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John M. Patterson, Segregationist Alabama Governor, Dies at 99
He welcomed the Klan and refused to integrate schools, forging a path that would be followed by Gov. George C. Wallace.
Gov. John M. Patterson at his office in Montgomery, Ala., in 1961. He was the youngest governor in Alabama history, serving only one term.Credit.Horace Cort/Associated Press
June 5, 2021, 7:48 p.m. ET
John M. Patterson, a defiant segregationist who defeated and preceded George C. Wallace as the governor of Alabama as the South plunged into the violence and turmoil of the civil rights movement in the late 1950s and ’60s, died on Friday at his home in Goldville, Ala. He was 99.
Alabama News
Former Alabama Gov. John Patterson has died at the age of 99. His daughter says he died Friday.
Patterson entered politics as a reformer after his father’s assassination but was criticized for failing to protect the Freedom Riders from angry white mobs.
A segregationist as governor, he drew criticism when Freedom Riders were attacked while in Alabama. Patterson did nothing to protect the activists who were seeking to integrate bus waiting rooms and lunch counters.
He later voiced regret for what happened. He ended his political career on the Court of Criminal Appeals, where he continued to write opinions into his 80s.