Former Segregationist Governor John Patterson dead at 99 (UPDATE)

     Patterson would have turned 100 on September 27th. He died almost exactly 61 years after he was on the cover of Time.

     He was a staunch segregationist:

(The NAACP) "caused all of the trouble between the races that we've had in Alabama."

"You can't just guarantee the safety of a fool, and that's what these folks (Freedom Riders) are, fools."

 

"If your intent is not to be a bona fide passenger on an interstate bus, why don't you just stay  home and mind your own business and everything will be all right"...he laughs.

                                                  (Gov. Patterson)

            (See film of those comment, and much more, in a PBS film about Patterson HERE.)

                      ( June 2, 1961 TIME Magazine cover)

"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."

 

Like virtually all elected officials in that era, Patterson was a Democrat. Dixicrats some people called them, because they ignored the principals of the National Democratic Party. 

 

UPDATE: From the N.Y. Times obit:

"Historians say, however, that Mr. Patterson will most likely be remembered as one of the most intractable white supremacists of his day, comparable to Gov. Ross Barnett of Mississippi, Gov. Orval Faubus of Arkansas and Mr. Wallace, who had not forgotten the lesson of his loss to Mr. Patterson four years earlier — that moderation in racial politics was no way to get elected in Alabama."