Civil Rights: White Tears in Georgia

Trembling with rage, balding, bespectacled Atlanta Restaurateur Lester Maddox stood in the doorway of his Pickrick fried-chicken spot one day last week and screamed at two Negroes: "You no-good dirty devils! You've just put 66 people out of a job! You dirty Communists!" With that, Segregationist Maddox announced, "We're closed for good." Then, tears streaming down his cheeks, he stepped outside, and by way of explaining how segregation was really the will of God, began reading the Ten Commandments to a crowd of sympathetic whites.

Maddox's stand was the upshot of...

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