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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJohn Patterson was 'unelectable' as governor in Alabama in 1959.
He was running against Judge George Corley Wallace who had mounted a very strong campaign.
Wallace was the favorite in most polls.
Understand that both men would be considerd racist by today's standards.
99% of whites here in Alabama at the time were racists.
My mother was instrumental in Patterson's campaign in Jefferson County (Birmingham).
In talking with friends and business associates she heard over and over "I like Patterson, but nobody's gonna vote for him. Wallace has got it."
She turned that into Patterson's campaign slogan: "Nobody But The People!"
"Who's gonna vote for Patterson? Nobody but the people."
He won.
trof
(54,256 posts)In 2003, Patterson was the presiding judge over former Chief Justice Roy Moore's appeal against his removal from the Alabama Supreme Court.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Malcolm_Patterson
DemocratSinceBirth
(99,710 posts)That was the race where George Wallace said he would never be out N worded again ...In other words he would always be the most outspoken racist in the election:
http://biggerbillhaywood.blogspot.com/2008/01/segregation-forever.html
Not a good model.
trof
(54,256 posts)In retrospect, Wallace, at the time, was more of a populist than Patterson.
I believe a lot of blacks (those who jumped through all the hoops and could actually cast a vote) supported Wallace.
Patterson's campaign was very anti 'Negro'.
You would have had to live here, as I did, to understand how it was.
I don't hold Patterson up as a 'model', just that there was the same mindset as has been demonstrated here about Sanders.
'Unelectable'.
You're only unelectable until you get elected.
DemocratSinceBirth
(99,710 posts)He had no problem embracing black folk after they got the right to vote.