''Lester Maddox, Whites-Only Restaurateur and Georgia Governor, Dies at 87 A write-in vote for Mr. Arnall resulted in neither Mr. Maddox nor Mr. Callaway gaining a majority. They had been forewarned by the arrival of Atlanta's news media of an impending attempted invasion of our restaurant by the racial demonstrators and once the demonstrators and agitators arrived, the customers and employees pulled the drumsticks [pickaxe handles] from the kegs and went outside to defend against the threatened invasion.The "invasion" Maddox referred to above was three black seminary students who had asked to be seated.Maddox gained the approval of segregationists by leasing and then selling the restaurant to employees rather than agreeing to serve black customers.

He was the owner of The Pickrick restaurant and one July day he chased out three black patrons, waving a pistol. He was the owner of The Pickrick restaurant and one July day he chased … The two former employees who bought it reopened it on a desegregated basis, but not before Mr. Maddox erected a monument in front of the building to mourn the ''death of private property rights in America. He was successful enough that in 1947 he was able to buy a lot near the Georgia Institute of Technology and build a drive-in restaurant, the Pickrick.Mr. ''His wife, Virginia, died in 1997, after 61 years of marriage. ''I want my race preserved,'' he said, ''and I hope most everybody else wants theirs preserved. Ellis Arnall, a political moderate. Maddox first came to national attention in 1964, after he violated the newly signed federal Civil Rights Act by refusing to serve three black Georgia Tech students at his Pickrick Restaurant. In 1944, Maddox, along with his wife Hattie Virginia (née Cox, 1918–1997), used $400 in savings to open a combination grocery store-and-restaurant called Lester's Grill. He dropped out of school to help support the family but completed his high school education by taking correspondence courses. He was 87.Mr. Ever the optimist, when he was asked how he was doing, he replied, ''Ain't no one doing better unless they're younger. . Mr. Maddox, who had never before held elected office, explained that God had been his campaign manager. This made him something of a local celebrity and a national symbol of resistance to the …

Known for its simple, inexpensive Mostly customers, with only a few employees, voluntarily removed the twelve Pickrick Drumsticks [a euphemism for pickaxe handles] from the nail kegs on each side of the large dining room fireplace. He does not celebrate Memorial Day. He later joined an early incarnation of the He ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1974 and for president in 1976, the candidate of the American Independent Party.In subsequent years, he indicated more than once that he would again like to be governor, but the state had changed in ways that he had not, and his political fortunes fell.

American.''

Lester Maddox, the restaurant's proprietor, shoves Reverend Charles E. Wells, Sr. and an unidentified African American man away from the entrance; they resist peacefully. I think forced racial integration is illegal and wrong. The Maddoxes enjoyed a close and affectionate marriage. He was opposed to drinking, smoking, liberal clergymen, atheism, socialism, the press, civil rights workers, ''do-gooder foundations'' and the wearing of miniskirts in the state Capitol. The time was 1964, the place was Georgia, and the man was Lester Maddox. And for the next four years, so will the people who work for him. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said the results of the vote made him ''ashamed to be a Georgian.''Mr. ''But on race and states' rights, he remained adamant.