Word: pickrick
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...MADDOX, 87, flamboyant restaurant owner turned segregationist Georgia Governor; in Atlanta. Maddox, who as Governor was prone to stunts like riding on the hood of a car to announce a new stretch of highway, gained local notoriety by loudly refusing to serve three black Georgia Tech students in his Pickrick Restaurant in the wake of the newly signed Civil Rights Act--and by distributing ax handles to patrons as symbols of defiance. A frequent target of newspaper caricatures, the former soda jerk never apologized for his positions, saying in 2001, "I want my race preserved. I think forced racial integration...
...what'll you give old Lester for this genuine Pickrick fly swatter?" shouted Lester Maddox, 62. This remnant from the Pickrick, the ex-Georgia Governor's once racist, now defunct Atlanta restaurant, was part of the Maddox memorabilia sold at auction last week. Also on the block: WAKE UP AMERICA Lester Maddox alarm clocks, T shirts printed with the Governor's favorite expression "Phooey!" and autographed axes like those Maddox once gave to the band of whites helping him keep out blacks who tried to come to dinner. The aim of the auction...
Over a drink up in the one-typewriter, one-telephone press room, Ned Young, Maddox's campaign director ("'manager' sounds too offensive") tells me the real story behind the pickhandle legend. "The Governor used to own a place called the Pickrick Restaurant and the handles were sold as souvenirs--4000 in two days one time--like those rocks they sell." I begin comparing the little innocuous pet rocks I know with the famed pickhandles and what I had heard about them when Young interrupted my thoughts to remind me once again that there was nothing symbolic about the pickhandle...
...expected, Maddox led the crowded field of twelve candidates. After all, he has kept himself continuously in the public eye since 1964, when he drove blacks away from his Pickrick restaurant in Atlanta with a pistol and pick handles. But with just under 36% of the votes, his margin is too small to assure him the support he needs in the runoff on Sept. 3. He will face George Busbee, 47, a respected member of the state house of representatives for 18 years and now majority leader. Busbee won only 21% of the primary votes, but stands to gain more...
...would we have different races if God meant us to be alike and associate with each other?" Any racism in his church messages, however, is only implied. Moreover, claims Maddox's pastor, the Rev. R.B. Sims, "the Lester Maddox of today and the Lester Maddox of the Pickrick days are different. He has more compassion...