Maddox fused racism with individual-rights ideology throughout his career

Evidence

As hundreds of such examples made clear, Maddox’s defense of segregation was always deeply enmeshed in a broader defense of what he regarded as inherent, individual rights. Much like the white middle-class parents who opposed “forced” school desegregation partly because of racism and partly because it threatened their understanding of “freedom of association,” Maddox opposed “forced” desegregation in other realms because he was convinced, to his dying day, that such interference from the federal government weakened what he took to be the pillars of American life—the right to private property, the system of free enterprise, and, again, the freedom to associate with whomever one wanted in the private sphere. — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 444

Categorization

• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source
• XREF: connects to: Sit-ins inverted the property-rights logic that had defeated residential segregationists — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 417; Maddox drew two-thirds of the white vote in his first mayoral race — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 449; American racism shifted from constitutionalized segregation to privatized preference-driven apartness — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 365 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• American racism shifted from constitutionalized segregation to privatized preference-driven apartness #qualifies (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 365
• Respectable segregationists framed exclusion of blacks as a symmetry of individual choice #exemplifies (0.72) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 372