Former Alabama Gov. John Patterson dies at 99

Former Alabama Gov. John Patterson (D) died Friday night at the age of 99, his family confirmed to multiple media outlets.

Patterson’s daughter, Barbara Patterson Scholl, told WSFA in Montgomery that Scholl died Friday night surrounded by his friends and family.

The family is in the process of making funeral arrangements, according to the news outlet.

Patterson was born in Goldville, Ala., in 1921, according to AL.com. He served in the U.S. Army in the 1930s and early 1940s, and later earned a law degree at the University of Alabama in 1949. AL.com noted that he returned to military service during the Korean War.

Prior to his time as governor, Patterson served as the state’s attorney general from 1955-1959.

Democratic officials pressured Patterson to run for attorney general after his father, Albert Patterson, the Democratic nomination to be the state’s top prosecutor, was gunned down in Phenix City in 1954, according to ABC News. Patterson won and upheld his father’s campaign promise to clean upPhenix City.

Patterson then served as governor from 1959-1963, running as a segregationist who pushed heavily for states’ rights. 

The Associated Press noted that while governor, Patterson launched a school building program, increased old age pensions and enacted a law curbing loan sharks.

But as the AP noted, he faced criticism for failing to protect the Freedom Riders as they were traveling through Alabama, later saying that he mistakenly trusted police to protect them.

The Freedom Riders, who were traveling to New Orleans in 1961 for a rally, faced a violent mob of over 100 people in Montgomery, according to Stanford University. They faced more violence in Birmingham.

Patterson would later regret his positions on race, telling The Washington Post  “having a record of supporting segregation … is a terrible burden to bear.” The newspaper noted that Patterson voted for former President Obama in 2008.

After being term limited, he tried again to run for governor in 1966, but lost to Lurleen Wallace, the AP noted. He was later appointed to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, on which he served until his retirement in 1997.