A lawyer by training, Maynard Holbrook Jackson, Jr. (1938-2003), was the first African American to be elected mayor of Atlanta, Georgia (1973-1981 and 1989-1993), and the first to serve as chief executive of any major Southern city.

Born in Dallas, Texas, on March 23, 1938, the third of six children, Maynard Holbrook Jackson, Jr., was considered to be a member of the "Black aristocracy." His father, Maynard Jackson, Sr., was a Baptist minister and his mother, Irene (Dobbs) Jackson, was a college language teacher with a doctorate in French. When Maynard Jr. was age seven, his family moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where his father took over as pastor of the Friendship Baptist Church. Young Maynard considered becoming a clergyman but then enrolled at Morehouse College in Atlanta as an early admissions scholar and earned a BA degree in political science and history in 1956.

After graduation from college, Jackson worked a...