John Patterson (1921-2021) became Alabama Attorney General in 1954 following the assassination of his father, Albert Patterson, who had vowed to end vice and corruption in Phenix City. A populist who courted the white vote by denouncing integration, John Patterson was elected as Alabama's governor in 1959 on his anti-civil rights record and with the backing of the Ku Klux Klan.
John M. Patterson
Courtesy of the Alabama Department of Archives and History
