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Former Georgia Governor Lester Maddox near death

Posted on 06/24/2003 3:11:14 PM PDT by conservativefromGa

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To: Chancellor Palpatine
In other words, you don't know him, you only know what you read in the newspapers. (And of course the newspapers are always truthful, and never have an axe to grind, we all know that, right?) ;-) Maddox's long-running feud with "them lyin' Atlanta newspapers" is legendary around here, and Cox & Co. just can't resist getting in their last licks. Maddox (and his employees) told a completely different story about what happened at the restaurant, and apparently a jury believed their version. Frankly, I would believe Maddox before I'd believe Billy McKinney.

Which reminds me of another pair of people that need to be distinguished - Billy McKinney and Hosea Williams. McKinney is a mean racist - lots of folks were afraid of him when he was in power, but nobody ever liked him much (he may be the only Georgia legislator ever to pull out a knife and threaten to cut another representative in the well of the House!) The Rev. Hosea, on the other hand, was a good man at heart and everybody always liked him no matter how outrageous he was. His verbal fireworks are the mirror image of Maddox's - he loved to rabble rouse and raise hell, but when it came right down to it he always had a helping hand for everybody, white or black. He fed the hungry at his Thanksgiving dinner for years, he would literally give his last dollar to a panhandler. Sadly, he had a drinking problem that sometimes got the better of him, but I would always have a welcome and a kind word for the Reverend. I wouldn't cross the street to see McKinney or give him the time of day.

It's just so easy to write off everybody who was raised in the South in the early part of the 20th century as "evil racists" unless they come clean at a show trial after "re-education" and renounce their lives. It's especially easy if you don't know them, and can just condemn them out of hand as cardboard caricatures, easy targets of cheap hate. It's harder to make distinctions, but it is just.

There was much good in Maddox, despite his wrong-headed views, and people who actually met him and talked with him - white and black - realized that his views were entirely theoretical and when it came to practical reality he had a helping hand for everybody. None of the racial horrors predicted by Atlanta liberals happened during his administration - in fact he appointed the first black to statewide office, and appointed more blacks than any of the supposedly liberal governors before him had ever managed to do.

61 posted on 06/25/2003 7:08:29 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother (. . . there is nothing new under the sun.)
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To: AnAmericanMother
Perhaps my earliest memory is of seeing a picture on the front page of the Panama City "News Herald" of soldiers burning tables in the street.

I asked my Mother what it was and she told me it was marshall law in Phenix City. She then had to explain what marshall law was.

I saw the movie years ago and understand it was basically accurate. I used to know several federal agents who worked the Russell-Lee county area during the time. They told me it was about as bad as it gets.

One old agent who had retired told me that the same gang who killed Buford Pusser's wife was the one run out of Phenix City.

I had some small dealings with John Patterson. He impressed me as a personable and able attorney.

62 posted on 06/25/2003 8:00:31 AM PDT by yarddog
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To: yarddog
Wow. My Russell County relatives used to talk about it. They lived out in the country, over Hurtsboro way, so Phenix City was a distant metropolis. I don't think they ever went there for anything other than filing deeds or getting a marriage license. They thought of it as a Bad Place to Be.
63 posted on 06/25/2003 8:23:07 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother (. . . there is nothing new under the sun.)
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To: AnAmericanMother
and people who actually met him and talked with him - white and black - realized that his views were entirely theoretical and when it came to practical reality he had a helping hand for everybody.

There is an old saying:

In the North, they love the race and hate the individual.
In the South they hate the race and love the individual.

My father (born in 1919) was a lot like Lester.

Back in the late Sixties, when I was the long-haired liberal Meathead to his Archie Bunker, I would ask him, "What about Charlie Williams?"....and he'd say, "Well he's different". "What about Larry Hyde, and Marcus Wilson, and Leslie Stokes?"....."Well they're different too."

Heck.... ALL the black folks he knew were different. :-)

And its a fact....it was the Stokley Carmichaels and H. Rap Browns and the Huey Newtons that he was really talking about.

You see it today here on FR.

"I'm not a racist...I love Thomas Sowell and Condi Rice....it's Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson I can't stand.

Does that make me a racist?"

To the liberal media.....it does!
(Just ask Lester)

64 posted on 06/25/2003 4:58:49 PM PDT by eddie willers
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To: Clemenza
Bingo.

O'Bannion ? Jerry Seinfeld's annoying comedian acquaintance ?
65 posted on 06/25/2003 5:07:27 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~Remember, it's not sporting to fire at RINO until charging~)
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To: Impy
He thought he was Captain of the Enterprise.
66 posted on 06/25/2003 5:08:16 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~Remember, it's not sporting to fire at RINO until charging~)
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To: eddie willers
My father in law was born in 1916, he was much the same. My dad was born in 1924, ditto. He would rant and rave about H. Rap Brown & Stokely Carmichael, but when some poor black guy was literally unconscious drunk in the gutter, my dad stopped, picked him up, found out where he lived and got him home. (His sister was not pleased to see him arriving in that condition, but that's beside the point.) Dad also marched at Selma. He was guided by what he thought was just and fair, not the color of anybody's skin.
67 posted on 06/25/2003 5:10:18 PM PDT by AnAmericanMother (. . . there is nothing new under the sun.)
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To: AnAmericanMother
Billy McKinney is not just a racist but perhaps one of the most openly rabid anti-Semites in the state of GA (if not the country). He passed his hate on to his daughter. What a horrible thing to do to a child.
68 posted on 06/25/2003 5:10:55 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~Remember, it's not sporting to fire at RINO until charging~)
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To: fieldmarshaldj
I could NOT believe the way Billy McKinney went ON THE TV and said, "It was the JOOOOOOOOOs! The JOOOOOOOOOs!"

He was my state representative, believe it or not, thanks to "King Roy" splitting our old district because it didn't go for him when he was elected. But we got organized and voted the *&^%&^%$%$ out!

69 posted on 06/25/2003 5:36:07 PM PDT by AnAmericanMother (. . . there is nothing new under the sun.)
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To: AnAmericanMother
Yeah, but don't you just have some meely-mouthed Caucasian 'Rat Rep. now ? :-P
70 posted on 06/25/2003 6:14:35 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~Remember, it's not sporting to fire at RINO until charging~)
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To: fieldmarshaldj
He's a little on the mealy-mouthed side, but we're working on him.

He's got the unenviable job of holding together a district that includes the slums (no other word for 'em) out the Bankhead Highway and the tonier districts of Southeast Cobb. But he knows who got him elected, and we're making good progress on adjusting his thinking to reality . . . :-D

He was the guy who introduced the legislation last session requiring all restaurants to serve sweet tea. We've been giving him a pretty thorough ribbing over that. On a more serious note, he is working AGAINST the GRTA mass transit boondoggle and that's what we need him to do right now.

71 posted on 06/25/2003 6:26:25 PM PDT by AnAmericanMother (. . . there is nothing new under the sun.)
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To: AnAmericanMother
Heh, well good luck. My own state Rep. is, well, don't get me started. Let's just say corruption is rewarded well if you're a Tennessee 'Rat.
72 posted on 06/25/2003 6:30:09 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~Remember, it's not sporting to fire at RINO until charging~)
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