You must be relying on public school teaching and MSM news for that. Wallace was a populist and racial moderate of that time. He would have been POTUS if he had not been shot. He served under LeMay during the war. I was born and raised on and around a SAC base. Everyone thought LeMay was top notch.
I read that book last year about him. Very capable and competent.
He moderated later, though. His '63-'67 term as governor included the "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!" inauguration speech. This was the term where he stood in the doorway at the University of Alabama to prevent black students from enrolling.
Kennedy then federalized the Alabama National Guard in order to have the necessary force to make him do the right thing, so Wallace's action was another case of misusing conservative principles (state sovereignty) in an execrable cause. As usually happens, this allows liberals to shred these principles so they're not available when we need them.
Segregationists delayed my embrace of conservative truths for more than a decade. So in the late seventies, while Wallace was already taking actions to be proud of due to his change of heart, I was still voting for liberals. So you can see why I would be bitter about this. :-)