Heart of Atlanta: Five Black Pastors and the Supreme Court Victory for Integration
Ronnie Greene
Chicago Review Press
In Atlanta, Georgia, two arch segregationists vowed to flout the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the sweeping slate of civil rights reforms just signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson: Lester Maddox, soon to be governor of Georgia and lawyer Moreton Rolleston Jr. After the law was signed, a group of ministry students showed up for a plate of skillet-fried chicken at Maddox’s diner. At the Heart of Atlanta -- operated by Rolleston -- the ministers reserved rooms and walked to the front desk. Maddox greeted them with a pistol, axe handles, and a mob of White supporters; Rolleston refused to accept the Black patrons. These confrontations became the centerpiece of the nation's first two legal challenges to the Civil Rights Act. In gripping detail built from exclusive interviews and original documents, Heart of Atlanta reveals the saga of the case’s rise to the U.S. Supreme Court, which unanimously rejected the segregationists.