Governor Warren's Driver: Sacramento's Lost Civil Rights History

This story is a completely unknown piece of U.S. civil rights history that occurred right here in Sacramento. It's about a former neighbor, Pat Patterson, who was the driver and bodyguard for Governor Earl Warren back in the 1940s. Pat and Warren had a kindred relationship, which was unlikely in that era, since Pat was African American and of minor rank. In their intimate conversations, Pat helped change Warren's mind on the race question. This occurred several years in advance of the Warren court's landmark 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision. This talk includes a description of how such an obscure story was discovered, and also places the story in the larger context of the ongoing civil rights struggle in America.

Speaker Biography

Justin Panson holds the position of Senior Marketing Manager for HMC Architects, a firm specialized in designing educational and healthcare facilities in California, Washington and Oregon.…