Attorney General of Alabama
In 1954, Patterson's father was nominated for state attorney general on a platform promising to eliminate crime but was shot to death in June of that year. John Patterson replaced his father on the Democratic ticket in a special election and was elected to the post of Attorney General.
As attorney general, Patterson worked against organized crime and the civil rights movement. He banned the NAACP from operating in the state of Alabama and blocked boycotts by the African-American community in Tuskegee and the capital city of Montgomery. With backing from the Ku Klux Klan, Patterson defeated a young George C. Wallace, who carried NAACP backing in the 1958 Democratic primaries—in those days, the real contest in Alabama. Patterson became the youngest governor in Alabama history and the first to move directly from the post of attorney general to governor. His defeat of Wallace is often credited with turning Wallace from a civil rights supporter to an ardent segregationist.
Read more about this topic: John Malcolm Patterson
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