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Maynard H. Jackson, ‘56
Maynard Holbrook Jackson, Jr. (March 23, 1938 – June 23, 2003), was an American politician, a member of the Democratic Party, and the first African American mayor of Atlanta, Georgia. He served three terms, two consecutive terms from 1974 until 1982 and a third term from 1990 to 1994. He became the first African-American mayor of Atlanta in the same election cycle in 1973 that Coleman Youngbecame the first African-American mayor of Detroit, Michigan.
Jackson’s grandfather was the civil rights leader John Wesley Dobbs. His mother, Irene Dobbs Jackson, was a Professor of French atSpelman College in Atlanta. Jackson himself graduated from Morehouse College in 1956 when he was only eighteen years old, where he sang in the Morehouse College Glee Club.[1] After attending the Boston University Law School for a short time, he held several jobs, including selling encyclopedias, before he decided to attend the North Carolina Central University Law School, from which he graduated in 1964. He was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.
Jackson married his first wife, Burnella “Bunnie” Burke, in 1965. This couple had three children, Elizabeth, Brooke, and Maynard III, before divorcing. He married Valerie Richardson in 1980, with whom he fathered two more children, Valerie and Alexandra. Valerie Jackson hosts “Between the Lines” each weekend on the WABE-FM radio stadion, the Atlanta Public Broadcasting station.
During Jackson’s first term as the mayor, much progress was made in improving race relations in and around Atlanta. As mayor, he led the beginnings and much of the progress on several huge public-works projects in Atlanta and its region. He helped arrange for the rebuilding of the Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport’s huge terminal to modern standards, and this airport was renamed theHartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in his honor, shortly after his death, also renamed after him is the new international terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport called the Maynard Holbrook Jackson Jr. International Terminal, slated to open in the Spring of 2012. He also fought against the construction of freeways through intown neighborhoods.
Jackson was mayor when the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) obtained a large amount of Federal funding for a rapid-transit rail-line system, when its construction began, and when MARTA began its first rail transit service in Atlanta and in DeKalb County in 1979, and during its continual expansion thereafter. He was also mayor when Atlanta was selected as the host city for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, when the decision was made in September 1990. As mayor, he accepted the Olympic flag at the 1992 closing ceremonies in Barcelona, Spain. Many planned public works projects, such as improvements to freeways and parks, and the completion of Freedom Parkway, were expedited from 1990-1996 in preparation for the Olympic Games that began in August 1996.
Jackson’s second term as mayor also coincided with the Atlanta Child Murders case between 1979-81, which he played a prominent role in resolving, both in supporting the Atlanta Police and other police forces in the area, but also by endeavoring to calm the huge amount of public tension that arose because of these serial killings. The murderer, Wayne Williams, was caught in 1981, tried, convicted, and sentenced to serve two consecutive life sentences in prison. It is notable that as soon as Williams was arrested, the string of murders stopped.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m450aaocsU1qiqqrmo1_500.jpg)
