Alabama has changed quite a bit since then newly elected Governor George Wallace stood on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, January 14, 1963 and bellowed the notorious words, “In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” It was a very successful speech, but not in the way Wallace may have intended or imagined.

The Trump administration has made a habit in the first sixteen months of his second term of poking hornet’s nests. In Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, Tehran and almost anywhere they could incite anger, opposition and blowback they have plunged ahead with blind zeal. If the label says, “can of worms” the Trump entourage is eager and determined to open it.

If one state could be said to be the epicenter of the civil rights struggle it had be Alabama. From the Montgomery Bus Boycott to the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing, to the Selma to Montgomery marches, culminating in the brutality unleashed at the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday Alabama was the lightning rod. For what seemed like an eternity men like Bull Conner typified the white rage over the Civil War that would not die.

This week the U.S. Department of Justice under the interim leadership of Donald Trump’s personal defense attorney Todd Blanche filed a federal indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the organization. The logic supporting the indictment is that SPLC accepted donations from their donors to, in Blanch’s words, “dismantle” the KKK. But instead used the money to finance informants. That according to Blanche bolstered the KKK rather than dismantle it. Which is, to say the least, tortured logic.

The case feels like it was tailored to the jurisdiction in which it was filed, the Middle District of Alabama. Alabama’s courtroom history particularly during the Jim Crow era was one of hostility to all things civil rights related. If you were involved in any kind of civil rights work or just black the last place you wanted to find yourself was in front of an all white Alabama jury. A lot has changed in Alabama over the years, mostly for the better. But the fact that a grand jury there returned an indictment on these charges is a bad omen.

What George Wallace could not imagine when her stood on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol on that January day in 1963 was that not only was he activating his Jim Crow supporters for his cause, but he was at the same time rallying the rest of the world against it. Ultimately the rest of the world won. You wonder if the Trump administration understands that?