Q: Maynard Jackson played such a critical part in Atlanta’s history. Can you elaborate on his career and his accomplishments as mayor?
A: Jackson wasn't a native Georgian – he was born in Texas – but spent much of his life in Atlanta, where his family was prominent.
He graduated from Morehouse, eventually earned his law degree from North Carolina Central and began practicing in the late 1960s. Jackson tried to oust Herman Talmadge from the Senate, and although he lost, he proved popular with Atlantans and gained the clout needed to be elected vice mayor. Next: The mayor’s office.
Jackson took on incumbent Sam Massell and won the runoff on Oct. 16, 1973 to become the first black mayor of a major southern city.
He worked to increase the status of minority businesses, oversaw the construction of a new terminal at Hartsfield International Airport and shook up the city’s police department before his second term ended in 1982. ”In many ways, Maynard’s the architect of modern Atlanta,” former Jackson assistant Michael Lomax told The New York Times in Jackson’s obituary.
“The city just opened up in ways that were unimaginable.” Jackson ran again in 1989, easily winning his third term. He decided not to run again after heart surgery in 1992 and went to work for the Democratic National Committee before he died from a heart attack on June 23, 2003.
You’ll see his name on Maynard Jackson High School and on both the airport and its international terminal. Jackson is buried with many other prominent Atlantans in Oakland Cemetery.
An Atlanta update: My Sept. 30 column attempted to answer a question on the number of cities, towns, hamlets and crossroads named Atlanta in the U.S. I found 17, but loyal reader Bob Beard, who lives in Midtown, added Atlanta, Miss., to the list, boosting the total to 18. It's in Chickasaw County and halfway between Oxford and Starkville, which you might have read about lately, if you follow college football.
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