Atlanta’s first black mayor, Maynard Jackson, honored in Pearl Cleage’s play
It was 50 years ago when Atlanta, the capital of the New South solidified its reputation of being “The Black Mecca”. That is when the charismatic wavy head vice mayor Maynard Jackson was sworn in as the city’s first African American mayor.
Award winning author and playwright Pearl Cleage who was Jackson’s first press secretary is paying tribute to her former boss in an Alliance Theatre production of “Something Moving: A Meditation on Maynard Jackson” Aug. 3 -11.
“I really wanted to do a piece that used the memories that I had of how exciting it was, how exhausting it was in just making it work in a way that is just so different,” Cleage said during a phone interview. “This was like a big transitional moment and the things that we were trying to do we never had a chance to do before.”
A graduate of Morehouse College and the descendent of prominent black Atlantans, Jackson had survived a nasty mayoral campaign launched by the city’s first Jewish mayor Sam Massell. Elected with the help of black voters, Massell was not ready to give up the mayor’s office after only one term. He ran a highly negative campaign titled: “Atlanta: The City Too Young To Die” which implied that if a black mayor took over the reins, the white resident flight would be followed by the white downtown business community which included the likes of Coca-Cola, Rich’s department stores, Citizens & Southern Banks, Southern Bell and others.
The campaign infuriated the black community and Massell lost nearly all of his black support to Jackson. The campaign backfired and Massell would never hold public office again.
The facts, the date and the analysis of what happened during that historic election room is well-documented. What Cleage is trying to recreate with the play are the feelings people were having during that period.
“Once I thought about it I asked myself: What do I remember about that time? What did it feel like to be there at that time? When I worked for him I was always trying to get him to sit down and talk to me on tape about what happened this week, what did it feel like when this happened? I kept telling him that you will remember the facts of what happened but you won’t remember what it felt like to be there,” she said
“ He was reluctant to do that because I think he felt like that it would have exposed a level of vulnerability that he didn’t want to really explore. He had to be the mayor and do all the things that mayors have to do,” Cleage said.
Black Atlantans and progressive whites would not feel that kind of euphoria behind electing its first black mayor until the nation elected its first black president.
The play debuted last year in Washington, D.C. produced by the Ford Theatre that had commissioned pieces on historical figures by playwrights.
“ I always felt like this is a play I want to give to Atlanta. I wrote this for Atlanta people, to be done by Atlanta people in front of Atlanta people. Because it really was a moment when we did something great. I wanted people to remember that democracy does work when you elect a good person who is committed to doing good things – that it works,” Cleage said.
“Added Cleage: “The piece (play) came out of wanting people who were there to have a moment before we all join the ancestors to say, yes, that was a great moment and we remember it and for people who weren’t there and the young people who are in Atlanta now and who don’t really understand what that moment was like to have a chance to look at it and to see what it kind of felt like.”
