Patterson grew up in a prominent political family and received a Bronze Star for his services in World War II. He then joined the law firm of his father, Albert Patterson, who was a great opponent of the mobs who controlled the notorious Phenix City vice center. Elder Patterson promoted the Attorney General as a reformer in 1954 and eventually won the Democratic nomination, which at the time was the only contest in Alabama that mattered despite alleged vote-buying by his opponents. However, days later he was murdered by an armed man, an act that resulted in the state declaring martial law in Phenix City and soon led to its downfall the corrupt rulers of the city.
Patterson’s allies convinced his son to run for his place, and the Alabama Democrats agreed, giving John Patterson his father’s place on the ballot. (The saga was highly fictionalized the following year in one Movie called The Phenix City Story, Clippings Patterson used in his later candidacy for governor.) As Alabama’s chief law enforcement officer, Patterson has made a name for itself for both the fight against organized crime and the passionate fight for compliance with Jim Crow laws of the state. While he couldn’t stop the Montgomery Bus Boycott that began in 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus, his tactics essentially bankrupted the state NAACP and raved about segregation.
Patterson soon set higher goals and campaigned for governor in 1958, promising that “there will be no racial mixing during my tenure.” Separation, was widely seen by white voters as moderate for the time. While this perception may now seem astonishing, Wallace even earned the NAACP’s endorsement; the Ku Klux Klan meanwhile openly supported Patterson.
But racial moderation (as it was) was out of fashion, and Patterson was won the Democratic primary in a runoff election with 56-44 points. He would spend much of his four years as governor Dissemination of guidelines to improve state schools, pension provision and infrastructure. He was also an early southern supporter of John F. Kennedy’s 1960 campaign and helped supply the failed Bay of Pigs invasion Next year. Patterson’s governorship, however, would be nationally defined by his continued opposition to civil rights. 1961, time magazine put the governor on the blanket for an edition focused on the Freedom Riders, of which he said, “I refuse to guarantee their safe passage.”
Arguably Patterson’s greatest influence on politics, however, came from the lessons Wallace had learned from his loss to him. A helper later says Wallace told him“You know, I was trying to talk about good roads and good schools and all these things that were part of my career and nobody was listening. And then I started talking [the n-word]and they stomped on the floor. ”Alabama governors were banned from running for a second consecutive term at the time, which opened the door for Wallace to be easily elected as Patterson’s successor in 1962 the type of racist campaign running that had struck him four years earlier.
Patterson was soon dwarfed by his former home rival. He ran for his old job in 1966 in a crowded primary dominated by First Lady Lurleen Wallace, who ran to stand in for her laid-off husband, however got only 3% of the vote. Patterson continued to to lose the 1970s primary as chairman of the Alabama Supreme Court to Howell Heflin, who would later serve in the Senate. He finally returned to public life in 1984 when George Wallace, who served that final term as governor, apologized for his old attitudes. appointed him to the Alabama Court of Appeals for Criminal Matters.
Patterson retired in 1997, despite him unexpectedly had another role to play in state politics. In 2004 he was one of seven randomly selected retired judges to a special panel after Roy Moore was ousted as chairman of the state’s Supreme Court for refusing to comply with an order from a federal judge to remove a Ten Commandment memorial from the courthouse. The panel unanimously confirmed Moore’s dismissal, to which Moore responded characteristically by demonizing the judges as an “illegally appointed, politically elected” body.
Patterson would spend decades distancing yourself of his racist acts and Praise to former opponents like the Freedom Riders for their courage. However, he was still reluctant to apologize directly for what he had said and done. Patterson in particular said about the 1958 campaign“I used race to get elected, like George Wallace and many others, and if that’s wrong, that’s wrong.” He added, “If you didn’t do that, you wouldn’t be elected. You might as well go home and forget about it. ”
PS Patterson spent his last four years as the oldest living former governor of a state. The title now goes to 97-year-old Al Quie, a Republican from Minnesota who is three days older than Republican Linwood Holton from Virginia.
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