American automobile racing driver Bubba Wallace
Credit: © Grindstone Media Group/Shutterstock

Bubba Wallace, an American automobile racing driver, is the most successful African American driver active in NASCAR (the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing). Wallace made headlines in 2020 when he called on NASCAR to ban displays of the Confederate battle flag at its events.

Wallace competes in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup series. He joined the series as a replacement for an injured driver in 2017. Wallace became the first African American to race in NASCAR’s top series since Bill Lester in 2006. In 2018, Wallace joined the series full-time. He finished second at the Daytona 500 race in 2018 and third at the Brickyard 400 in 2019.

Darrell Wallace, Jr., was born Oct. 8, 1993, in Mobile, Alabama. He grew up in Concord, North Carolina. He began racing at the age of 9. Wallace is a graduate of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program, designed to help women and nonwhite drivers gain entry to the sport.

Wallace joined the regional K & N Pro East Series in 2010. He was named the series Rookie of the Year, becoming the first African American to win the honor in a NASCAR series. In 2012, he joined NASCAR’s second-tier Xfinity Series, finishing seventh in the series in 2015. He joined NASCAR’s Camping World Truck Series in 2013. That year, he won the Kroger 200 race in Martinsville, Virginia. He became the first African American driver to win a national touring series race since Wendell Scott in 1963.

The American automobile racing driver Bubba Wallace poses next to his car, number 43, before a race at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia in 2020. Wallace, who is African American, sported a Black Lives Matter theme on his car in the wake of the George Floyd killing.
Credit: © Jared C. Tilton, Getty Images

In the wake of the George Floyd killing, Wallace asked NASCAR to ban displays of the Confederate battle flag, noting that the flag is seen by many as a racist symbol. (Floyd, an African American man, died in police custody after an officer knelt on his neck for several minutes, sparking widespread protests against police brutality.) NASCAR, which had asked fans not to display the flag since 2015, quickly enacted the ban. Wallace also drove his car, number 43, sporting a Black Lives Matter theme and wore a t-shirt bearing the words “I can’t breathe,” said to be Floyd’s last words.

July 10, 2015

On Friday morning, July, 10, the Confederate battle flag (also known as the Flag of Dixie) was removed from the State House grounds in Columbia, South Carolina, where it had flown for more than half a century.

A crowd cheers as a South Carolina Highway Patrol honor guard lowers the Confederate battle flag from the State House grounds on July 10, 2015, in Columbia, South Carolina. Governor Nikki Haley presided over the event after signing the historic legislation the day before. Credit: © John Moore, Getty Images

The flag has long been a polarizing symbol in South Carolina, and many people demanded that it be taken down. In the years since the American Civil War (1861-1865), the flag had become a racist symbol of slavery to many African Americans and others. Later, in the early 1960′s, the flag became a symbol of opposition to the U.S. civil rights movement. However, many  Southerners have used the Confederate battle flag as an expression of Southern heritage and pride. Some believe the flag honors Confederate soldiers who fought in the Civil War.

The battle over the flag reignited last month after a white gunman allegedly killed nine African American worshippers at a historic black church in Charleston. Among the victims was the church’s pastor, South Carolina Senator Clementa Pinckney. Soon after the attack, photos surfaced of the suspect, Dylann Roof, 21, posing with the Confederate battle flag. Roof, who apparently considered the flag a symbol of white supremacy, confessed to the killings, saying he wanted to start a race war.

Early Thursday morning, the South Carolina House of Representatives voted 94-20 to take down the flag, giving final approval to a bill that passed the state senate earlier in the week. Republican South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley signed the bill into law Thursday afternoon. She used nine pens to sign the bill and said the pens would be given to the families of the nine victims of the Charleston church massacre. “It is a new day in South Carolina, a day we can all be proud of, a day that truly brings us all together as we continue to heal, as one people and one state,” Haley said. The legislation called for the flag to be taken down within 24 hours of Haley’s signing it into law and moved to the state’s Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum for display.

At around 10 a.m. Friday, crowds cheered and broke out into song as a South Carolina Highway Patrol honor guard slowly reeled the flag down and folded it. The flag was then handed to Department of Public Safety Director Leroy Smith, one of the state’s most prominent African American officials. Smith delivered the flag to the steps of the State House and handed it to a state archivist.

Other World Book articles:

• Flag
• Confederate States of America
• United States flag
• Human rights 1999 (a Back in Time article)
• State government 2000 (a Back in Time article)
• State government 2001 (a Back in Time article)