Judge Patterson’s background illustrates the entrenched culture that makes it difficult to secure justice for Walter. By resisting de-segregation, which was a federally issued mandate, Patterson demonstrated his willingness to break the law in order to preserve the practice of discriminating against black people. Stevenson’s arguments, which claim that Walter’s conviction was faulty because of racial bias and illegal proceedings, likely seem irrelevant to Patterson, who has demonstrated his loyalty to racist traditions over the law. Patterson isn’t the first person in the book to question where Stevenson is from: this illustrates the importance that Stevenson places on the anti-outsider mentality he encountered in Southern courts.
Explanation: According to the context of the previous statement, the most probable meaning of the word permeate would be "saturated"; since the meaning of the word permeate is the action of penetrating a body or passing through it. In the previous text the cotton clothing is soaked with water, this means that the water permeated and penetrated the clothes, to the point that it could saturate it with this liquid.
