Albert J. Lingo (January 22, 1910 – August 19, 1969) was appointed in 1963 by Alabama Gov. George Wallace to head the

Alabama Highway Patrol The Alabama Highway Patrol is the ''de facto'' highway patrol organization for the U.S. state of Alabama, and which has full jurisdiction anywhere in the State. The Alabama Highway Patrol was created in 1936. Since its establishment, 29 officers h ...

, which he led until 1965 during turbulent years marked by marches and demonstrations that characterized the

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

in the

U.S. South The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

. According to historian Dan T. Carter, Lingo had limited experience in law enforcement, but "had a reputation indispensable for Wallace .... He was known as 'hell on niggers' and a man who seemed to relish confrontation." His anger was not limited to Blacks and "his own recruits learned to stay out of his path; he was a dangerously unstable man ...." Lingo was reportedly a member of the Ku Klux Klan and was widely seen as a Klan-sympathizer. Lingo was described by ''

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'' editorial page editor

Howell Raines Howell Hiram Raines (; born February 5, 1943) is an American journalist, editor, and writer. He was executive editor of ''The New York Times'' from 2001 until he left in 2003 in the wake of the scandal related to reporting by Jayson Blair. In 20 ...

as "an addled racist" who derailed the state of Alabama's investigation into the

16th Street Baptist Church bombing The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was a white supremacist terrorist bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on Sunday, September 15, 1963. Four members of a local Ku Klux Klan chapter planted 19 sticks of dynami ...

due to either incompetence or in order to protect

Robert Chambliss Robert Edward Chambliss (January 14, 1904 – October 29, 1985), also known as ''Dynamite Bob'', was a white supremacist terrorist convicted in 1977 of murder for his role as conspirator in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963. A member ...

. Lingo played a central role in Wallace's attempt to thwart racial peace during the

Birmingham campaign The Birmingham campaign, also known as the Birmingham movement or Birmingham confrontation, was an American movement organized in early 1963 by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to bring attention to the integration efforts o ...

. When white business leaders in Birmingham and civil rights leaders announced a desegregation accord on May 7, 1963, Lingo almost immediately ordered state troopers to cease their work with municipal officers to keep the peace on city streets, despite law enforcement intelligence that there was a plan to dynamite the hotel where the Rev.

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

was staying. After the motel and the home of King's brother were bombed on May 12, 1963, authorities and civil rights leaders at first struggled to control conflict in the streets. As order was on the verge of being restored, Lingo, under the orders of Wallace, returned to the city with state troopers and about 100 civilians armed with hunting rifles who had been mustered by Wallace from Selma. Lingo ignored the pleas of Birmingham police chief Jamie Moore to leave the city, instead setting his subordinates loose in the city in what federal officials concluded was a deliberate effort by Wallace to provoke incidents that the race-baiting governor, who in his January 1963 inauguration had promised "segregation forever," could use to justify further repression. Ultimately, King and other civil rights leaders were able to calm the streets through their own efforts. Also in May 1963, Lingo led troopers in confronting civil rights marchers who were protesting the murder of William L. Moore, who was killed while protesting segregation. The troopers used an electric cattle prod on the protesters. Lingo's service with regard to the

Selma to Montgomery marches The Selma to Montgomery marches were three protest marches, held in 1965, along the 54-mile (87 km) highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery. The marches were organized by nonviolent activists to demonstrate the ...

also has been characterized in a negative light. He led troopers who beat protesters on the

Edmund Pettus Bridge The Edmund Pettus Bridge carries U.S. Route 80 Business (US 80 Bus.) across the Alabama River in Selma, Alabama. Built in 1940, it is named after Edmund Pettus, a former Confederate brigadier general, U.S. senator, and state-lev ...

in Selma on March 7, 1965, in what would become known as Bloody Sunday. He later claimed that he had "argued for two days" in favor of allowing the march, but was overruled "by my superior," presumably Wallace. "I was made the scapegoat," he said. He ran an intelligence operation that used police power to compile dossiers on civil rights workers. The operation was used to intimidate, blackmail or otherwise discredit several Black applicants who would have desegregated the University of Alabama, but failed when investigators, acting on the orders of Wallace, could find nothing useful in the history or family backgrounds of Vivian Malone and

James Hood James Alexander Hood (November 10, 1942 – January 17, 2013) was one of the first African Americans to enroll at the University of Alabama in 1963, and was made famous when Alabama Governor George Wallace attempted to block him and fellow ...

. He resigned as director effective October 1, 1965, and later ran for election to be sheriff of Jefferson County, Alabama, but was defeated. Lingo died of heart disease at age 59 on August 17, 1969."Ex-Trooper Chief, Lingo, Dies at 59", ''Birmingham Post-Herald'', August 18, 1969, and "Ex-state official--Heart ailment fatal to Lingo", ''The Birmingham News'', August 18, 1969, p. 24.

References

External links

Albert Lingo's FBI file
hosted at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lingo, Albert 1910 births State cabinet secretaries of Alabama People from Clayton, Alabama 1969 deaths 20th-century American politicians Selma to Montgomery marches American state police officers American police chiefs American white supremacists