Legacy
After Maddox's death in 2003, Tom Murphy, the former Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives, said of the former governor: "He had a reputation as a segregationist, but he told us he was not a segregationist, but that you should be able to associate with whoever you wanted. He went on to do more for African Americans than any governor of Georgia up until that time."
The Interstate Highway 75 bridge over the Chattahoochee River at the southeastern boundary of Cobb County, is named the Lester and Virginia Maddox Bridge.
Maddox's name also appears in the opening lines of Randy Newman's song "Rednecks", in allusion to his appearance on The Dick Cavett Show:
| “ | Last night I saw Lester Maddox on a TV show With some smart-ass New York Jew |
” |
According to an interviewer from the alternative newspaper Creative Loafing, "What offends most is Newman's crude reference to the Jewish man." It should be noted, however, that Newman's lines are from the point of view of an unreliable narrator: specifically, a self-proclaimed "redneck" who assumes, incorrectly, that Cavett is Jewish.
Read more about this topic: Lester Maddox
Famous quotes containing the word legacy:
“What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)