Former Georgia Governor Lester Maddox near death

[conservativefromGa]

Family Friend says Maddox Gravely Ill

ATLANTA (AP) Former Gov. Lester Maddox, 87, one of the Old South's last segregation governors, was gravely ill at an Atlanta hospice Tuesday, said a family friend who wished to be unnamed.

Maddox has suffered numerous illnesses since leaving the public spotlight, including cancer, a stroke, kidney stones, two heart attacks and an intestinal blockage.

The Marietta Daily Journal reported in Tuesday's edition that Maddox suffered two cracked ribs at an assisted living home about 10 days ago, where he was recovering from intestinal surgery, and later developed pneumonia.

Maddox, a high school dropout born in a working-class section of Atlanta, gained national notoriety for chasing away several blacks from his Pickrick fried chicken restaurant in Atlanta in July 1964, the day after the Civil Rights Act was signed into law.

Though he had never held public office, Maddox won the Democratic nomination for governor in 1966. In the November general election, Maddox was out-polled by a Republican, but a write-in campaign assured that neither candidate had a majority. Election law at the time threw the election to the Democratic Legislature, which elected Maddox.

Despite fears of racial strife, Maddox steered a moderate course for four years. Barred from seeking a second term, he ran for and won the state's No. 2 post, lieutenant governor.

A comeback bid failed in 1974 and Maddox ran his final race in 1990, finishing last in a five-person race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, drawing just 3 percent of the vote.

[Scenic Sounds]

Didn't he used to chase blacks out of his chicken resturant with an axe-handle? Great guy.

That's my memory, but I was pretty young at the time. I suspect that it might have been more of a publicity stunt than anything else, but it gave him a real when he ran for public office. Those were the days when civil rights workers were viewed as "outside agitators." ;-)

[fieldmarshaldj]

GA *ping*

I wrote to Gov. Maddox a few years back for an autograph, and he responded by sending me a bunch of materials on Jimmy Carter and how Jimmuh was a total fraud and slick political operator. Great stuff. Maddox is a tough ole S.O.B. I hope he goes peacefully, I know he misses his beloved late wife terribly.

[LTCJ]

I have to agree. I had the pleasure of spending over an hour with Governor Maddox over the Thanksgiving holiday in 2001. We stood around in his garage talking history, politics, and seeing pieces of his various collections. Truly a gentleman. Most of all, he talked about his beloved wife in a way that made this old soldier mist up. I've never heard anyone speak with such genuine emotion. He'll be with her soon now.

He's truly his own man. He had nothing good to say about Clinton, spoke highly of Bush, and he absolutely loathes Jimmy Carter. He had no party loyalty when it came to matters he thought important and he did more for bringing blacks into state government than any governor before or since.

Having met the man, I for one will miss him.

[AnAmericanMother]

Didn't he used to chase blacks out of his chicken resturant with an axe-handle? Great guy.

Not true. The way Maddox told it, a couple of local political activists had been egging people on to come to his restaurant and start trouble (including, BTW, Billy McKinney, parent of Cynthia) and a carload of folks showed up more than once looking for Maddox. He said they threatened him and then tried to force their way inside the restaurant, and that some of his customers took axe handles from next to the fireplace and confronted them. Maddox himself had a pistol. He was charged with assault, IIRC, but was acquitted or the charges were dismissed, can't remember which. He said he thought they were coming in to wreck the place.

If you want to read about it from a well-known article in one of our local free magazines, here 'tis. Be sure to check out Maddox's spirited retort to the article, in which he challenges a number of facts. (He always took umbrage with news and magazine articles - I don't think he was ever satisfied with anybody who ever wrote about him.)

[Theodore R.]

Most conservatives in GA will admit in private that Maddox was their state's "best governor" of the second half of the twentieth century.

In 1992 and 1996, Maddox was a Buchanan-for-President booster.

[joey'smom]

Hey, thank you! Great article (and response)!

[Theodore R.]

Jimmuh was a total fraud and slick political operator.

Lester Maddox tried to warn America about "Jimmuh" in 1976, but America would not listen to one who had been discredited on matter of "race" and "fairness." The American people in time -- 1980 -- came to agree to a point with Lester Maddox regarding "Jimmuh" Carter.

BTW, Maddox was also lieutenant governor of GA -- under Carter!

Did Maddox and Callaway ever make peace?

[AnAmericanMother]

I agree. He loved his wife most dearly, and when she died it was like part of him died with her.

I spoke to him last I guess about a year ago, we met on Capitol Hill (he had come down to attend some sort of official function). He told me at that time he wasn't doing very well, was feeling really tired, and "missed Virginia every day."

I hope they have a joyous reunion in Heaven.

[Theodore R.]

Another incidental: Maddox has the same middle name as an American president.

It is GARFIELD.

[fieldmarshaldj]

I think ole Jimmuh tried to make Maddox as politically impotent as possible when he served as his #2, and was largely kneecapped when he tried to go for his old job in '74. I wonder how much damage Maddox could've inflicted on him as a sitting Governor when he ran in '76, since it scarcely did much damage as an "ex-."

I don't know if Maddox and Callaway ever made peace. I'm not sure if Callaway had been allowed to take office if he would've been particularly effective with almost zero Republicans in the legislature at that time (aside from perhaps DeKalb County, which was then going GOP, as was Fulton, now the opposite is true). Callaway would've been one of 3 GOP Governors taking office for the first time in the deep south since Reconstruction, along with the wacky FL Gov. Claude Kirk and AR's Win Rockefeller, Sr. None of them would be around by '71 (Kirk and Win were beaten in '70 and Bo would've been barred from running again).

[AlGone2001]

I have met Lester Maddux.

He even attended my gradmother's funeral one year ago today.

I am certain that he changed his racist ways, but never asked him.

He did author a book and had no shame in admitting that he was born again.

Above all, I hate it that my grandmother died a democrat. She loved Bill Clinton.

[damper99]

I had the privilege of having lunch with him after the "VIP Rattlesnake Hunt" during the annual Rattlesnake Roundup in Claxton, GA in 1990 when he was running for governor. I sat by his side during the luncheon, and he seemed to be very gentlemanly to all, including several Blacks that were part of the party.

He seemed to be just someone who liked you if you behaved like you respected people as you'd like them to respect you.

I doubt if he ever owned any sheets like Robert Byrd did (does?).

I came away from the event thinking that he was very likeable and couldn't square that with the stories I'd read over the years....but, then again, maybe the press was biased. It's just a hunch that they might be at times.

[Riverman94610]

The bottom line was that Lester wanted to keep his Pickrick restaurant white as the driven snow.The ax handle incident happened the weekend of the signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and attracted national notoriety.
Maddox contended that it wasn't about racism but about the Feds forcing a private business owner to knuckle under to their illegal mandates.
I contend that it was STILL about racism.
But maybe I am just a cynical kind of guy!

[AnAmericanMother]

I don't think it was racism, as that word is correctly defined. Maddox never believed that black people were inferior to white people, or that they should be mistreated or exterminated. However, he was a segregationist, who believed that the races were happier living apart. Obviously that view has been discredited by modern received wisdom, but remember that he was born in 1915 and that was what just about everybody believed then.

If he had truly been a racist, I don't think he would have had as many black friends as he did. That word is thrown around way too freely nowadays, and misuse of the word makes it hard to distinguish between otherwise decent people who happen to disagree on racial policy issues, and the REAL racists. If you've ever met a real one, you'd never call Maddox one. He's too much of a gentleman.

[AnAmericanMother]

IIRC, Callaway went to Washington D.C. and then out to Colorado shortly after the election. So I don't know if he and Maddox ever had an official truce.

I don't think they would have had any contact in any event. Callaway is old middle Georgia money (vide Callaway Gardens) and Maddox was dirt-poor working class Atlanta.

[rustbucket]

Thanks for the article. I ate in the old Pickrick a couple of times. Maddox would come around talking to all the diners the way a good restauranteur should. The food was good as I remember.

[AnAmericanMother]

I never ate there. Didn't get downtown too much at that time. But I always heard the food was good, in a country style "meat and two" way.

[Captain Shady]

Didn't he run for President in 1976 on the American Independent ticket?

[Captain Shady]

Didn't he run for President in 1976 on the American Independent ticket?

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Apologetics for those old line segregationists may have worked with a denser public, and even make the practice seem quaint to them, but that garbage doesn't work anymore except with the grotesquely ignorant.