History UnderfootAtlanta
  • Sit-ins & commerce
  • Segregation
  • July 3, 1964 to Feb. 7, 1965
  • City of Atlanta

The Pickrick: Lester Maddox defies the Civil Rights Act (1964)

The day after the Civil Rights Act became law, Lester Maddox and his supporters, carrying axe handles, turned three Black activists away from his restaurant near Georgia Tech. He closed rather than serve Black customers, and was elected governor in 1966.

See it on the map All Segregation records

The record

Maddox opened the Pickrick at 891 Hemphill Avenue in 1947 and used its newspaper ads to campaign against desegregation after 1954 (NGE; Wikipedia). On July 3, 1964 he and his supporters used axe handles to force three Black activists away from the door. He challenged the public-accommodations section of the new law in court and lost. He closed the Pickrick on August 13, 1964 and reopened it on September 26 as the Lester Maddox Cafeteria, promising to serve only 'acceptable' Georgians. After a federal court found him in contempt on February 5, 1965, with fines of $200 a day, he closed for good on February 7 (Wikipedia, citing the Civil Rights Digital Library).

Today: The site is on Hemphill Ave at the edge of Georgia Tech's campus.