Maynard Holbrook Jackson Jr.

Maynard H. Jackson

     Maynard Holbrook Jackson Jr. was a politician and attorney born in 1938 from Georgia. He was a member of the Democratic party and was elected into office as the first black mayor of Atlanta in 1973 at the age of 35. He ended up serving a total of three terms which made him the second longest term holder in Atlanta's history. During his terms as mayor, he created many public works projects, primarily Maynard H. Jackson International terminal at the Atlanta airport (which is still the terminal there today), and greatly increased minority business participation in the city. While the terminal still exists today it was renamed from the William B. Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport to the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to honor his service to the expansion of the airport, the city and its people.
     Jackson was born into a family that strongly valued education and political activism. His grandfather was a civil rights leader who successfully overturned the white primary in Georgia. He managed to get black police officers hired in Atlanta and got lighting on Auburn Street which was the main retail street of the black community. Maynard's mother Irene Jackson graduated from Spelman College and earned a doctorate in France becoming a Professor of French at the college. His father Maynard Holbrook Jackson Sr. was a Baptist minister from New Orleans. He became active in civil rights in Dallas, Texas, where he had grown up after his family moved. His grandfather Alexander Stephens Jackson had been a Baptist minister and educator in Louisiana and Texas. Sadly, Jackson's father died when he was fifteen; which only make his grandfather become even more influential in his life. Jackson attended Morehouse College which is a historically black college for men in Atlanta and graduated in 1956 at the age of eighteen. Afterwards, he attended the Boston University Law School for a short time and held several different jobs. After he returned to graduate studies and attended the North Carolina Central University Law School where he finally graduated with a law degree in 1964.
     In 1973, Jackson was elected with 60% of the vote, as the first African-American mayor of Atlanta, he was supported by both white liberals/moderates and African Americans. During his first term, Jackson worked to improve race relations in and around Atlanta after the polarization caused by the election campaign. He created many Affirmative action programs which helped minority and women-owned businesses. As mayor, he celebrated in September 1990 when Atlanta was selected as the host city for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. He oversaw the completion of many public works projects, such as improvements to freeways and parks, and the completion of Freedom Parkway.