Southerner,” Patterson remarked on hearing Seigenthaler’s Tennessee accent. He followed this hearty welcome with an angry oration, which Seigenthaler decided was largely for the benefit of the assembled Alabama politicians. “There’s nobody in the whole country that’s got the spine to stand up to the goddamned niggers except me,” Patterson declared, using the word “nigger” with casual defiance. “And I’ll tell you I’ve got more mail in the drawers of that desk over there congratulating me on the stand I’ve taken against what’s going on in this country…against Martin Luther King and these
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