The crowd was shouting

As he said:

“Well, ladies and gentlemen,

It’s a sad day

In our country when

You go to Washington

And they say don’t walk

A hundred feet from

Your hotel lobby door.

Don’t get on the elevator

Without somebody next to ya.

It’s not safe in the

Shadow of the White House

Or any city in these United States.”

And the papers called it trouble,

But the people called it fate…

All this was happening

In the early mornin’

Of a Wheaton

Shopping center in Maryland.

The reporter said

The hecklers were out in force.

They were quite young and for

The most part not mean,

Though three oranges,

Some pennies,

And some paper airplanes

Were hurled at the governor’s head.

But the crowd wasn’t listening,

Only chanting instead.

In the shadow of the White House,

Nobody feels safe…

Later that day in Laurel

They shot that poor governor

In his home state of Maryland.

As the crowd started screaming

The governor laid on the ground—

It only took five shots

To lay poor Wallace down.

Why do you feel like

Uncle Sam is trying to

Force you to leave

This country?

How do we know

You are who you say you are?

“Don’t you know,

They’re financing a war?

Don’t you know

They’re going down

To disrupt a peaceful convention?”

Now they’re askin’ a man on the street:

‘Governor Wallace has just been shot down.

What is your reaction?’

The man replies:

“To that? I could care less.”

Another man watchin’,

His rhetoric said it’s so heated and divisive—

To think I was in fear

Several months ago

That something would happen to him…

They sent poor Wallace

To the hospital.

That’s where Shirley saw him

And said:

“I think you know, I know,

We have to realize that this country

Is going through a very turbulent year.

And the sooner all of us try

To get together

And recognize there’s enough room

For every person regardless of

Race, creed, or religion,

The better it’s going to be for all of us.

If not, this constant malaise

Will destroy

All of us.”