Maddox Seeks Return as Governor : Politics: In 1960s, the segregationist closed his Georgia restaurant rather than serve blacks. But he says now the issue is good government--not race.

Former Gov. Lester Maddox, whose name became synonymous with Southern segregationist defiance in the 1960s, is back campaigning for his old job and outrageously outspoken as ever.

But he says good government--not race--is his issue now.

Let there be no mistake: Maddox, who closed his Pickrick fried chicken restaurant in Atlanta in the ‘60s rather than serve blacks, still disapproves of desegregation.

“As well as a constitutional human right to associate with whomever you please, there should be a corresponding right to disassociate if you please,” he said recently.

But he prefers to colorfully expound on his contention that he’s the only hope of freeing Georgia from the grip of wasteful political insiders.

“I want to be your Ex Lax in state government,” was a frequent quip one warm spring day as he pounded the sidewalks and shopping centers in the southern suburbs of Atlanta, popping in on unsuspecting merchants and their customers and, momentarily, taking center stage.

Spry at age 74 despite a bout with cancer, Maddox is one of five candidates seeking the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in the state’s July 17 primary.

A 16-year absence from state office has taken its toll. A recent newspaper poll showed Maddox in last place in the five-man Democratic field with 3%. Former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young led with 29% in his bid to become the nation’s second black elected governor and Georgia’s first.

Maddox sees it differently: “Either me or Andy Young is going to be the next governor.”

A public school dropout who later took a correspondence course and opened a restaurant, Maddox became Georgia’s governor in 1967 because of a fluke in state law.

Nationally known for opposing integration, including an incident in which customers at his restaurant armed themselves with pick handles, Maddox won the Democratic nomination in 1966 but got fewer votes in the general election than Republican Howard (Bo) Callaway.

Write-in votes for other candidates kept Callaway from receiving a majority. The election thus was thrown to the heavily Democratic Legislature, which chose Maddox.

Despite his advance billing, Maddox said in his inaugural address he would not tolerate extremism in Georgia, and he proceeded to appoint more blacks to state office than any of his predecessors.

Maddox also initiated a twice-monthly affair called “Little People’s Day,” opening the doors of his office to anyone with a problem.

The law at that time did not allow governors to seek consecutive terms, so at the end of four years, Maddox ran for and won the office of lieutenant governor, ousting the incumbent.

But his popularity waned as he and Jimmy Carter, who succeeded him as governor, wrangled bitterly for four years, and Maddox lost a bid in 1974 to regain the governorship.

Sixteen years later, time seems to have done little to dull his exuberant personality, sense of timing or love of one-liners.

A hearty handshake that pulls the other party off-balance long has been a Maddox trademark. It still was in force as he grabbed hands in the Clayton County Courthouse in suburban Jonesboro, often with a “How you, friend?”

Jurors, deputies, clerks, lawyers searching deed titles--all were fair game as he moved through the building like a typhoon.

Several asked “Old Lester” how he was doing. A typical reply: “I’m praying and loving and living, and if you aren’t doing the first two, you aren’t doing much of the third.”

Some asked if he brought his bicycle, referring to his gimmick of riding a bicycle backward.

Not this time, he told them.

The campaigning this day was in friendly territory, places that 16 years ago likely would have sported campaign signs proclaiming: “This is Maddox Country.”

Many remembered Maddox, including Guy Roundtree of Riverdale. “He’s a fine man,” Roundtree said. “I voted for him when he was governor.”

But there were a lot of blank stares, too. With 3.6 million of Georgia’s estimated 6.4 million residents under the age of 34, that means 56% of the population wasn’t even of voting age when Maddox left office.

But he insisted he has a chance.

“The people seem to be more unhappy, more dissatisfied now . . . than I have ever imagined or experienced. They feel like they’re being left out, and there’s nobody fighting for them. I think that’s one of the strong things going for my candidacy,” he said.

Maddox contended he is the only candidate with government experience “who knows what to do with dollars--how to spend ‘em and how to use ‘em--and how to speak on behalf of outsiders. . . . There’s no candidate likely to be elected governor, other than myself, who isn’t a captive of the political Establishment.”