Gov. Lester G. Maddox led 25 political candidates and 250 spectators from a weekend rally when speakers denounced Jews, Negroes and Yankees. “I’m for segregation and I’ll always take my stand for neighborhood schools and freedom of choice,” Gov. Maddox said after the exodus, “but I can’t be a part of any program that wants to wipe out any race.” Those Joining him included the state’s first black gubernatorial candidate, C.B. King of Albany. Mr. Maddox, who cannot succeed himself and is running for Lieutenant Governor, said he would not participate In any events that Included “racists” on the podium. The Governor said that in the speech he walked out on, gubernatorial candidate J.B. Stoner “was calling people savages and making attacks on what he called blue-bellied Yankees and Jewish-Americans and black Americans.” The segregationist Governor added: “You can’t take people’s color or race and denounce it. You can denounce an individual, but not a group. A man can’t help the way he’s born, any more than I can help being born Lester Maddox.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
