August 11, 1964
Event Details
Date: August 11, 1964
Primary People: George Willis, Albert Dunn, Woodrow T Lewis, Charles Wells, Albert Sampson (Atlanta VP NAACP), Virginia Brown, Barbara Suarez (SCLC), Calvin Jones and Gary Robinson (17-year-olds) Theodore Hall, Leroy Lee Johnson, John Coleman, and Lester Maddox
Summary: Major Pickrick Protest occurred, and this is the date when Maddox is supposed to comply with Federal law. The ministry students were repelled from the Pickrick Restaurant. A 5th minister (Albert Sampson) was also discovered to be present at this site.
Quotations
“ As Sampson’s group pulled into the familiar low-slung diner, Maddox stood ready for them, armed with a pistol at his side and a mob of some two hundred supporters. Nearby, a barrel held axe handles available for sale. Maddox rallied his supporters for another stand against his would-be invaders. “We are never going to integrate!” he yelled. “The Pickrick belongs to Lester Maddox, not to Lyndon Johnson or the news media or the agitators or Nikita Khrushchev!” Then he turned his attention toward the ministers at his door. “You’re dirty Communists and you’ll never get a piece of fried chicken here,” Maddox shouted, keeping his firearm in its holster as he thrust his fingers at the men. ”
Greene, Ronnie. Heart of Atlanta: Five Black Pastors and the Supreme Court Victory for Integration (pp. 116-117). Chicago Review Press. Kindle Edition.
“Maddox still had to resolve his earlier gun charge so, while he was sure to let the ministers know he had the weapon on hand, he didn’t point it at anyone’s face this time. As he witnessed Maddox packing a pistol, Sampson braced for an attack, knowing that he or one of his friends could suffer serious injury or worse. The most haunting image, he said, was the barrel filled with pickaxe handles nearby and the specter of Maddox supporters grabbing them as weapons. “We were really under the impression we were really going to die there. It was not only his gun,” Sampson said recently. “I can never forget the barrel. ”
Greene, Ronnie. Heart of Atlanta: Five Black Pastors and the Supreme Court Victory for Integration (pp. 116-117). Chicago Review Press. Kindle Edition.
Media/External Links
Crowd forms around segregationist Lester Maddox’s restaurant The Pickrick to keep African-Americans from entering the eatery, 1964
Link to Media Source: https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/digital/collection/ajc/id/14977/rec/2
Note: As for two of the main figure in the picture above, one can be identified as Charles Wells