\"75th Governor of Georgia\" Lester Maddox Hand Signed 3X5 Card For Sale

Up for sale the "75th Governor of Georgia" Lester Maddox Hand Signed 3X5 Card. 

30, 1915 – June 25, 2003) was an American politician who served as the 75th Governor of

the U.S. state of Georgia from 1967 to

1971. A populist Democrat,

Maddox came to prominence as a staunch segregationist when he refused to serve black customers violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

He later served as Lieutenant Governor during the period when Jimmy Carter was Governor. Maddox was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the second of nine children born to Dean

Garfield Maddox, a steelworker, and his wife, the former

Flonnie Castleberry. Maddox left school shortly before graduation to help

support the family by taking odd jobs, including real estate and grocery. He

received his high school diploma through correspondence courses. During World War II Maddox worked at the Bell Aircraft factory in Marietta, Georgia producing the B-24 Liberator and

the B-29 Superfortress bombers. Maddox

campaigned hard for states' rights and maintained a segregationist stance while

in office. Upon the death of Martin Luther King, Jr.,

he denied the slain civil rights leader the honor of lying in state in the

Georgia state capitol after being told by undercover agents in the

Atlanta Police Department that there was a planned storming of the state

capitol by participants in the crowd of mourners.[citation needed] No

evidence has ever emerged that this was anything more than a rumor; the

undercover agents provided no evidence for it other than their statement. As a precaution, Maddox stationed 160 state

troopers to surround the capitol. Regardless, the funeral procession, attended

by tens of thousands; was entirely peaceful. In 1968, Maddox endorsed the former

Democrat George Wallace, the then

pro-segregation American Independent Party candidate

in the 1968

presidential election.

When he was asked what might be done to improve the abysmal conditions in

Georgia prisons, Maddox replied that what was really needed was a better class

of prisoner. Maddox's chief of staff was Zell Miller, who went on to serve two terms as governor in the

1990s and as Paul Coverdell's successor

in the U.S. Senate. Maddox received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws

from Bob Jones University in

1969.

In 1968, a small Atlanta repertory company produced a play entitled Red, White

and Maddox. The play ridiculed Maddox and imagined him winning

the 1972 U.S. presidential election,

then starting a war with the Soviet Union. The show came to Broadway, and ran for forty-one

performances at the Cort Theatre before

closing. Maddox was a supporter of the Vietnam War because of his anti-communist views, and he

often told Georgia about the threats of communism and communist and socialist

influences.