Name the ATL airport after Maynard Jackson

[12dn94dst]

Hi ex-wife is a Soror & a member of my chapter. ~ Kel



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 prominently 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.

[gamma_girl52]

I just heard about his passing this morning. How sad!
This is a sad day for Atlanta indeed...

[CrimsonTide4]

See below, vote "Yes" if you agree, and pass it on!

I encourage all of you to take a second and vote on this initiative. For all of us who love Atlanta, there would be no Black Mecca without Maynard. The effort to have the Atlanta airport renamed appears to be an effort initiated by lawyers. However, it certainly should not stop there. I know you will all spread the word.

Maynard Jackson's family would like the City to rename the Atlanta airport after Maynard as a tribute and symbol of his legacy of public service to the citizens of Atlanta. The local ABC affiliate, WSB Channel 2 has been conducting a poll to determine the level of public support, not only locally, but also nationally on whether there is sufficient support to rename the Atlanta airport.

PLEASE encourage all your friends to go to
Rename the Hartsfield Airport after Mayor Maynard Jackson
and vote YES in support of renaming the airport after Maynard Jackson.

[treblk]

What a noble initiative

I voted 5 times already

[Eclipse]

Originally posted by CrimsonTide4
See below, vote "Yes" if you agree, and pass it on!

I encourage all of you to take a second and vote on this initiative. For all of us who love Atlanta, there would be no Black Mecca without Maynard. The effort to have the Atlanta airport renamed appears to be an effort initiated by lawyers. However, it certainly should not stop there. I know you will all spread the word.

Maynard Jackson's family would like the City to rename the Atlanta airport after Maynard as a tribute and symbol of his legacy of public service to the citizens of Atlanta. The local ABC affiliate, WSB Channel 2 has been conducting a poll to determine the level of public support, not only locally, but also nationally on whether there is sufficient support to rename the Atlanta airport.

PLEASE encourage all your friends to go to
Rename the Hartsfield Airport after Mayor Maynard Jackson
and vote YES in support of renaming the airport after Maynard Jackson.

I don't hold a popular opinion in the Black community in Atlanta I am sure, but I don't think they should rename the airport for Mayor Jackson. He contributed a lot to this city--things that will be felt for years to come, but I don't think his good works should obliterate what William Hartsfield did for the city, especially in establishing the airport. Atlantans are nortoriously shortsighted and well tear down any building that is not the 'latest and the greatest' (although we have gotten better). I just don't want, 50 years from now, someone trying to change the Maynard Jackson Airport to whoever-is the popular mayor of the day. I would prefer some other tribute to hiim--maybe City Hall or something. Just my 2 cents.

[12dn94dst]

as I understand it, having read the article that went with the survey when it first went up on the website, the intent is to name the new terminal after Maynard Jackson, not the entire airport.

[Eclipse]

Originally posted by 12dn94dst
as I understand it, having read the article that went with the survey when it first went up on the website, the intent is to name the new terminal after Maynard Jackson, not the entire airport.

Actually both ideas have been floated about. Some folks (Douglas Dean, State Senator from the Summerville area, is one I remember) are adament that the international concourse is not enough and that the entire airport should be named after Maynard Jackson. I'll have to see how the poll on WSB is worded.

ETA: The survey says "Do you think Hartsfield International Airport should be renamed in honor of Maynard Jackson?". I took this to mean the entire airport, not just the new terminal or international terminal. Of course this is just WSB's survey and has nothing to do with what the commission that Shirley Franklin put together