Among the many bygone carvings on Stone Mountain is a faded one just before the top that reads "Lester For Gov 67." I'm pretty certain it refers to Lester Maddox, Georgia's 75th Governor and notorious archsegregationist, who would turn 100 this year, and who Time magazine once called a "strident racist." 50 years ago today, he was found in contempt of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for refusing to integrate the restaurant he ran since 1947, The Pickrick, formerly located on Hemphill Ave. near the Georgia Tech campus. Rather than serve African-Americans, he closed the business two days later and would blame President Lyndon B. Johnson until the day he died for putting him out of business. "On February 5, 1965, a federal court ruled that Maddox was in contempt of court for failing to obey the injunction and assigned fines of two hundred dollars a day for failing to serve African Americans. Maddox ultimately closed his restaurant on February 7, 1965 rather than integrate it; he claimed that President Lyndon Johnson and communists put him out of business." – Civil Rights Digital Library at the University of Georgia
What a thrill to now witness the feet of 1,000 lands walk, run, and trudge all over that particular patch of rock (I also often reflect on this every time I'm northbound on I75 and drive across the Lester and Virginia Maddox Bridge). I’m reminded how far we've come within the last 50 years and perhaps this foretells where we're going. One day it may be completely weathered away, just as The Pickrick has been X'ed out (Georgia Tech assumed ownership of the property in 1965 and used it briefly as a placement center and the Ajax Building before it was forever demolished in May 2009). Still, 50 years is practically just an infancy, and the road is long yet.
