Lester Maddox

Lester Garfield Maddox ( born September 30, 1915 in Atlanta, Georgia; † 25 June 2003) was an American politician, former Governor of Georgia and representatives of racial segregation.

Youth and political rise

Lester Garfield Maddox was born the son of Dean Garfield Maddox and Flonnie Maddox, born Castleberr, into a poor family steelworkers. In 1933 he left not finish high school and worked as a laborer in a steel mill. In 1936, he married Virginia Cox, with whom he remained married until her death in 1997. During the Second World War he worked in various arms factories. In his view, these farms were inefficient and represented a waste of taxpayer money dar. Therefore, he gave these positions in 1944 and decided to become an entrepreneur himself. In Atlanta, he opened a restaurant, which he called Pick Rick cafeteria and specialized in indigenous - popular cuisine. This place was very successful and Maddox was now slowly to a wider audience, especially since he switched ads in a newspaper and not just advertising for his restaurant made ​​, but also made ​​known his politically reactionary views. He was a proponent of segregation and consequently no African-Americans were allowed in his restaurant.

1957 and 1961 he applied twice unsuccessfully for the office of mayor of Atlanta. Even his candidacy for lieutenant governor in 1962, was not successful. Despite the new civil rights legislation at the federal level Maddox remained the ideas of racial segregation faithful. He announced to the world that he would close his restaurant rather than open it up to the mark. As a result, it seemed to his restaurant to demonstrations of applied civil rights. The opinions were divided on him. The reactionary and conservative forces rallied behind Maddox and nominated him for the gubernatorial election of 1966. It was a shock for all liberal forces throughout the United States, when it became Maddox, in the Democratic primary the liberal former governor Ellis Arnall with 54.29 % to hit 45.71 % to out of the race. The actual choice was then very scarce. Since there is no clear majority between Maddox and his Republican challenger Howard H. Callaway was recognized, the Parliament of Georgia had to choose the governor, and it opted for Maddox. Callaway, incidentally, was the first Republican candidate since Reconstruction in the 1870s, who had a realistic chance of being elected in Georgia for governor; otherwise the Democrats had won all gubernatorial elections with a large majority.

Maddox as Governor of Georgia

Eligible fears among Maddox Georgia would breed political fall back into old patterns, proved surprisingly as unfounded. He initiated a prison reform, which found approval even in the black population, and increased the budget for the country's universities. Maddox had more African-Americans in his administration than all the governors before him together, which was very surprising due to his previous attitude. Nevertheless, he remained in the spirit of a segregationist. This was also the occasion of the funeral of the assassinated Martin Luther King in 1968 when he refused to put the flags at half mast. At the same time, he responded with an exaggerated police presence to rumors, there could be riots during the funeral ceremonies. On the Federal Democratic convention in Chicago in 1968 to Maddox opposed the civil rights program of his party. Nevertheless, he was in Georgia a popular governor who paradoxically found a certain appeal even in African Americans.

The later years

Maddox could not run again due to a clause in the Constitution, which prohibited a direct re-election of governor, 1970. Instead, he applied for the post of Lieutenant-Governor, in which he was then also selected. With the new governor, his political rival Jimmy Carter, he often had disagreements. In later years, he ran a few times unsuccessfully for the governorship. As a candidate of the American Independent Party right, he ran unsuccessfully for the presidency in 1976 also against Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford Then he withdrew into private life, trying to gain a foothold in various industries. The great economic breakthrough he did not succeed. When he moved the balance towards the end of his life, he defended most of his decisions and political views, and saw no reason to apologize for its policy of racial segregation. He finally succumbed on 25 June 2003 from cancer.

A bridge in Cobb County, Georgia, on the Interstate Highway 75 crosses the Chattahoochee River, is named after the couple " Lester and Virginia Maddox Bridge".