Maurice Bessinger

Lloyd Maurice Bessinger Sr. (July 14, 1930 – February 22, 2014) was an American BBQ restaurateur and politician noted for his defense of racial segregation.[1][2]

Early life

Bessinger was born in Orangeburg County, South Carolina on July 14, 1930 and served in the Army on the front lines of the Korean War, returning to the US in 1952.[3][4]

Piggie Park and Carolina Gold

Bessinger, along with his brother Joe Jr., opened their first drive-in restaurant, Maurice's Piggie Park, in West Columbia, South Carolina in 1953.[1][2] By 1968, he had four drive-ins,[3] and by 2002 the chain had grown to nine restaurants.[5] The South Carolina-style barbecue was and continues to be well-regarded, and Piggie Park has been included in multiple compilations of the best barbecue in the United States.[6][7]

Bessinger also sold BBQ sauce under the Carolina Gold brand[1] whose recipe included mustard, brown sugar, soy sauce, and vinegar.[8] By 1999, this had become the largest BBQ operation in the United States.[2]

Piggie Park restaurants were segregated, such that African-Americans were not allowed to eat inside the restaurants, until a lawsuit, Newman v. Piggie Park Enterprises, Inc. won an injunction in 1968.[3]

Segregation lawsuit
Main article: Newman v. Piggie Park Enterprises, Inc.

In 1964, Anne Newman, the wife of an African-American minister, sued Piggie Park after Bessinger refused her entry to his restaurant. Newman sued under Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and won an injunction against the chain requiring them to stop refusing service to African-Americans. At the Supreme Court, this case also set a precedent assigning attorney's fees to someone who successfully sues for an injunction under the act.[9]

Confederate flags

In 2000, the state of South Carolina stopped flying the Confederate Flag over the capitol, following a vote earlier that year. In response, Bessinger raised Confederate flags over his restaurants,[10] also calling the flags "a real Christian symbol... fighting tyranny and terror and suppressive government."[11]

A number of grocery chains responded by dropping his Carolina Gold sauce from their shelves.[12] The Council of Conservative Citizens and the South Carolina Heritage Coalition responded with a call to boycott Wal-Mart,[11] and Bessinger filed a lawsuit against Bi-Lo, Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Kroger, Piggly Wiggly, Sam's Club, Wal-Mart, and Winn-Dixie, arguing that their refusal to carry his products violated South Carolina's Unfair Trading Practices Act and intruded onto his right to free speech. Bessinger asked for $50 million in damages. The South Carolina Supreme Court rejected his claims in 2007.[13]

After Bessinger's children took over the operation, they took down these flags, the last of them in 2013.[14]

Orangeburg Location
A Confederate Flag owned by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which cannot be removed by the now-defunct ice cream parlor.

In 2014, Bessinger sold part of the Edisto restaurant property, approximately 130 square feet (including a flagpole and Confederate flag), to the organization Sons of Confederate Veterans Rivers Bridge Camp 842[15][16] for $5.[17]

The remainder of the property, approximately 18,000 square feet, was sold in 2015 to Tommy Daras, who began operating a new restaurant called Edisto River Creamery & Kitchen.[18]

Daras ignored the flag until "shortly after the massacre at Mother Emanuel, members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans showed up, took down the flag, and replaced it with a new one that was three times as big. “Before, I’d just sucked it up, but then it was, like, ‘Man, I’ve got to try to do something here,’ ” Daras said, explaining that he could no longer abide “this huge flag sticking up in the air telling everyone to screw themselves.”[19] Daras – whose business suffered due to perceived association with the flag, yet was also criticized for wanting it gone – hired a lawyer to find a way to compel its removal. However, in 2017, the Orangeburg zoning board rejected the legal argument that the flagpole did not comply with the site’s business zoning requirements.[20]

In defeat, Daras put the restaurant property up for sale in 2019.[21]

Views on race and religion

Bessinger was a Baptist,[3] and argued in Newman that requiring that he serve African-American customers was a violation of his religious beliefs.[22]

Bessinger believed that "God gave slaves to whites", and claimed that South Carolina had had a gentler "Biblical slavery".[3][23] In 2000, The State columnist John Monk wrote a column about the restaurants noting that one tract distributed by the restaurant, John Weaver's Biblical View of Slavery, argued against the idea that slavery is inherently evil, since it appears in the Bible.[12][24]

Bessinger also notably opposed flying flags at half-mast following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., saying King had only been in Memphis "to stir hatred, violence, and discord."[25]

Politics

Bessinger ran for a seat in the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1964, narrowly losing by a margin of around 100 votes. A 1974 run for governor was far less successful, drawing only 2.5% of the vote in the Democratic primary.[3]

Behind the scenes, in 1964 he was Chairman of the George Wallace presidential campaign.[26]

In the 1970s, he was also the chairman of the South Carolina Independent Party.[27][28]

Autobiography

In 2001, Bessinger published his autobiography, Defending My Heritage.[29]

Writer Chuck Thompson's take on the book was negative, saying that "Bessinger's gasbagging autobiography is one of the most weirdly entertaining summations of the delusional cultural southern mind-set ever printed. My favorite line about growing up Southern: 'White people are the best friends, historically, that blacks have ever had.'"[29] Eric Dabney and Mike Coker's "Historic South Carolina" was more gentle, calling it "the story of a man of humble origins who worked hard all his life to build a multi-million dollar business, and then was willing to risk it all to stand for his principles."[4]

References
  1. Hitt, Jack (August 26, 2001). "A Confederacy of Sauces". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 July 2014. By 1999, Maurice had created the largest commercial barbecue operation in the country.
  2. Olld, Jason (February 24, 2014). "Maurice Bessinger, founder of Maurice's Piggie Park, dies at 83". WIS. Retrieved 2 July 2014.
  3. "Barbecue eatery owner, segregationist Maurice Bessinger dies at 83". The State. February 24, 2014. Archived from the original on 1 July 2014. Retrieved 2 July 2014.
  4. Dabney, Eric; Coker, Mike (2006-01-01). Historic South Carolina: An Illustrated History. HPN Books. pp. 84–. ISBN 9781893619524. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  5. Staples, Brent (September 16, 2002). "South Carolina: The Politics of Barbecue and the Battle of Piggie Park". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  6. Johnson, Greg; Staten, Vince (2007-07-01). Real Barbecue: The Classic Barbecue Guide to the Best Joints Across the USA --- with Recipes, Porklore, and More!. Globe Pequot. pp. 65–. ISBN 9780762751952. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  7. A., Davis, PhB, Ardie; Paul, Kirk, CWC, PhB, BSAS, Chef (2009-05-01). America's Best BBQ: 100 Recipes from America's Best Smokehouses, Pits, Shacks, Rib Joints, Roadhouses, and Restaurants. Andrews McMeel Publishing. pp. 76–. ISBN 9780740790225. Retrieved 3 July 2014.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. Edge, John T. (2007). Southern Belly: The Ultimate Food Lover's Companion to the South. Algonquin Books. pp. 230–. ISBN 9781565125476. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  9. Fontana, Vincent R. (2006-11-13). Municipal Liab Law: Law and Practice. Aspen Publishers Online. pp. 12–. ISBN 9780735565203. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  10. Sokol, Jason (2008-12-10). There Goes My Everything: White Southerners in the Age of Civil Rights, 1945–1975. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. pp. 236–. ISBN 9780307491817. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  11. "What do you mean, chicken supreme? (subscription required)". The Economist. January 11, 2001. p. 30. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  12. Firestone, David (September 29, 2000). "Sauce Is Boycotted, and Slavery Is the Issue". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  13. "Court tosses out barbecue sauce suit". St. Augustine Record. April 1, 2007. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  14. "2nd generation at Maurice's BBQ removes confederate flags, avoids politics". The State. October 25, 2013. Retrieved 18 July 2016.
  15. "Confederate flag can't be removed from lawn of ice cream shop, despite owner's wishes". Fox News. 2017-06-26. Retrieved 2023-06-29.
  16. "There's a new Confederate flag controversy in SC, and it involves ice cream". Retrieved 2023-06-29.
  17. JUNE 26, 2017. "Restaurateur in South Carolina Can’t Remove Confederate Flag Flying Over His Business". Clint Rainey. http://www.grubstreet.com/2017/06/south-carolina-restaurant-stuck-with-confederate-flag.html
  18. Collins, Lauren (2017-04-17). "America's Most Political Food". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2023-06-29.
  19. Collins, 2017.
  20. Yee, Gregory (2017-08-04). "Confederate flag to stay flying in front of Orangeburg restaurant following zoning board ruling". Post and Courier. Retrieved 2023-06-29.
  21. "Orangeburg restaurant at center of Confederate flag controversy up for sale". The Times and Democrat. 2019-01-26. Retrieved 2023-06-29.
  22. "NEWMAN v. PIGGIE PARK ENTERPRISES, INC". Leagle. Retrieved 2 July 2014.
  23. Weis, Lois; Fine, Michelle (2005-03-10). Beyond Silenced Voices: Class, Race, and Gender in United States Schools, Revised Edition. SUNY Press. pp. 223–. ISBN 9780791464625. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  24. Hague, Euan; Beirich, Heidi; Sebesta, Edward H. (2009-09-15). Neo-Confederacy: A Critical Introduction. University of Texas Press. pp. 290–. ISBN 9780292779211. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  25. "Score Mourning for Dr. King". The New York Times. April 9, 1968. p. 32. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  26. Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report. Congressional Quarterly, Inc. 1964. p. 1498.
  27. "Bessinger Feels Government Rotten". Spartanburg Herald. October 12, 1973. p. A5. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  28. Moore, John Hammond (1993). Columbia and Richland County: A South Carolina Community, 1740–1990. Univ of South Carolina Press. pp. 426–. ISBN 9780872498273. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  29. Thompson, Chuck (2013-07-16). Better Off Without 'Em: A Northern Manifesto for Southern Secession. Simon and Schuster. pp. 77–. ISBN 9781451616668. Retrieved 3 July 2014.


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