July 3, 1915 - Lester Maddox
Maddox rose to political prominence not through conventional campaigning but through defiance — wielding ax handles to drive Black customers from his restaurant rather than comply with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, an act of resistance that became a galvanizing symbol for white segregationists across the South. His subsequent election as governor of Georgia illustrated how openly obstructing civil rights could function as a viable, even winning, political strategy in the mid-1960s. The arc of his career sits at the intersection of private racial hostility and institutional power, making him a significant figure in the history of American segregationism.
From Wikipedia
Lester Garfield Maddox Sr. (September 30, 1915 – June 25, 2003) was an American politician who served as the 75th governor of Georgia from 1967 to 1971.
A populist Southern Democrat, Maddox came to prominence as a staunch segregationist, when he refused to serve African-American customers in his Atlanta restaurant, the Pickrick, in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He was soon after elected governor in 1966. Ineligible to run for a second consecutive term in 1970, he sought and won election as lieutenant governor instead, serving alongside his successor as governor, Jimmy Carter. Maddox later ran for president in 1976 for the American Independent Party.
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