Word: maddox
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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When Lester Maddox became Governor of Georgia. Carl Sanders provided him with a speech writing team that produced a shockingly moderate inaugural address. Ever since, Lester has baffled politicians to the left and the right. What happened to the pistol-waving racist who in 1965 led whites with ax handles against Negroes who approached his Pickrick Restaurant? What prompted him to brag that his administration had increased welfare payment? Why did he appoint 15 Negroes to local draft boards? It was a disconcerting reversal...
...that he was shrewd enough to seek middle-class support, now that he had the bigots and common-folk behind him; or that he was just plain nuts. Another train of thought-one that has included most Negroes from the start and is now growing rapidly-concludes that Maddox has not changed one bit. This view is supported by his sharp turn to the right in recent weeks...
...weeks ago he sent a telegram to the Lowndes Country school board congratulating it on re-segregating school faculties, this defiance of the courts may mean the loss of $342,000 in annual Federal school funds. Then last weekend Maddox scrapped the speech he prepared for the Christian Crusade at Tulsa and unleashed one that sounded like an old Pickrick advertisement: "One of the greatest tragedies of our times has been the effort to brand conservative thought and action as irresposibility and lunacy...
...face on welfare: "If we are to have real peace and progress and help those who really deserve help, then we must cut back on our socialistic welfare programs that are making bums out of many Americans who could otherwise be successful contributing members of our society." Most recently, Maddox has begun a puritanical purge by raiding Atlanta nightspots that sell drink's after midnight on Saturdays...
...Southern state like Mississippi, where personal attacks rather than issues dominate campaigns, promises differ in tone and emphasis and not in content. Williams, who has amply proved his conservative credentials by giving up his Party power for Goldwater, does not need to shout the old slogans. Lester Maddox, in the Georgia gubernatorial race last year, never once raised the issue of race, but instead called for mental health facilities and new industry while his segregationist opponents shrieked strident phrases over each other's head. In the same way, Williams is now calling for better schools--and yet still winning...