Lester Maddox died the other day, and it brought back memories of his run for Governor. Here in Gainesville the newly-emerging Republicans had set up a party headquarters on Main Street, across from the Collegiate Grill, and were promoting Bo Callaway for Governor. Having a Republican in a race for anything was new to Georgia.
Bo had come to town and the local GOP was enthusiastically holding a big rally to support him at that headquarters, and when 100 or more people showed up it shocked every old-line politico in Hall County. I have a picture of my youngest son, probably aged six at that time, carrying a large, hand-lettered "Go Bo" campaign sign.
It took a while, but some Democrats eventually showed up across the street, ironically outside the pool hall, sporting signs that said: "This is Maddox Country." Local Democrats didn't exactly know what to do about Republican opposition in those days.
When the election came, Bo Callaway got the most votes but he did not get more than the magic 50 percent plus one. Ellis Arnall, a former Democrat governor, had mounted a write-in campaign, and had garnered enough votes so neither Callaway nor Maddox got the necessary majority. The election was thrown into the Legislature, which was solid Democrat, and almost solid segregationist. They chose Lester Maddox. Hall County had three representatives at the time, and the local Republicans insisted Callaway should get at least one of their votes because Hall County had voted more than one-third for Callaway. That didn't work out; no one could figure out which Democrat Representative would cast his vote for the Republican.
Ironically, Lester Maddox, the avowed segregationist, probably did more for blacks, and appointed more to high state offices, than any governor before him. And I think it fair to say we all came to like him personally as he grew older and mellower. But that race, in which a Republican got more votes for governor than the Democrat, woke the Democrats up, and it took a while before we got a Republican governor.
This is Gordon Sawyer, from a window on historic Green Street.
Sunday
March 23rd, 2025
1:06AM
