[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 93 (Monday, June 23, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H5689-H5690]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   HONORING MAYNARD HOLBROOK JACKSON

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Garrett of New Jersey). Under a previous 
order of the House, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Bishop) is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I stand again to address this 
House and to express my sorrow at the passing of my friend, a great 
man, Maynard Holbrook Jackson.
  Longfellow wrote: ``Lives of great men all remind us, We can make our

[[Page H5690]]

lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us, Footprints on the sands 
of time.'' Yes, Maynard has left great footprints. He left footprints 
as he left high school at 15 years of age to attend Morehouse College 
as an early admissions student, when he graduated from Morehouse 
College with a degree and went on to North Carolina Central University 
Law School, where he earned a law degree at a very early age. He had a 
deep baritone voice which he honed singing in the Morehouse College 
Glee Club. When he graduated from law school, he put that voice to work 
as a lawyer with the Emory Neighborhood Law Office practicing legal 
aid.
  Maynard was a very, very astute and committed lawyer to the poor. He 
represented the poor in Atlanta when they were evicted, when they were 
hounded by debt collectors. He represented them when they had family 
problems, domestic problems. He handled divorce cases.
  I followed him at the Emory Neighborhood Law Office, and I inherited 
a number of his cases as he moved on to leave even greater footprints.
  When he went to the City of Atlanta and became Vice Mayor, inspiring 
all of us at what this young man could do in terms of leadership for 
his city, he left footprints there, and it was just a matter of time 
before he was drafted to make the run for Mayor, and Mayor he was, 
Mayor of the City of Atlanta where he transformed Atlanta into a world 
class, world renowned city.
  He instituted affirmative action with city contracting. He proved 
that minorities and women could and would under his watch participate 
as partners in building Atlanta to greatness.
  He developed a national demonstration project in his methods of 
implementing affirmative action in Atlanta which was followed across 
the country as other mayors and other cities began to follow the 
example and the road map that Maynard Jackson left, the footprints that 
he left there in the sands of time.
  He was a leader in so many respects. He founded the Georgia 
Association of Black Elected Officials, which was an organization that 
helped to bring leadership and to strengthen all of the black elected 
officials in Georgia and, again, allowed Georgia to lead the Nation in 
growing a crop of African American elected officials so that he could 
put flesh and put life into the Voting Rights Act that was brought into 
being by the civil rights movements out of Atlanta and across the 
country.
  He was one who could be said to have been born with a silver spoon in 
his mouth. He was from a well-to-do, upper middle class African 
American family. He was a son of a Baptist preacher, the grandson of 
one of the icons of Georgia history, John Wesley Dobbs, grand master of 
the Prince Hall Masons of Georgia, a leader in his own right in 
political undertakings throughout the State.
  He was the nephew of Mattiwilda Dobbs, opera singer, one of the few 
African American opera singers in the 1950s.
  He was a mentor, a bond attorney. He was a friend to so many, a 
helpful person. He helped young individuals who were interested in 
going into business or who were interested in running for office. He 
exemplified all that was good.
  Yes, he was a great man, not because of the titles he carried, not 
because of the degrees that he had earned, the businesses that he 
started. He was great because he measured by the true standard of 
greatness set by Jesus, who said he who is great among you shall be 
your servant and who is the greatest shall be servant unto all.
  Maynard Holbrook Johnson measured up. He was indeed greet. We mourn 
his loss. We thank God and we thank his family that he came this way, 
that he helped make this world a little more of hope, a little less of 
fear and certainly much, much better because he traveled here.

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