Posted on 06/25/2003 4:33:33 AM PDT by kattracks
ATLANTA, Jun 25, 2003 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Lester Maddox, the restaurateur who became a symbol of segregationist defiance and then Georgia governor in a fluke election, died Wednesday in an Atlanta hospice, family members said. He was 87.
Maddox, who had battled cancer since 1983, had cracked two ribs when he fell about 10 days ago at an assisted living home where he was recovering from intestinal surgery, his daughter Virginia Carnes said Tuesday.
Maddox became famous in the 1960s when he closed and then sold his Pickrick fried chicken restaurant in Atlanta 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.
It 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."
Barred from succeeding himself at the end of his four-year term, Maddox won the state's second-highest office, and from the position as lieutenant governor battled the man who succeeded him as governor, President-to-be Jimmy Carter.
A bid to return to the executive mansion failed in 1974, and Maddox dabbled at real estate.
He tried a final comeback in 1990, but his years away from the public spotlight and a changing electorate left him fifth in a five-person race with just 3 percent of the vote.
An irrepressible, flamboyant man, Maddox often seemed more caricature than flesh. His slick pate and thick glasses were fodder for cartoonists. He was known for quaint sayings and outrageous gestures like riding a bicycle backward.
"How you, chief?" was one customary greeting. Another: "It's great to be alive. A lot of folks aren't, you know."
He won the hearts of many by opening the doors of his office and the governor's mansion to what he called the "little people." Twice a month he held a kind of people's court to hear the problems of the rank-and-file and offer advice and help.
At his final open house at the executive mansion, thousands turned out to bid Maddox farewell.
Maddox was born Sept. 30, 1915, in Atlanta. He was a school dropout who later took a correspondence course and opened a restaurant. It was through that restaurant, 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. In the end, he sold the restaurant rather than comply with the public accommodations section of the Civil Rights Act.
"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.
Maddox ran twice for mayor of Atlanta and once for lieutenant governor before capturing the state's highest office through a quirk in state law.
He won the Democratic nomination for governor in 1966 but trailed Republican Howard H. "Bo" Callaway in the general election. Write-in votes for other candidates prevented Callaway from receiving a majority, and the question was thrown to the Democrat-dominated Legislature, which picked Maddox.
As governor, Maddox 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.
As his term drew to a close, Maddox challenged a constitutional provision barring governors from succeeding themselves. He failed, but managed to be elected lieutenant governor.
It was a classic mismatch: the liberal, polished Carter as governor and conservative, rough-hewn Maddox in the No. 2 spot. Said Maddox: "It's all right for a fellow to grow peanuts ... but people ought not to think like them. I don't know whether the man is sick, or just a plain fool."
In 1974, Maddox once again was eligible to run for governor. He lost.
The ex-governor flirted with national politics in 1976 when his old nemesis Carter ran successfully for president. As the presidential nominee of the American Independent Party, Maddox got only a handful of votes.
Later, he embarked on a short-lived nightclub comedy career with a black man he pardoned from jail while he was governor. They billed themselves as "The Governor and the Dishwasher."
Maddox's wife, the former Virginia Cox, died in 1997. They had been married for more than 60 years and had two daughters and two sons.
After she died, Maddox resolved to work to keep other marriages together, reasoning that if a few thousand dollars' worth of advertising could save one family, "then it's worth it."
"DEAR MOMS & DADS. Help Save Lives, Families and U.S.A. STAY MARRIED," said an ad that ran in March 1998 in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Now Lester Maddox was no John Galt, but he did fulfill Rand's scenario.
Though blacks were not allowed on one side of his counter, they were the folks hired in the kitchen and elsewhere..
When the Feds and the NAACP yahoos came making their demands, Lester vowed he would shut it down rather than capitulate..... and he did.
And the hired help were out of work.
Oh well....you got to break a few eggs and all that.
You don't happen to recall a great big guy (6'6", 240 lbs) with a bright red beard who was (and still is) a Leica fanatic?
By any measure, he was eccentric. For years he lived up at the corner of Johnson Ferry and Shallowford Road in East Cobb County. He would put topical and political signs, hand painted, up in his yard from time to time.
When he was so ill from his stroke, a friend of mine who lives around the corner took him a casserole and chatted with him for awhile. He missed his wife awfully - I think she died in '97. I hope they are reunited in heaven.
I saw them.
My then girlfriend's family was one of the first to move into the Atlanta Country Club sub-division off of Paper Mill.
I used to get there by taking a left off of Riverside Drive and waiting for cars to pass on the ONE LANE bridge crossing the river on Johnson's Ferry LOL!
I was very sad to hear about his death this morning. In many ways, he molded my views as to how a politician should represent the people. While Governor, he was always honest and his house was open to the public. You could drop by and chat with him at any time.
He was one of the "good guys."
I was just chatting with a (black) friend this morning about how all the icons of that era are passing away - Hosea Williams, then Maynard Jackson, now Lester Maddox - seems like all at once.
I guess I'm a populist at heart, I always have a soft spot for the "people's men" like Williams and Maddox, and I never did trust Jackson. Too smooth and slick.
That race was similar to the last presidential election. Callaway actually got the most votes, but a liberal democrat named Ellis Arnold ran as an independant protest candidate, and got enough votes to ensure that no one got a majority. The state constitution stated at that time that if no one got a majority the state legislature would vote for the next governor. Of course, the legislature being totally dominated by democrats voted overwhelmingly for Maddox.
I don't approve of the way Maddox was elected, and the law has since been changed. However, in hindsight, it was a blessing. The RINO rich elite one worlder, Howard H. (Bo) Callaway ran away to Colorado very soon after the election to hobnob with the elitist wine and cheese crowd on the ski slopes of Aspen and Vail, and never to live in our fair state of Georgia again. This bad act proves, in a crystal clear manner in my opinion, that Bo Callaway cared a lot about being governor, and all the power and prestige that goes along with it, and very very damn little about the good, decent people of the state of Georgia. Republican or not, he is of the same feather as Roy Barnes and Jimmy Carter as far as I'm concerned.
Lester Maddox, on the other hand, turned out to be the most honest, and decent high public office holder I've ever known of. For example, when the schools were totally integrated in 1970, largely because of the active involvement of Gov. Maddox, they were done so with very little controversy or disturbances. As to his sentiments about these particular actions, I couldn't say. I would guess that he was against such drastic change in so short a period of time (btw, for him to not bar blacks from the Pickrick at the time he did would have been unlawful. Remember, Jim Crow was the L-A-W in Georgia at that time. In fact, IMHO, that was the only thing wrong with Jim Crow legally). I don't think we could say the same for South Boston or Cicero, now could we?
As I went through my daily grind today, the only person that mentioned anything to me about Gov. Maddox's death was an old black man who is a caretaker of one of our recycling centers here in my rural abode. He had tears in his eyes as he expressed what great admiration and respect he had for him, and how angry it made him when he heard some young black man who wasn't even born when Maddox was governor talk about him in strongly unflattering, and untrue terms; he also told me how ashamed he was of himself because, instead of defending Maddox, he simply left the scene to get his anger under control.
The old man's words brought back memories of how fearful my family's black maid, and most of the other blacks that lived within proximity of my rural Georgia boyhood home were when Lester Maddox was officially elected govorner, and how their fear, almost to a person, turned to admiration and contentment within a month afterwards. You see, the lion's share of Maddox's opposition when he was governor were big city Atlanta black elites like Julian Bond and Maynard Jackson. Of course thier opposition was just an expression of their evil, and evil being what it is, will always endever to to destroy the true and the good. It was my distinct impression that a huge majority of the good, moral small town and rural black Georgians had a great admiration for Lester Maddox then, and of the one's that remember those times, still do. As for all of you on this thread who seem to take great glee in demonizing a good man on his passing away, I'll go easy on you. I'll assume y'all aren't evil, but merely speaking with the ignorance of a tree stump.
Is Jimmy Carter next?
Seriously, I thought Maddox and Carter were two of the best Governors that Georgia ever had. As President, Carter was a disgusting failure, but Georgia loved him.
Just ONE example - towards the end of his term when the "energy crisis" was getting started (must have been 73 or 74) he would personally walk around the Capitol and the Legislative Office Building turning down thermostats "to save energy". But (as any employee of the GBA could have told him) the thermostats are balanced, so all he did was throw everything out of whack and make the GBA maintenance crew work overtime.
My parents now live in Roswell, so these stories tonight bring back fond memories.
Atlanta has changed an awful lot. So has Roswell. Where do your parents stand on the "bring back Milton County" movement? :-D
I give up, what is that about? Being absolutely ignorant about the subject, I could not even ask my parents about the issue.
The folks in North Fulton (f/k/a Milton) are getting sick of being taxed to death by the Atlanta-controlled County Commission and not getting any services. The downtowners look on North Fulton as a cash cow and provide as few services as possible although N. Fulton pays the lion's share of the property taxes (many areas don't get trash pickup or only get it once a week at the curb - I pay less in Cobb County for twice a week pickup at the house than I did in Fulton). There has been a movement afoot to secede from Fulton and go their own way as Milton.
Problem No. 1: the Georgia Constitution says there can be no more counties in Georgia than 159 (or whatever the current number is).
Unexpected Solution No. 1: There is a county down below Columbus (Quitman, I think) that is talking about dissolving and merging with a neighboring county (Stewart?). That would leave the door open for a new County No. 159. The legislature would love nothing better than to stick Atlanta in the eye . . . . as per always.
Those of us on the sidelines await the outcome with interest. :-D
So has Roswell. Where do your parents stand on the "bring back Milton County" movement? :-D
I'm in central Cobb/ Vinings. At least it's old money and not the nouveaux riches, and there are no subdivision covenants or homeowners' agreements (all expired on the old 21 year limit). But we're just here for the schools - my husband is already eyeing land in West Cobb - Paulding with an eye to expanding his amateur radio antenna farm as soon as the kids finish school. We're really country folk at heart - both families were dirt farmers back into the dawn of time, just moved to the big city to get an education and find a job . . .
Now even I can answer for my parents on that issue:
Heck Yes!
Interesting idea and I need to pay attention to this issue.
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