One Man-stands | AskHistorians Archive Observer

I think this counts as a one-man-stand: The late Floyd Mann was a World War II vet (27 missions as a B-17 tail gunner over Europe). After the war he went into law enforcement. By 1961 he had worked his way up to Alabama Director of Public Safety, the highest law enforcement officer in the state. The Freedom Riders were coming to Alabama, and US Attorney General Bobby Kennedy sent his assistant John Seigenthaler to meet with Alabama's segregationist Governor John Patteson. Floyd Mann was also at this meeting. Seigenthaler asked the Governor to provide protection for the Freedom Riders, but Patterrson insisted it would be impossible. Patterson then gestured to his Director of Public Safety, Floyd Mann, and asked him to corroborate what he had just said. Mann stunned the Governor when he said, "Governor, if you tell me to protect them, I will protect them." Seigenthaler recalled it was like the air had been sucked out of the room as the Governor suddenly found himself all alone in his position. Floyd Mann was a segregationist, but he believed in the law so he was acting out of duty rather than ideology. Patterson authorized Mann to protect the Freedom Riders, and Mann mobilized the state police to guard the Freedom Riders' route. As a state official, Mann had no authority inside the City of Montgomery, so the state police stopped at the city line. Montgomery's public safety commissioner, was segregationist L. B. Sullivan, and he had assured Mann that Montgomery police would be at the bus station. Mann was suspicious of the assurance he had received for the Freedom Riders safety, so he proceeded to the bus station alone with only his side arm. He arrived a few minutes into the assault on the Freedom Riders, and there were no Montgomery City cops at the scene. Mann fired a round in the air to back off the attackers, and announced "There'll be no killing here today.'' One Freedom Rider, William Barbee, was being severely beaten with a club. As the white attacker raised his bat again, Mann put his gun to the man's head and said ''One more swing and you're dead." 'The attacker wisely walked away. Sullivan's Montgomery police officers arrived about 10 minutes into the assault, but did nothing to stop it. Mann called his state police in from the city line to restore order. Two Freedom Riders and a reporter named Zwerg were severely injured and in a taxi, but the white driver refused to take them to the hospital. A black cab driver offered to take them, but Sullivan's Montgomery cops would not let him. Sullivan said they would have to wait for an ambulance. Sullivan had arranged for all of the city's ambulances to be in the repair shop that day, so the ambulance would never arrive. Mann again intervened ordering one of his state policemen to take the injured to the hospital. Floyd Mann didn't agree with Freedom Riders, but he believed in the law and defended them. You have to take people as they are, so even though I don't agree with Mann's segregationist views, I have to respect the guy. http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/15/reviews/980315.15oshinst.html http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/highwayhistory/road/s27.cfm