Darron Patterson

Advisor

A native of Plateau, Alabama, also known as Africatown, Darron is the great-great-grandson of Clotilda slave ship survivor “Kupollee,” one of the last 110 Africans to be illegally brought to America from Africa in 1860. He is the former President of the Clotilda Descendants Association (2019-2022), is an alumnus of the University of Texas at El Paso and was the first African American sportswriter at the Mobile Press Register.

A four-time Associated Press and Alabama Press Association award winner for "Best Story of the Year,” Darron was also a feature writer at The Detroit News and covered the city’s four major sports teams: National Football League's Lions, NBA’s Pistons,  Major League Baseball's Tigers and the National Hockey League’s Red Wings. Darron was the first African American to cover NASCAR and Indy Car racing circuits for a major metropolitan daily newspaper (Detroit News), and later was Director of Communications for the City of Detroit's Resource Management System.

Darron is now a Senior Technical Writer for Airbus Space and Defense. He has spoken at numerous colleges and universities in America. He serves on the board of directors for Legacy 166 non-profit, on the board of the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame, and on the advisory board of the Mobile Sports and Entertainment Group.