Defending A Southerner

This from John Derbyshire is interesting. It's not often that you'll here somebody defend George Wallace, who's been so vilified through the years. Here's some of what Wikipedia has to say:

George Corley Wallace (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician who was elected Governor of Alabama as a Democrat four times (1962, 1970, 1974 and 1982) and ran for U.S. President four times as well (in 1964, 1968, 1972 and 1976). He is best known for his racist attitudes, for which he later repented, during American desegregation.

While I don't pretend to know a lot about George Wallace and am far to young to remember anything about the times (I was born six years after his famous standing in the doorway), was George Wallace really a racist or was he simply a populist politician reflecting the wishes of his constituents at the time?