Obit: Lester Maddox

Subject: Obit: Lester Maddox
From: kendall
Date: 25 Jun 03 - 06:53 PM

Good riddance

Subject: RE: Obit: Lester Maddox
From: Gareth
Date: 25 Jun 03 - 07:13 PM

One less Bush supporter.

Gareth

Subject: RE: Obit: Lester Maddox
From: Ebbie
Date: 25 Jun 03 - 07:15 PM

I had no idea he was still alive. But, oh, does that ever bring back the days...

Subject: RE: Obit: Lester Maddox
From: Deckman
Date: 25 Jun 03 - 07:42 PM

I was a little startled this morning when I heard of his death. I was listening to NPR. I forget who was the obligitory black spokesman that addressed his passing. His words did NOT ring genuine with me. He spoke of Maddox's willingness to listen to new ideas. As I listened, I wondered why it was that someone, somewhere, felt it is necessary to attempt to soften this man's image ... just because he died. Now then, maybe I am COMPLETLY wrong. If you feel I am, please tell me so. I'm very willing to listen to you with an open mind. Do I have Lester Maddox placed in the wrong box? Bob

Subject: RE: Obit: Lester Maddox
From: catspaw49
Date: 25 Jun 03 - 08:27 PM

No Bob, he was a slimebag, but very typical of the southern mind of the time. As governor of Georgia he put a good number of blacks in state positions. He felt that forced integration was wrong but also did not believe in forced segregation. I think he saw that solving the problem should be on an individual basis and that no one could or should force the issue. Yeah an asshole, but a dichotomous asshole as were many others in those days. Look at Earl Long....light years ahead of Maddox, but at the core a very similar position. I hope they buried him with an axe handle. Another one out of the way......

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Lester Maddox
From: SINSULL
Date: 25 Jun 03 - 09:28 PM

I wonder what his last thoughts were. I wonder if he regretted any of it.

Subject: RE: Obit: Lester Maddox
From: Deckman
Date: 25 Jun 03 - 09:39 PM

Hi Mary ... "Last Thoughts?" I don't think you thought of your posting in this manner, but what a wonderful new posting subject ... "LAST THOUGHTS!" Cheers, Bob

Subject: RE: Obit: Lester Maddox
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 25 Jun 03 - 11:12 PM

Did he ever change his beliefs on race, or was he unrepentent to the end? Anyone know?

Subject: RE: Obit: Lester Maddox
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 25 Jun 03 - 11:16 PM

May he rest in peace.

Subject: RE: Obit: Lester Maddox
From: Sorcha
Date: 26 Jun 03 - 12:45 AM

Peace??? This guy? Just why should he rest in peace? Because We All Should? Knew the name was familar but had to read the thread to remember who he was.

Subject: RE: Obit: Lester Maddox
From: catspaw49
Date: 26 Jun 03 - 01:39 AM

Found this pretty fair obit which makes several points we've mentioned or asked about. It's by Dick Pettys, an AP writer.

Lester Maddox, who was elected one of the last of the South's fist-shaking segregationist governors in 1966 after he and his friends used pick handles and a gun to scare blacks away from his fried-chicken restaurant, died Wednesday at 87.

Maddox never backed down from his stance on segregation, even after Alabama's George Wallace and many of the other hard-line Southern governors eventually said they were wrong to fight integration.

"I think forced segregation was wrong. I think it was just as wrong to force integration," he told The Associated Press in 1996. And if he had it to do it over again, he said, "I'd fight even harder."

"That puts a stain on the legacy," said state Rep. Tyrone Brooks, a civil rights veteran.

Maddox served as governor from 1967 to 1971 after being elected as something of a fluke in a disputed contest that had to be decided by the Legislature. Despite his views on integration, he was more moderate as governor than most expected, appointing more blacks to key positions than any of his predecessors.

"In spite of all that, he couldn't shake the yoke of racism and segregation," Brooks said. "If Lester had said, `I was wrong,' I believe the vast majority of African-Americans would have said, `OK, we forgive you.'"

Maddox had battled cancer since 1983 and cracked two ribs earlier this month when he fell at an assisted-living home. He later developed pneumonia and died in an Atlanta hospice.

The flamboyant restaurant owner often seemed more caricature than flesh. His slick pate and thick glasses were fodder for cartoonists, and 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."

A high school dropout born in a working-class section of Atlanta, Maddox gained national attention in 1964 when he brandished a pistol and chased black protesters from his Pickrick restaurant the day after the Civil Rights Act was signed into law. Whites from his restaurant chased the protesters with pick handles. Maddox closed and then sold the Pickrick rather than serve blacks.

He would adopt the pick handle as his political symbol during his gubernatorial campaign and thereafter, and sold souvenir picks and axes.

Maddox's showmanship and his anti-integration stance won him a following in Atlanta, where he made two unsuccessful bids for mayor.

He captured the Democratic nomination for governor in 1966, despite being written off by moderates and liberals as a colorful crackpot.

In the general election, he trailed Republican Howard H. "Bo" Callaway, but write-in votes for other candidates assured that neither received the required majority, throwing the election to the Democrat-dominated Legislature, which picked Maddox.

Despite his reputation, Maddox began his term in office with a vow that "there will be no place in Georgia during the next four years for those who advocate extremism or violence."

But in 1968, Maddox refused to close the Capitol for the funeral of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and expressed anger that state flags were being flown at half-staff.

Maddox got high marks from critics for choosing capable administrators to run state operations during his term and for making the office accessible to anyone through a program called "Little Peoples Day."

And supporters loved "Old Lester" for the way he denounced the Atlanta newspapers as "fishwrappers" or condemned the latest ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Barred from seeking a second term, he was elected lieutenant governor, using the post to spar with his successor, Jimmy Carter. He ran for governor again in 1974 and lost. A final comeback bid in 1990 saw him finish last in a five-person race.

"I'm still a segregationist. I just told you I'm a segregationist. I've told you that 15 times. When are you going to start believing me?" he said in 1973.

Wallace was among Maddox's heroes, but toward the end of his career Wallace sought to make amends on segregation. Maddox said he still regarded Wallace as "my buddy," but told the AP that Wallace "was either a liar then or he's a liar now."

Former state Rep. Matt Towery, a longtime Maddox friend, said the former governor "believed what he did was proper in the 1960s. He was unapologetic for it." But Maddox "did not have a racist bone in his body when I came to know him in 1969."

Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue ordered flags on state buildings and grounds lowered to half-staff.

His funeral will be held Friday in Marietta. His wife, Virginia, died in 1997. They had two daughters and two sons.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Lester Maddox
From: alanabit
Date: 26 Jun 03 - 02:37 AM

I think it was him that Randy Newman was referring to in "Rednecks", when he said, "He may be a fool but he's our fool". Some folks really seem to think that way.

Subject: RE: Obit: Lester Maddox
From: alanabit
Date: 26 Jun 03 - 02:56 AM

Before someone else corrects me on that clumsily worded last post, I should add that I am quite aware that Randy Newman was parodying a racist bigot!

Subject: RE: Obit: Lester Maddox
From: Lanfranc
Date: 26 Jun 03 - 03:32 AM

Perhaps, to quote from the above-mentioned Randy Newman song, he will at last be able to "tell his ass from a hole in the ground"!

DE MORTUIS NIL NISI OPPROBRIUM

Alan

Subject: RE: Obit: Lester Maddox
From: kendall
Date: 26 Jun 03 - 07:28 AM

A great picture just crossed my mind; Lester comes before St. Peter and is told that God is actually a woman....a black woman.

Subject: RE: Obit: Lester Maddox
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 26 Jun 03 - 07:41 AM

That would only leave him one choice and isn't the devil usually depicted as being red - still I suppose that wouldn't worry a red-neck.

Subject: RE: Obit: Lester Maddox
From: Bill D
Date: 26 Jun 03 - 11:01 AM

Lester hasn't made much real impact for years....but do remember --there are still MANY who think just like him still alive down there. It ain't over, folks.

Subject: RE: Obit: Lester Maddox
From: GUEST,DaveK
Date: 26 Jun 03 - 02:05 PM

If Lester Maddox appointed more blacks to Georgia government than any of his predecessors, what the hell is that supposed to suggest? That he was really a tolerant integrationist at the end of the day?

The reality being glossed over with that sort of spin is there were virtually no blacks in state government at the time, and Lester Maddox didn't do much to change that.

Talk about revisionist history! That is a little too much 'New South' spin for me to stomach.

Subject: RE: Obit: Lester Maddox
From: Mountain Dog
Date: 26 Jun 03 - 02:37 PM

Bill D makes a very important point - the disease doesn't die with the carrier...

Subject: RE: Obit: Lester Maddox
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 26 Jun 03 - 03:41 PM

...a dichotomous asshole

That's a very vivid phrase spaw gives us there. The image it presents is at the same time very uncomfortable and very messy.

Subject: RE: Obit: Lester Maddox
From: Joe_F
Date: 26 Jun 03 - 06:54 PM

When you see an obituary & say "Was that old bastard still alive?", you know you have reached a certain age.

Subject: RE: Obit: Lester Maddox
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Jun 03 - 10:11 AM

You all know who Lester Maddox was, but who was the 'smart-ass New York Jew' Randy Newman sang about in 'Rednecks'? That song, by the way, was partly about how the north refused to even admit to their 'negro' issues. At least Maddox addressed the issue of race, in his own way. Do any of you criticizers have his kind of gumption? R.I.P.

Subject: RE: Obit: Lester Maddox
From: GUEST,DaveK
Date: 27 Jun 03 - 04:06 PM

Plenty of people here and elsewhere have much more gumption than Lester Maddox. Let me see, which takes more gumption, being a black activist who sits down non-violently at a segregated lunch counter or at the front of the bus, bringing the wrath and violence of the state down upon them...

Or the cowardly man who screams hate filled messages through bullhorns and sicks the dogs on those attempting to right a wrong, and change society for the better, with the full force of the police and military standing in front them, protecting them from harm?

Lester Maddox is the latter.

I hope he burns in hell, which is where he, Strom Thurmond, Bull Connor and all the rest of them belong.

I can't wait for them all to be buried, so I can dance on their graves.

Subject: RE: Obit: Lester Maddox
From: catspaw49
Date: 27 Jun 03 - 04:28 PM

Actually Lester was a lot better with an ax handle.....but you leave out so many.....Ross Barnett, George Wallace, Byron DeLay Beckwith, Orval Faubus, James Eastland, Chambliss, Cherry, Cash, Blanton, etc.

Problem is we are slowly watching the death of the elders of overt racism while not paying much attention to the insidious and oft hidden racism and bigotry which is possibly even worse. It's far from over.....

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Lester Maddox
From: Bill D
Date: 27 Jun 03 - 06:50 PM

my university once, in the spirit of hearing all sides, had George Lincoln Rockwell (head of the American Nazi Party) as a speaker...I sat in the 3rd row, my jaw dropping in wonder....NOT at the spew coming from his mouth, which was much as I had expected, but at the APPLAUSE from much of the crowd!....remember, this was Wichita, Kans., at the time home to 3 board members of the John Birch Society.

I left that program shaken that there was that much support for the bigoted, racist message of hate in the same classes I was attending....

Subject: RE: Obit: Lester Maddox
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Jun 03 - 09:09 PM

'We refuse the right to serve anybody'

That's what started it all. How dare the federal govt tell a private restaurant owner he can't control access to his property. Many of you folks would apparently have denied ol' Lester access to your business, if given the chance, so how are you any less wrong than he was?

Subject: RE: Obit: Lester Maddox
From: GUEST,DaveK
Date: 27 Jun 03 - 10:21 PM

You sure like setting the bait for a good troll, don't you guest?