Kay Patterson, who rose from janitor at segregated South Carolina capitol to state senator, dies
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Former South Carolina Sen. Kay Patterson, who rose from cleaning offices in the segregated Statehouse to more than three decades as a state lawmaker, died Friday. He was 93.
The South Carolina Democratic Party announced Patterson’s death, saying he “left an indelible mark on our state. Senator Patterson captured everyone’s attention with his humor and wisdom.”
The statement did not mention a cause of death.
Patterson was born in 1931 in Darlington County and raised by his grandmothers. Early on, they recalled his stubborn spirit and advised him not to take jobs as a golf caddy or shoe shiner because in segregated South Carolina in the 1940s he would likely appeal to white people and get into trouble.
Instead, Patterson served in the Army and then earned his teaching degree through the GI Bill from Allen University. During his studies, he cleaned offices in the segregated capital, where he and other black people could not enter unless they were at work.
“When I was a janitor, black people couldn’t get into the Statehouse,” Patterson said in an interview Interview from 2004 with the University of South Carolina. “And one day I came back here as a member of the House of Representatives, and in ’84 I came back as a senator in the Senate. That is still a very long way to go.”
Patterson spent 30 years in education and was elected to the South Carolina House in 1974 and to the Senate ten years later. U.S. Representative Jim Clyburn urged him to run for the seat in the Supreme Chamber.
In a statement, Clyburn called Patterson “a trusted leader, a tireless champion of civil rights and a dear friend. He was a person of strength, determination, wisdom and a long-time advocate of removal the Confederate flag of the South Carolina Statehouse dome.”
Patterson was also the first black person to serve on the University of South Carolina Board of Trustees since Reconstruction.
Patterson was a key member of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. He served on the budget committees in both chambers and was a leading voice in support of civil rights, public education and helping poor people. He adamantly demanded that the Confederate flag be removed from the Statehouse dome and in the House of Representatives and Senate chambers long before they were taken down in 2000.
The Democrat said the final years of his political career were the toughest after Republicans took over the state government. His seniority no longer mattered and he felt that many newer Republicans were religious hypocrites who claimed to help others but only cared for people like themselves.
A few years before retiring from the Statehouse, Patterson said it was important to respect elders and supervisors but not be afraid to speak up if it bothered you or something was on your mind.
“That’s just been my hallmark since I was a little kid. It will get you in trouble now, but you can sleep well at night. And learn to treat everyone as human beings with respect,” Patterson said in the interview with the university’s Champions of Civil and Human Rights in South Carolina program.
“You can sleep very well at night. Right now, I am 73 years old and I sleep like a baby when I go to bed because I know I have not wronged my fellow man,” said Patterson.