Georgia: Burn, Baby, Burn

Georgia’s hebetudinous Lester Maddox last week denounced textbooks, films and courses that fail to glorify the U.S. Speaking to the Governor’s Conference on Education, the former fried-chicken king said: “Some things have been added that should be burned—and you know it.” One item that particularly inflamed him was a textbook that called Patrick Henry an “agitator.” Maddox said he had been raised to think of Henry as a hero. The audience of educators and school-board members replied with scattered applause. Cross burning may be a dying art in the South, but if Maddox has his way, book burning will replace it.