You havn't yet quoted Lester Maddox , you think you know him from the description his detractors put forward , it is very like my being uninterested in any new information about Ho Chi Minh I have heard quite enough about him already thank you.
You have stated that Communism is based on love and cares for the people , I have read the same line used in justification of American Slavery . The people trapped within it needed it for their own good.
I can see an equivelience that you don't seem sensitive to. Economic mistakes can enslave persons or nations as well as any other excuse.
Lester Maddox never studyed race in a simular fashion to your never haveing studyed economics , he was a repository of misconceptions that were commonly held and that seemed to be working for him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_MaddoxAccomplishments While in Public Service
Salary increases (in dollars) during four years as governor were more than for the two previous administrations combined.
Percentage of salary increase for elementary and secondary teachers was a record breaker that was not reached again until fifteen years later
In higher education, the State Board of Regents received the highest budget increase of the latter half of the 20th century; and has been reported as likely the largest percentage increase for higher education of any state during the four fiscal years of the Maddox approved state budget appropriations.
Dollars gained for new and expanded industry (during the Maddox Administration) equaled that of the five previous four year terms from 1947 through 1966.
According to southerncurrents.com, Maddox "left the Office of Governor with a favorable poll rating of above 84% and won the Office of Lieutenant Governor in a landslide vote of over 73%, which remains the greatest percentage of votes for any governor or lieutenant governor against a Republican opponent in a Georgia General Election". [3]
He appointed more African Americans to state government positions than any other governor before him.
Appointed the first African American to head a state department (the Board of Corrections).
Named the first black GBI agent.
Named the first black state trooper.
Ordered state troopers to desist from using the word "nigger". Expanded food stamp programs from 13 to 158 counties.
He integrated the lines of farmer's markets throughout the state. [4]
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/06/25/maddox.dead/index.htmlMaddox said until the end he never regretted any of the stands he took. But those who worked for and supported Maddox said his stand on segregation was more an expression of his eccentric individualism than any hatred of blacks.
Former Georgia House Speaker Tom Murphy, who was Maddox's floor leader in the House during his term as governor, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "He had a reputation as a segregationist, but he told us he was not a segregationist, but that you should be able to associate with whoever you wanted. He went on to do more for African-Americans than any governor of Georgia up until that time."
http://www.southerncurrents.com/misc/maddox.htm"The guy that beat me," Carter explains, "was Lester Maddox, a racist who won the race because he would stand in front of his restaurant with a pick handle and anybody who came up that was black, he would beat him over the head with it."
Maddox shakes his head. In a quiet voice, his eyes still focused on the TV, he says, "Nobody ever got hit with a pick handle at my restaurant."
"Nobody ever swung anything," he says. Not him, not his friends, not his 20 white employees, not his 40 black employees. A racist? "Would a racist hire 40 African-Americans?" he asks. Would a racist appoint more blacks to state government during his term in office than any Georgia governor before him?
Would a racist, asks Bob Short, Maddox's former press secretary, join up with a black musician and play nightclubs for 20 months under the headline of "The Governor and the Dishwasher"?
"There are two Lester Maddoxes," says the former governor, who often refers to himself in the third person. "One created by God -- one created by the media." If he believed all the cruel things said about him over the years, he wouldn't have voted for himself either.
So why would Jimmy Carter, after all he's been through -- globetrotting for peace and human rights, all that nasty business with the 62 American hostages in Iran -- still be bothered by a little guy named Lester Maddox?
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Perhaps Carter is bothered because Lesters civil rights record is better?
