Word: pattersons
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...Have Him Call Me." Back at the white mansion on South Perry Street, John Patterson and his family had finished an informal dinner of charcoal-broiled steaks on the terrace. The Governor was following the progress of the riot by telephone. When Public Safety Director Floyd Mann phoned that the mob was growing, Patterson declared martial law, ordered Adjutant General Henry Graham, a National Guard major general, to lead his troops to the church. Then Patterson called Bobby Kennedy to report that the Guard had gone into action, but that the general could not guarantee the protection of Martin Luther...
Kennedy exploded. Earlier he had seriously considered sending in federal troops, had reassured King by phone that he was safe in the church. Kennedy's voice rose as he worked over Patterson: "Have the general call me. I want him to say it to me. I want to hear a general of the U.S. Army say he can't protect Martin Luther King." Patterson backed down, admitted that it was he, not the general, who felt that King could not be protected. As it turned out, General Graham was capable of protecting King and everyone else. He kept...
...Freedom Riders were taken to Alabama and Mississippi jails, others headed south to take up the crusade. Action was spreading fast on other fronts in John Patterson's home state. Birmingham businessmen, who had been trying to attract outside industry to their fading city, sent Patterson a sharp wire complaining that the riots had torpedoed their campaign. The Justice Department brought suit against four local Alabama police officials, including Birmingham's Commissioner Eugene ("Bull") Connor, to enjoin them from interfering with interstate bus traffic. Justice's charges: the cops had not only failed to respond quickly...
Declared the Montgomery Advertiser-one of many Southern papers roasting the Governor: "Patterson is not the exclusive author of Montgomery's troubles by any means, but he is the chief author because his is the supreme responsibility as chief guardian against disorder...
Latter-Day Crusader. Ironically, John Patterson built his political career in large part on a reputation for enforcing the law. He was raised in wide-open Phenix City, where the gamblers and the madams catered to soldiers from nearby Fort Benning. Patterson played the slot machines as a kid, drank his share of "wildcat" whisky and, with time out for Army service during World War II and in Korea, turned into just another easygoing Alabama lawyer. But in 1954 his father, Albert Patterson, was murdered by racketeers 17 days after winning the Democratic nomination for state attorney general...