Maynard Jackson Jr.: First Black Mayor of Atlanta

Maynard Holbrook Jackson Jr. was the first Black mayor to be elected in any major city as well as being one of the first to be elected in a southern city. Born to Maynard Jack sr. and Irene Dobbs on March 23, 1938, Jackson came from a lineage that valued education and political activism. His maternal grandfather, John Wesley Dobbs, was a renowned civil rights leader who paved the way for Black voting in Atlanta by co-founding the Atlanta Negro Voters League. Jackson’s mother, Irene, graduated and taught at Spelman College and led the integration of Atlanta’s public libraries. Jackson grew up surrounded by politically forward-thinking people, especially when it came to Black activism. According to Jessica Ann Levy, “Jackson’s tenure as mayor … represented a shift in the city’s black politics and Atlanta politics more broadly.”

Jackson and the Emerging Airport

Before his historic election as mayor, Jackson was a lawyer for the National Labor Relations Board and was a part of the Democratic Party. The board is an independent agency of the federal government that’s responsible for enforcing US labor laws in relation to collective bargaining and unfair labor practices. In his first term as mayor, Jackson implemented affirmative action efforts that marked a turning point in Atlanta’s public works and increased minority business participation. These efforts were emboldened by the building of the Atlanta airport during this time. Jackson saw this project as a way to “level the playing field” for Black employees and businesses. New York Times reporter, David Halbfinger, said that “it was [Jackson’s] fiery advocacy for the new black majority that had elected him [in 1973] – in particular by setting up affirmative action programs … that constituted a political revolution in the heart of the South.” ³ As Atlanta was becoming a hub for air travel, “Jackson demanded that black workers and contractors receive their fair share of the business building and operating its new terminal at Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport.” ⁴ With Jackson’s steadfast determination in seeing his fellow Black people succeed and to have as many opportunities for growth and personal wealth as their white counterparts, “the percentage of black people employed by [Atlanta] rose from 42 percent to 56 percent.”⁵ In less than a year during his first term, “Jackson made national headlines when he announced … that 25 percent of all contracts for the expansion of Atlanta’s airport would be reserved for minority firms.”⁶ Within the first five years of his first term, business contracts granted to minorities skyrocketed from less than one percent to almost thirty-nine percent; with this, it could be seen how Black political power could, should, and would work in support of Black businesses, who would, in turn, support Black political officeholders, creating a cycle that would increase Black politics and business.

Jackson and the Atlanta Child Murders

Even with this positive push toward greater Black political engagement and racial harmony, Jackson’s second as mayor was darkened by the Atlanta child murders. This series of murders were committed through the summers of 1979 to 1981. At least twenty-eight children, teens, and adults were killed and two of the adult murders were solved with the arrest of Wayne Williams. The city of Atlanta prides itself on being very diverse and, during this time, as a “city too busy to hate” as the airport and redevelopment of the city were well underway. As the victims were from the poor Black community, the investigation was put on the back burner until racial unrest rose almost to the boiling point in 1981 when Williams was arrested. The police later linked him with a number of the child murders – though he hasn’t been officially charged in any of those cases and maintains his innocence, even with the killings having ceased since his arrest. According to Paul Mokrzycki Renfro, this horrific event “shaped public perceptions of and community responses to the Atlanta youth murders, which in turn dented Atlanta’s reputation as a New South, ‘post-racial’, and -post-civil rights’ city.”⁸ Renfro also states that the poor Black community and the city’s biracial coalition developed different views in addressing the murders. On one side, Black Americans thought that this was an attempt to disrupt the Civil Rights Movement. On the other side, the racial aspect of the killings was downplayed to prevent any civil unrest and to preserve Atlanta’s image as the “city too busy to hate.”⁹ With this slew of murders, populations outside of Atlanta “understood the slayings as inconsonant with the city’s moderate reputation yet consistent with the South’s troubled racial past”; these killings also “called into question the very gains of the classical civil rights struggle, demonstrated the endurance of Jim Crow violence, and challenged the city’s position as an exceptional southern space.”¹⁰ Jackson supported the Atlanta police and other forces within the area to look for the perpetrator, while also working to calm public tensions aroused by the killings.

Jackson and the Olympics

During Jackson’s third and last term as mayor, Atlanta was chosen as the city for the 1996 Olympic Games. In 1992, he accepted the Olympic flag at the closing ceremonies in Spain. With this upcoming event, Atlanta went through many public works projects that would improve freeways, parks, and make the city more hospitable and pleasing to look at for the incoming foreigners and out-of-towners. Even with a mega-event like the Olympics and the economic development that ensues, events such as this result “in the relocation of many public housing residents and in frustration among low-income neighborhoods as revitalization efforts failed to meet expectations.”¹² With his reelection to office, “Jackson’s reemergence indicated a potential resurgence of neighborhood interests.” ¹³ There were pros and cons to the Olympics coming to Atlanta: the economic advancement of the city was bolstered, but the citizens – especially those residing in poor neighborhoods or optimal building locations – were relocated with little to no help from the government. These neighborhoods also experienced losses in the form of “increased noise, congestion, and traffic as well as the potential to lose the use of space as residents moved out to make way for growth.”¹⁴  

Jackson’s Legacy

Maynard Jackson Jr. was an influential figure in the development of Atlanta. With his help with building the airport, a terminal, and the name of the airport were coined after him: the Maynard H. Jackson Jr. International Terminal and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. He paved the way for minorities to conduct government business, hosted the Olympic Games, and attracted people from all over to the city. Jackson died on June 23, 2003, from cardiac arrest and is buried in Oakland Cemetery.