America's Oldest Governor---an Alabamian

          John Patterson turns 99 years. old today....Sunday 9-27-20. He is the oldest living American Governor.

     He was a segregationist, and was elected Attorney General after his Father, who held that office, was assassinated in Phenix City, Alabama in 1954.

 With support from the KKK, he ran for and won the Govenor's office in 1958 (defeating George C. Wallace!)

     The last interview he did was with The Ledger Enquirer when he was 94. You can read it HERE.

     Patterson lives on his family's large Tallapossa County farm in Goldville.

   

 

During his 1960 presidential bid, JFK had made some political alliances that would come back to haunt him. Alabama’s governor, Democrat John Patterson, was one of these. Patterson had been one of the few southern politicians to endorse JFK for president, doing so early in 1959. Yet, when it came to the Freedom Riders, Patterson was squarely on the side of the segregationists and “states rights,” and he and the Kennedys would spar on the matter through May of 1961.

Given the Anniston and Birmingham incidents, the Kennedys worried that there might be more violence in Alabama, and they wanted protection for the Freedom Riders. Governor Patterson had refused to guarantee the Freedom Riders safety. JFK thought at one point he would be able to persuade his old political ally to come around on the matter, diffuse the tensions at the state level, and keep Washington out of the picture. Kennedy had White House telephone operators place a call to Governor Patterson. The governor’s secretary responded that the governor was fishing in the Gulf of Mexico and could not be reached. It was then that Kennedy realized what he was up against, and gave the go-ahead to begin preparing for the possible use of federal marshals.

FULL STORY HERE.