and even accomplished, person than we had previously thought. Of course, this is the way she was portrayed by a loving daughter, so we do have to consider the source. We found it interesting also that Kennedy made almost no mention of her siblings in the book, and her candor describing her bouts with depression was touching.
Kennedy explains that during his latter days Wallace expressed regrets and asked for forgiveness for his actions. Even so these belated efforts do not absolve him of his guilt and of his lasting legacy of cruelty and bigotry.
— Bob