Was Lester Maddox the South's Most Racist Governor?

Lester Maddox ran a small cafeteria on what's now the Georgia Tech campus, and Lester Maddox was an ardent supporter of the system of segregation. He was a segregationist, believed that he could run his business and serve to whomever he wanted. And that's pretty well the way he ran that business until the Civil Rights Movement, and he began to be challenged about it. Folks came to to be admitted and he resisted. He and others picked up some axe handles and ran folks off in front of cameras. He saw that desegregation was going to run his business and so he was a vocal supporter of segregation and an opponent of the political leaders who were making accommodations. And when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed and ratified, Maddox decided to close his cafeteria instead of observing the law. He had an interest in politics and he ran for governor. He unexpectedly won the Democratic primary to the surprise of many people. It obviously was a protest vote on the part of many white voters. When Lester Maddox became governor, he clearly was ready to assure that the state would remain as opposed to desegregation as possible. He surprised a few people by doing things that no one would expect somebody who had run black folks out of his restaurant with an axe handle would do. He appointed some black people to office to appointed office in Georgia, and that surprised a lot of folks. They thought he would try to maintain an all-white government. Governor Maddox did not do that, but he also did not welcome desegregation and he resisted it as much as he could within the powers of his office. He also exhibited very little sympathy and understanding of the African-American community. For example when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, he refused to lower the state flags in honor of his death. It was clear with all of the changes that were taking place in the public schools and the universities with the Civil Rights Act of 64, the Voting Rights Act of 65, and the Fair Housing Act of 68, that was much more difficult to maintain. And so Lester Maddox as governor had to begin to make accommodations himself. We had a Georgia law at that time, which said that no governor could succeed himself. So that you could have one term, but couldn't run again next term, had to wait at least four more years. Well, Governor Maddox decided he didn't want to wait four more years, he would just run for lieutenant governor. And the person who took office as governor was Jimmy Carter, who ran as a clear moderate. So Jimmy Carter, a moderate New South governor, and his lieutenant governor, with whom he had lots of conflicts during his term, was Lester Maddox, the governor who had run people out of his restaurant a few years earlier with an axe handle. It was a period of transition.

Channel: GPB Education

Views: 241,002

Keywords: civil rights movement, lester maddox, georgia, geogia governors, racism, equal rights, mlk, mlk jr, martin luther king, american history, us history, 1960s, segregation, desegregation, jim crow laws, gpb education, gpb, integration, civil rights act of 1964, georgia resistance, politics, georgia's resistance, southern resistance, resistance to civil rights, resistance to desegregate, racist, jimmy carter, history, social studies, black, prejudice, atlanta, georgia tech

Id: sHNR5GRKCqg

Length: 3min 38sec (218 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 21 2017