George LeMaistre

George A. LeMaistre (September 8, 1911 – September 26, 1994), was a lawyer, banker, professor, and chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. A white Alabamian, he publicly challenged Governor-elect George C. Wallace in November 1962 on the issue of segregation.

Background He was born in Lockhart, Alabama, a Gulf Coast company town created seven years before his birth by the Jackson Lumber Company, which operated a mill there that was involved in a peonage scandal. His father, John Wesley LeMaistre, was a surveyor for the lumber company, his mother, Edith (McLeod) LeMaistre, was a former school teacher. Through investments, company stock, and John Wesley LeMaistre's rising to directorship of the First National Bank, the family had become wealthy by the time of the father's death in 1929.

Education George LeMaistre graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1933.

Career In 1939, he began teaching law at the school, which he would continue until his death. He left his law practice in 1960 to become chairman and president of the City National Bank of Tuscaloosa. In 1970, he became president of the Alabama Bankers Association and vice chairman of the government relations council of the American Bankers Association.

"There was an audible gasp of shock," wrote historian Carter, "and then an astonishing response: almost everyone in the crowded room stood and applauded."

Subsequently, LeMaistre was part of a delegation of four who met with the newly inaugurated Wallace in the governor's office. LeMaistre made the argument for the rule of law as defined by the Supreme Court, which Wallace dismissed as little more than the opinion of nine men, adding heatedly that he considered "law and order" to be a "communist term" used in the service of oppression. At this, LeMaistre "lost it," leaning within inches into the very face of Southern defiance, he screamed, "George, that's bullshit! That's bullshit!"

Death He died in Birmingham, Alabama, of complications after heart surgery.