Lester Maddox

Lester Maddox
Maddox in 1967
75th Governor of Georgia
In office January 10, 1967 – January 12, 1971
Lieutenant	George T. Smith
Preceded by	Carl Sanders
Succeeded by	Jimmy Carter
7th Lieutenant Governor of Georgia
In office January 12, 1971 – January 14, 1975
Governor	Jimmy Carter
Preceded by	George T. Smith
Succeeded by	Zell Miller
Personal details
Born	Lester Garfield Maddox (1915-09-30)September 30, 1915 Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Died	June 25, 2003(2003-06-25) (aged 87) Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Resting place	Arlington Memorial Park Sandy Springs, Georgia, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Other political affiliations	American Independent (1968, 1976)
Spouse	Hattie Virginia Cox ​ ​ (m. 1935; died 1997)​
Children	4

Lester Garfield Maddox Sr. (September 30, 1915 – June 25, 2003) was an American politician who served as the 75th governor of Georgia from 1967 to 1971.

A populist Southern Democrat, Maddox came to prominence as a staunch segregationist,^[1] when he refused to serve African-American customers in his Atlanta restaurant, the Pickrick, in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He was soon after elected governor in 1966. Ineligible to run for a second consecutive term in 1970, he sought and won election as lieutenant governor instead, serving alongside his successor as governor, Jimmy Carter. Maddox later ran for president in 1976.