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Former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson dies
[ The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 6/23/03 ]
Former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson dies
Maynard Holbrook Jackson, Jr., a three-term mayor of Atlanta and one
of its most charismatic civic leaders, died in Washington Sunday
night of a heart attack. He was 65.
Bunnie Jackson-Ransom, his ex-wife, said she had few details. She
was boarding a plane back to Atlanta from the Rainbow/PUSH
convention in Chicago.
She said the couple's son called her of the news.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson announced Jackson's death to a stunned
Chicago audience.
A great-grandson of Cobb County slaves, Jackson was launched from
Atlanta's black aristocracy, graduated from Morehouse College at 18
years old and was elected in 1973 the first black mayor of a major
Southern city.
He was elected after his opponent had used the divisive campaign
slogan, "Atlanta's Too Young To Die." Jackson was only 35 at the
time, the nation's youngest mayor.
His election came five years after Cleveland's Carl Stokes and
Richard Hatcher of Gary, Ind., had broken the color line for mayors.
The same fall Jackson was elected in Atlanta, Los Angeles' Tom
Bradley and Detroit's Coleman Young also broke through in their
cities.
Jackson was an eloquent orator, with iridescent green eyes and a
bearish heft that once reached 350 pounds. His political career
spanned a quarter of a century. Among Atlanta mayors, only William
Hartsfield, who served 23 years, had a tenure at City Hall that
exceeded Jackson's dozen years.
Jackson's political star first ascended in 1968 when he challenged
Herman Talmadge for his U.S. Senate seat. Jackson lost that race by
more than a 3-to-1 margin, but won the city of Atlanta by 6,000
votes, a political omen for him.
Though not actively involved in the civil rights movement as a young
man, Jackson was among a cadre of political leaders across the
nation who worked during the 1970s to expand the social gains made
by minorities into the economic arena.
He served the two-term limit at Atlanta City Hall from 1974 to 1982.
In a city that once had served as the arsenal of the Confederacy,
his historic 1973 election generated exaggerated hopes in Atlanta's
black community and exaggerated fears in the white community.
Through sheer resolve, Jackson endured a turbulent first few years
in office, sparring with the city's white business power structure.
Meanwhile, his poise and oratorical skill stirred many young and
ambitious blacks across the country, and soon their resumes stacked
up at City Hall.
Of historic import, Jackson instituted a controversial affirmative
action program that elevated the percentage of city contracts
awarded to minorities in Atlanta from less than 1 percent in 1973 to
38.6 percent five years later. He applied his program of "joint
venture," which brought together white and minority-owned firms,
most promiently at the Atlanta airport.
Years later, Jackson would crow, "We built the Atlanta airport,
biggest terminal building complex in the world, ahead of schedule
and within budget -- and simultaneously rewrote the books on
affirmative action." He also would boast that, under his watch,
joint venture produced about 25 new black millionaires, most as a
result of the airport.
In 1989, following Andrew Young's two terms as Atlanta's mayor,
Jackson, then a bond attorney for the Chicago based firm of Chapman
& Cutler, re-emerged as a local political force.
He swamped City Councilman Hosea Williams, winning the mayoralty
with a mandate of 79 percent of the vote.
During his final term from 1990 to 1994, Jackson became a prominent
spokesman for American cities, serving as president of the National
Conference of Democratic Mayors and of the national Black Caucus of
Local Elected Officials.
At the 1992 Summer Olympics in Spain, meanwhile, he had the honor of
accepting the five-ringed flag from Barcelona Mayor Pasqual
Maragall. Jackson waved the flag broadly that day inside the Olympic
stadium and later quipped, "I've got enough ham in me to appreciate
standing in front of three billion people."
But Jackson's third and final term proved frustrating as he was
unable to reproduce the accomplishments of his initial terms. A
corruption scandal at the Atlanta airport, which led to the
conviction of his old friend, airport commissioner Ira Jackson,
marred his administration.
On June 9, 1993, Jackson announced he would not seek a fourth term,
citing health and other personal reasons. His announcement surprised
many Atlantans.
Only days before, a local survey by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
had revealed that Jackson's public approval rating was a powerful 70
percent. Roughly half of whites and three-fouths of blacks polled
said they approved of the way Jackson served as mayor.
Nine months earlier, in September 1992, Jackson had undergone bypass
surgery at St. Joseph's Hospital to clear six blockages in his
arteries. At the time, his physician said the mayor was about 100
pounds overweight, adding, "He's obese and he has to lose weight."
In announcing his decision to bow out of the 1993 mayor's race,
Jackson said, "I have wrestled with this decision more than any
other decision in my life . . . But I am satisfied that I have made
a, regrettably, necessary decision."
Later, he would reflect, "I got tired of giving up $500,000 a year
to earn $100,000 a year [as mayor] and getting beat up and
sacrificing my family, myself, my income, my health and everything."
Though proud of his achievement as the big-city South's first
African-American mayor, Jackson, in later years, wondered about his
own legacy and bemoaned, "I can see that my full name will be
Maynard Jackson First Black Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia."
That rankled him. He thought it racist and unfair because it cheated
him of his accomplishments in office, which included not only
affirmative action programs, but overseeing construction of the
midfield terminal at Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport (and
providing many jobs in the process), giving voice to intown
neighborhoods, establishing a cultural affairs department and
serving as the first modern manager under the city's new charter.
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