ATLANTA (AP) - Lester Maddox, the restaurateur whose segregationist defiance propelled him into the governorship in a fluke election in the 1960s, died Wednesday. He was 87. A high school dropout born in a working-class section of Atlanta, Maddox gained national notoriety for chasing away blacks from his Pickrick fried chicken restaurant in Atlanta in July 1964, the day after the Civil Rights Act was signed into law. He closed and then sold the Pickrick rather than serve blacks. But fears of racial strife during his 1967-71 governorship proved unfounded when Maddox pursued a policy of relative moderation on race. He had been chosen as governor by the Legislature after no candidate received a majority of the votes cast in the 1966 election.
Maddox’s term began with an inaugural vow that “there will be no place in Georgia during the next four years for those who advocate extremism or violence.” He interested himself in prison reform and teacher pay, and appointed black musician Graham Jackson to the state Board of Corrections - a high post for a black man at the time. But in 1968, Maddox refused to close the Capitol for the funeral of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., which drew thousands of mourners to Atlanta’s streets, and expressed anger that state flags were being flown at half staff.
“How you, chief?” was one customary greeting. Another: “It’s great to be alive. A lot of folks aren’t, you know.” Maddox was born Sept. 30, 1915, in Atlanta. He was a school dropout who later took a correspondence course and opened the Pickrick. It was through the Pickrick that Maddox became nationally known for his outspoken opposition to integration. In one incident, customers armed themselves with pick handles to bar blacks. Pick handles became his trademark, and later he sold them as souvenirs. Maddox claimed he had nothing against blacks, just forced integration. “As well as a constitutional human right to associate with whomever you please, there should be a corresponding right to disassociate if you please,” he once said.
Only the good die young. I’d have rather seen a thread dedicated to Maynard Jackson, who also died (much younger) this week. He was the first black mayor of Atlanta.
1 Apparently he made some really good fried chicken
2 He gave the political pendulum in Georgia such a push, that Jimmy Carter was the governor elected after him.
Slight of stature, Mr. Maddox was direct and outspoken in the defense of his convictions, which he wrapped in a states’ rights banner. These included the view that blacks were intellectually inferior to whites, that integration was a Communist plot, that segregation was somewhere justified in Scripture and that a federal mandate to integrate schools was “ungodly, un-Christian and un-American.” His opinions were no less fixed on other issues. He was opposed to drinking, smoking, liberal clergymen, atheism, socialism, the press, civil rights workers, “do-gooder foundations” and the wearing of miniskirts in the state Capitol. He advocated short haircuts for men, the Baptist Church (at least, its more conservative members), the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and the singing of “God Bless America,” a tune for which apparently he had an insatiable appetite. He liked it so much that at one public event, he ordered that it be sung no fewer than three times . . .
I spoke with Maddox once. He was speaking at a meeting I was covering. Maddox, who was way bald at the time, looked at me and said, “You’re hair’s kinda long. Why don’t you cut it?”
“I DO cut it,” I said, “but it keeps growing back.”
japatlgt, I’d respectfully submit that A) Eve certainly provided a great deal more information than you did and that B) no dismissive opinion included her original text. So my question is where are you coming from and as Juanita queried what do you care to share with us to justify your response?