1972: Bye Bye, Wallace[]
Let's cut to the chase (the PoD, more specifically):
On May 15, 1972, Arthur Bremer mortally wounds George Wallace, who goes into a vegetative state and dies eight weeks later. This sparks a desegregation outburst in the United States, Bremer called a national hero by some. Due to public outcry, a nationwide law outlawing the KKK 'forever' was passed in 1974.
The assassination[]
On May 15, 1972, George Wallace was campaigning in Laurel, Maryland, when he was shot by Arthur Bremer. Bremer fired the first shot, which rippled through Wallace's stomach. He then fired the second, which fractured his ribs, punctured his lung, blew through his spinal cord. Bremer was taken into police custody, and Wallace was rushed to the nearest hospital.
The aftermath[]
Wallace died on July 13, 1972 at a hospital in Baltimore. Bremer was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Maryland House of Correction on June 2, and was later commuted to Green Bay Correctional Institution in his home state of Wisconsin.
On March 28, 1973, at 12:01 am, Bremer was murdered by his roommate, Serbian-American sex offender Srećko Nikolic. According to the autopsy, Nikolic methodically smothered Bremer with a pillow, cracked Bremer's ribs and spine while stomping on him several times, and finally bashed Bremer's head in on the metal bed frame. When questioned his motive, Nikolic claimed 'I just did it, no strings attached'. Bremer's remains were cremated.
In April 1974, Maryland State Police raided the property of one Talbot Monday, an Irish auto repairman, only to find the bodies of four KKK members. One Stavros Pachis, who was handcuffed to a chair in the basement and stoned to death, one Stafford Bonner, who was stabbed in the back with a screwdriver and flayed alive with a potato peeler; Gerrard Pettigrew, who was shot with Monday's hunting rifle inside the barn and later burned at the stake; and Nigel Clark P., who was tied to the bumper of Monday's car and dragged down the road. He was later beaten with a tire iron, locked in a foot locker and shoved off the roof to his death.
Monday was only incarcerated for ten years. He was officially released on May 6, 1984.
Meanwhile, the news caught wind, and over 2,500,000 black-and-white Americans participated in the 1974 Summer Boycott to outlaw any KKK-related practices or any racist practices whatsoever. In his last act of office, Richard Nixon passed the 1974 Racial Equality Constitution on August 8, 1974, shortly before resigning the next day, which helped rebuff his image after the Watergate scandal. He would later go on to run in the 1980 election, along with Ronald Reagan, Claude R. Kirk, and Edwin Simcox. Reagan won. Nixon later ran in the 1984 vice-presidential election.
Suffice to say, the U.S.A. was a free, equal country all around. It's just that they got a head start.