Democrats pay homage to Maynard Jackson and Lester Maddox

It’s been a dark time for Georgia Democrats who lost two historical figures this past week. Maynard Jackson Jr. who was elected Atlanta’s first black mayor in 1973, passed away on Monday. Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe released this statement of mourning on behalf of Democrats.

Then, on Wednesday, former Georgia governor Lester Maddox also passed away. Here’s the opening paragraph from the obit in the Washington Post:

Lester G. Maddox, 87, a Georgia restaurateur who drove blacks from his business with ax handles and parlayed the resulting publicity into political power, becoming in 1967 the state's last openly segregationist governor, died June 25 at a hospice in Atlanta after a fall while recuperating from intestinal surgery. He had pneumonia and prostate cancer.

So far there hasn’t been a press release from the DNC on this prominent Democrat from the Peach State. I’m sure they’re just fine-tuning the wording.