How New Voters and Black Women Transformed Georgia’s Politics Georgia once had the South s most racist governor, a man endorsed by the KKK. Now its senators are a Black pastor and a Jewish son of immigrants. A scholar of minority voters explains what happened. Sharon Austin, University of Florida | January 29, 2021 | Analysis
In July 1964, Georgia restaurateur Lester Maddox violated the newly passed Civil Rights Act by refusing to serve three Black Georgia Tech students at his Pickrick Restaurant in Atlanta. Although this new federal law banned discrimination in public places, Maddox was determined to maintain a whites-only dining room, arming white customers with pick handles – which he called “Pickrick drumsticks” – to threaten Black customers who tried to dine there.
In July 1964, Georgia restaurateur Lester Maddox violated the newly passed Civil Rights Act by refusing to serve three Black Georgia Tech students at his Pickrick Restaurant in Atlanta. Although this new federal law banned discrimination in public places, Maddox was determined to maintain a whites-only dining room, arming white customers with pick handles – which he called “Pickrick drumsticks” – to threaten Black customers who tried to dine there.
Endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan in his successful 1974 bid for the governorship, Maddox was once called “the South’s most racist governor.” But hostile treatment of minorities has often been Georgia’s chosen style of politics.
The Daily Yonder As Biden Presidency Begins, Rural Thought Leaders Look Ahead Broad commitments to rebuilding community and trust should be as much of a priority as specific policy actions, according to a group of advisors to the Rural Assembly.
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Photos of Rural Assembly Strategic Advisors, clockwise from top left, Lyndsey Gilpin, Oleta Fitzgerald, David Lipsetz, Carlton Turner, and Carol Blackmon. (Daily Yonder graphic)
As President Joe Biden takes office this week, big changes could be in store for the rural policy priorities of the U.S. federal government. In December, as the Biden transition first got underway, our team connected with a group of rural community leaders to ask them what they expect to see under the new administration.
Raphael Warnock and
Jon Ossoff came out victorious in Tuesday’s Georgia U.S. Senate runoff races against incumbent Republican Senators
Kelly Loeffler and
David Perdue.
Warnock and Ossoff’s wins in the Peach State is a huge victory for Democrats, giving the party a crucial majority in the U.S. Senate.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock hand out lawn signs at a campaign event on October 3, 2020 in Lithonia, Georgia. (Photo by Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)
Warnock and Ossoff’s wins in the Peach State is a major victory for Democrats, giving the party a majority in the U.S. Senate, effectively sidelining Republicans and giving the Democratic Party full control of both chambers of Congress.