Yesterday was Chick-fil-A...

...appreciation day, but just so you don't get the wrong idea, it had nothing to do with bigotry. No, you see, it was all about "First Amendment rights." From the Times (my emphasis): 

“If you are serious about your relationship with Jesus Christ, you just can’t be for same-sex marriage,” said Corliss Carter, 44, who ate lunch at a Marietta, Ga., restaurant. “Chick-fil-A has always been a family-oriented business. We’re just showing our support for them.” 

Workers at the restaurant declined to comment, instead handing statements to members of the news media giving a little background on the company and reiterating its intention to treat every person in its restaurants with “honor, dignity and respect,” regardless of race, creed, gender or sexual orientation. 

For some, the issue was not as much about biblical principles or same-sex marriage as it was about freedom of speech. 

“This is America, and we’re free to speak our minds,” said Neil Greenlee, 49, of Atlanta. “I feel like Chick-fil-A has been unfairly singled out.” As a gesture of support, he planned to eat Chick-fil-A for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

Uh huh. 

It all reminded me of another bigot restaurant owner from another era, Lester Maddox, above. From Wikipedia (again, my emphasis):

In 1944, Maddox, along with his wife, the former Hattie Virginia Cox (1918–1997), used $400 in savings to open a combination grocery store and restaurant called Lester's Grill. Building on that success, the couple then bought property on Hemphill Avenue off the Georgia Tech campus to open up the Pickrick Restaurant.

Maddox made the Pickrick a family affair, with his wife and children working side-by-side with him. Known for its simple, inexpensive Southern cuisine, including its specialty, skillet-fried chicken, the Pickrick soon became a thriving business. The restaurant also provided Maddox with his first political forum. He placed advertising which featured cartoon chickens in the Atlanta newspapers. Following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision of the United States Supreme Court, these restaurant ads began to feature the cartoon chickens commenting on the political questions of the day. However, Maddox's refusal to adjust to changes following the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 manifested itself when he filed a lawsuit to continue his segregationist policies. Maddox said that he would close his restaurant rather than serve African Americans. An initial group of black demonstrators came to the restaurant but did not enter when Maddox informed them that he had a large number of black employees. In April 1964, more African Americans attempted to enter the restaurant. Maddox confronted the group with a handgun. Maddox provides the following account of the events:

Mostly customers, with only a few employees, voluntarily removed the twelve Pickrick Drumsticks (pick handles) from the nail kegs on each side of the large dining room fireplace. They had been forewarned by the arrival of Atlanta's news media of an impending attempted invasion of our restaurant by the racial demonstrators and once the demonstrators and agitators arrived, the customers and employees pulled the drumsticks from the kegs and went outside to defend against the threatened invasion.

Maddox became a martyr to segregationist advocates by leasing and then selling the restaurant to employees rather than agreeing to serve black customers. He claimed that the issue was not hostility to blacks but constitutional property rights. He even built a monument to "private property rights" near the restaurant.