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.”