Floyd Mann
Encyclopedia
Floyd Mann was born August. 20, 1920, in Davidson
, Tallapoosa County, Alabama
. He was schooled in Davidson and Alexander City, Alabama. He joined the United States Army Air Corps
, serving as a tail gunner on a B-17, where he flew 27 combat missions including the first daylight raid on Berlin. He received numerous awards including the Distinguished Flying Cross
. He married Grace Doss of Fort Worth, Texas
, on November 25, 1944. After his military service he served as a security officer at Republic Steel
in Gadsden
. Afterwards he served as a police officer in Alexander City, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant.
From 1950 until 1958, he served as the chief of police of Opelika, where he assisted with the clean up of gambling and corruption that had spilled over from Phoenix City. During this time he developed a close relationship with John Patterson
who later became attorney general and governor.From 1959 until 1963, he served as director of the Alabama Department of Public Safety, appointed by Governor John Patterson.
for the state of Alabama in 1961, when the nonviolent Freedom Riders came into the state seeking an end to segregation. The state's governor at that time, John Patterson
, was resisting Attorney General
Robert Kennedy's demands that the Freedom Riders be protected from the Ku Klux Klan
and others who were attacking them at their Alabama stops. Patterson was a committed segregationist
who called the Freedom Riders "fools" and "agitators" for whom he did not want to "play nursemaid".
Mann offered to protect the riders if he was given the proper resources. With the understanding that the state and city police of Alabama would offer assistance.
Kennedy sent a representative down to talk to Patterson, who had his entire cabinet attend the meeting. He based his repeated refusal to protect the nonviolent demonstrators from the Klan on his argument that such protection was impossible to provide, and well beyond the capabilities of local or state law enforcement.
Violence in Alabama was organized by Birmingham Police Sergeant Tom Cook (an avid Ku Klux Klan supporter) and police commissioner Bull Connor
. The pair made plans to bring the Ride to an end in Alabama. When the bus arrived in Birmingham, it was attacked by a mob of Ku Klux Klan members, aided and abetted by the police under the orders of Commissioner Bull Connor. As the riders exited the bus, they were mercilessly beaten by the mob with baseball bats, iron pipes and bicycle chains. Among the Klansmen attacking the riders was FBI informant Gary Thomas Rowe. White Freedom Riders were particularly singled out for frenzied beatings; James Peck
required more than 50 stitches to the wounds in his head. Peck was taken to Carraway Methodist Medical Center
, which refused to treat him; he was later treated at Jefferson Hillman Hospital.
Connor claimed that he posted no officers at the bus depot because of the holiday; however, it was later discovered that the FBI knew of the planned attack and that the city police stayed away on purpose. Patterson offered no apologies, explaining, "When you go somewhere looking for trouble, you usually find it . . . . You just can't guarantee the safety of a fool and that's what these folks are, just fools." When asked about Connor, Mann said "He was in charge, Bull Connor was in charge of the police department in Birmingham at that point in time. He was police commissioner." "his comment was that it was just absolutely ridiculous for those people to be in Alabama doing what they were doing."
Mann arrived on the loading dock a few minutes into the riot. He had been suspicious of Sullivan's assurances, but had no authority within the city limits. As a result, Mann had stationed highway patrolman a few blocks away, but amidst the chaos inside the station, he had to act on his own. A young black, William Barbee, was knocked to the pavement, then struck repeatedly with a heavy club; the mob was shouting, ‘Kill him! Kill him!’ It might have happened but for the sudden intervention of Colonel Floyd Mann, the Alabama Public Safety Director, who drew his pistol and ordered the attackers back, threatening to shoot if they didn’t.Firing warning shots, he came to the rescue of the Freedom Riders being beaten on the loading platform. He managed to back off some of the attackers.
He also saved the life of Jim Zwerg
. Zwerg had been beaten badly by the rioters. Two Freedom Riders and a reporter carried Zwerg, who appeared to be dying, to a taxicab. The white driver refused to drive Zwerg to the hospital. A deputy sheriff arrived - to read the injunction to Zwerg and the two other Freedom Riders. An African-American taxi driver agreed to take them to a doctor, but the police would not allow Zwerg to go. He would have to wait until a white ambulance arrived. Since Sullivan, as he later explained, had arranged for all the white ambulances to be in the repair shop on this date, the ambulance would never arrive. Mann had to intervene, directing one of his patrolmen to drive Zwerg to a hospital. (Zwerg would be hospitalized, but survived his injuries.)
Sullivan's police arrived 10 minutes into the riot, but initially took no action to halt the beatings. Hearing that Mann was on the loading platform, Sullivan rushed to the scene. As Sullivan tried to assert his authority over Mann, Judge Jones and State Attorney General MacDonald Gallion arrived to take charge. Their primary concern was not to stop the riot or arrest Klansmen, but to read the Judge's injunction to the nearly unconscious Freedom Riders. At that point, Mann called for his state troopers whom he had stationed several blocks away. Their arrival restored order to the terminal.' "
When University of Alabama president Dr. David Matthews was appointed as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, Col. Mann went to Washington as his assistant. At the end of the Ford administration, he returned to the University of Alabama as vice president of external affairs. Col. Mann retired from the university in 1982.Col. Mann returned to state service again in 1982, when he served one and a half years in the Fob James administration as chief administrator of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.Among his many awards and honors, Col. Mann was named United Press International's man of the year in Alabama for 1961.Col. Mann originated the Alabama Highway Patrol cadet program in 1959, which allowed young recruits age 18 to 22 to train for a future career as an Alabama highway patrol officer. In 1947, he attended the FBI's National Academy, a six-month intensive police training program in Virginia, and later served as the president of the Alabama chapter of the FBI National Academy Graduates.In 1988, Col. Mann was one of the first inductees in the Alabama Peace Officers Hall of Fame.Upon his untimely death, he was the executive director of the state Fraternal Order of Police, where he had served since 1988.
Davidson
Davidson is the name of:* Davidson * Davidson Media Group* Davidson Seamount, undersea mountain southwest of Monterey, California, USA* Tyler Davidson Fountain, monument in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA...
, Tallapoosa County, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
. He was schooled in Davidson and Alexander City, Alabama. He joined the United States Army Air Corps
United States Army Air Corps
The United States Army Air Corps was a forerunner of the United States Air Force. Renamed from the Air Service on 2 July 1926, it was part of the United States Army and the predecessor of the United States Army Air Forces , established in 1941...
, serving as a tail gunner on a B-17, where he flew 27 combat missions including the first daylight raid on Berlin. He received numerous awards including the Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Flying Cross (United States)
The Distinguished Flying Cross is a medal awarded to any officer or enlisted member of the United States armed forces who distinguishes himself or herself in support of operations by "heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight, subsequent to November 11, 1918." The...
. He married Grace Doss of Fort Worth, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, on November 25, 1944. After his military service he served as a security officer at Republic Steel
Republic Steel
Republic Steel was once the third largest steel producer in the United States.The Republic Iron and Steel Company was founded in Youngstown, Ohio in 1899....
in Gadsden
Gadsden
Gadsden may refer to:In geography:*Gadsden, Alabama**Gadsden Depot, a United States Army Depot in the city of Gadsden, Alabama*Gadsden, Arizona*Gadsden, Indiana*Gadsden, Tennessee*Gadsden County, Florida...
. Afterwards he served as a police officer in Alexander City, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant.
From 1950 until 1958, he served as the chief of police of Opelika, where he assisted with the clean up of gambling and corruption that had spilled over from Phoenix City. During this time he developed a close relationship with John Patterson
John Patterson
-U.S. politicians:* John Patterson , U.S. Congressman from Ohio* John J. Patterson , U.S. senator from South Carolina, 1873–1879* John Malcolm Patterson , U.S. politician from Alabama...
who later became attorney general and governor.From 1959 until 1963, he served as director of the Alabama Department of Public Safety, appointed by Governor John Patterson.
Freedom Riders
Mann was the Director of Public SafetyPublic Safety
Public safety involves the prevention of and protection from events that could endanger the safety of the general public from significant danger, injury/harm, or damage, such as crimes or disasters .-See also:* By nation...
for the state of Alabama in 1961, when the nonviolent Freedom Riders came into the state seeking an end to segregation. The state's governor at that time, John Patterson
John Patterson
-U.S. politicians:* John Patterson , U.S. Congressman from Ohio* John J. Patterson , U.S. senator from South Carolina, 1873–1879* John Malcolm Patterson , U.S. politician from Alabama...
, was resisting Attorney General
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
Robert Kennedy's demands that the Freedom Riders be protected from the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
and others who were attacking them at their Alabama stops. Patterson was a committed segregationist
Racial segregation in the United States
Racial segregation in the United States, as a general term, included the racial segregation or hypersegregation of facilities, services, and opportunities such as housing, medical care, education, employment, and transportation along racial lines...
who called the Freedom Riders "fools" and "agitators" for whom he did not want to "play nursemaid".
Mann offered to protect the riders if he was given the proper resources. With the understanding that the state and city police of Alabama would offer assistance.
Kennedy sent a representative down to talk to Patterson, who had his entire cabinet attend the meeting. He based his repeated refusal to protect the nonviolent demonstrators from the Klan on his argument that such protection was impossible to provide, and well beyond the capabilities of local or state law enforcement.
Violence in Alabama was organized by Birmingham Police Sergeant Tom Cook (an avid Ku Klux Klan supporter) and police commissioner Bull Connor
Bull Connor
Theophilus Eugene "Bull" Connor was the Commissioner of Public Safety for the city of Birmingham, Alabama, during the American Civil Rights Movement...
. The pair made plans to bring the Ride to an end in Alabama. When the bus arrived in Birmingham, it was attacked by a mob of Ku Klux Klan members, aided and abetted by the police under the orders of Commissioner Bull Connor. As the riders exited the bus, they were mercilessly beaten by the mob with baseball bats, iron pipes and bicycle chains. Among the Klansmen attacking the riders was FBI informant Gary Thomas Rowe. White Freedom Riders were particularly singled out for frenzied beatings; James Peck
James Peck
James Peck may refer to:*James H. Peck , American judge in Missouri impeached for abuse of power*Sir James Peck , British civil servant and local government officer...
required more than 50 stitches to the wounds in his head. Peck was taken to Carraway Methodist Medical Center
Carraway Methodist Medical Center
Carraway Methodist Medical Center was a medical facility in Birmingham, Alabama founded as Carraway Infirmary in 1908 by Dr. Charles N. Carraway. It was moved in 1917 to Birmingham's Norwood neighborhood. Its facilities were segregated according to skin color for much of its history and, in one...
, which refused to treat him; he was later treated at Jefferson Hillman Hospital.
Connor claimed that he posted no officers at the bus depot because of the holiday; however, it was later discovered that the FBI knew of the planned attack and that the city police stayed away on purpose. Patterson offered no apologies, explaining, "When you go somewhere looking for trouble, you usually find it . . . . You just can't guarantee the safety of a fool and that's what these folks are, just fools." When asked about Connor, Mann said "He was in charge, Bull Connor was in charge of the police department in Birmingham at that point in time. He was police commissioner." "his comment was that it was just absolutely ridiculous for those people to be in Alabama doing what they were doing."
Mann arrived on the loading dock a few minutes into the riot. He had been suspicious of Sullivan's assurances, but had no authority within the city limits. As a result, Mann had stationed highway patrolman a few blocks away, but amidst the chaos inside the station, he had to act on his own. A young black, William Barbee, was knocked to the pavement, then struck repeatedly with a heavy club; the mob was shouting, ‘Kill him! Kill him!’ It might have happened but for the sudden intervention of Colonel Floyd Mann, the Alabama Public Safety Director, who drew his pistol and ordered the attackers back, threatening to shoot if they didn’t.Firing warning shots, he came to the rescue of the Freedom Riders being beaten on the loading platform. He managed to back off some of the attackers.
He also saved the life of Jim Zwerg
James Zwerg
James Zwerg is an American former minister who became famous for his involvement with the freedom riders in the early 1960s.-Early life:...
. Zwerg had been beaten badly by the rioters. Two Freedom Riders and a reporter carried Zwerg, who appeared to be dying, to a taxicab. The white driver refused to drive Zwerg to the hospital. A deputy sheriff arrived - to read the injunction to Zwerg and the two other Freedom Riders. An African-American taxi driver agreed to take them to a doctor, but the police would not allow Zwerg to go. He would have to wait until a white ambulance arrived. Since Sullivan, as he later explained, had arranged for all the white ambulances to be in the repair shop on this date, the ambulance would never arrive. Mann had to intervene, directing one of his patrolmen to drive Zwerg to a hospital. (Zwerg would be hospitalized, but survived his injuries.)
Sullivan's police arrived 10 minutes into the riot, but initially took no action to halt the beatings. Hearing that Mann was on the loading platform, Sullivan rushed to the scene. As Sullivan tried to assert his authority over Mann, Judge Jones and State Attorney General MacDonald Gallion arrived to take charge. Their primary concern was not to stop the riot or arrest Klansmen, but to read the Judge's injunction to the nearly unconscious Freedom Riders. At that point, Mann called for his state troopers whom he had stationed several blocks away. Their arrival restored order to the terminal.' "
Later life
Following Patterson's administration in 1963, Mann was interviewed and considered for the position of police chief of Trenton, New Jersey, and Kansas City, Missouri.He chose to return to a company near his home, where he was employed by West Point Pepperell in Lanett, Alabama, as director of security. Later he was employed by the University of Alabama, where he served as special assistant for security.When University of Alabama president Dr. David Matthews was appointed as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, Col. Mann went to Washington as his assistant. At the end of the Ford administration, he returned to the University of Alabama as vice president of external affairs. Col. Mann retired from the university in 1982.Col. Mann returned to state service again in 1982, when he served one and a half years in the Fob James administration as chief administrator of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.Among his many awards and honors, Col. Mann was named United Press International's man of the year in Alabama for 1961.Col. Mann originated the Alabama Highway Patrol cadet program in 1959, which allowed young recruits age 18 to 22 to train for a future career as an Alabama highway patrol officer. In 1947, he attended the FBI's National Academy, a six-month intensive police training program in Virginia, and later served as the president of the Alabama chapter of the FBI National Academy Graduates.In 1988, Col. Mann was one of the first inductees in the Alabama Peace Officers Hall of Fame.Upon his untimely death, he was the executive director of the state Fraternal Order of Police, where he had served since 1988.