FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Media Contact: 
Elise Durham
Edurham@morehouse.edu
404-507-8648 

Atlanta-June 23, 2003 – Morehouse College joins the Atlanta community in mourning the loss of the Honorable Maynard Holbrook Jackson Jr., Morehouse class of 1956.

Jackson was admitted to Morehouse at the age of 14 as a Ford Foundation Early Admission Scholar. He graduated with a degree in political science at 18. He is the recipient of seven honorary doctorate degrees, including the honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Morehouse in 1974. Jackson earned the Juris Doctor degree cum laude from the School of Law at North Carolina Central University. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

He worked his way through school as a waiter, tobacco picker, librarian and an encyclopedia national sales trainer.

President Walter E. Massey said today that Jackson would be sorely missed.

“The entire Morehouse College family mourns the loss of our beloved brother Maynard Holbrook Jackson, a distinguished member of the Morehouse class of 1956, who served for 18 years as a member of the College’s Board of Trustees.

In so many ways, Maynard Jackson embodied the very essence of a Morehouse man. An exemplary leader, a dedicated community servant, and a tireless advocate for economic and social justice, he literally helped change the world.

We surely will miss his presence, his keen wit, and his indomitable spirit. But we will be encouraged, as well, by the proud legacy Maynard Jackson leaves behind of a life well lived.

The Morehouse family extends our heartfelt sympathies to the members of the Jackson family and to all of those in Atlanta and around the world to whom this great man meant so much.”

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Ranked twice as the number one college in the nation for educating African American students by Black Enterprise magazine, Morehouse College is the nation’s largest, private liberal arts college for African-American men. Founded in 1867, the College enrolls approximately 3,000 students and confers bachelor’s degrees on more black men than any other institution in the world. Morehouse offers a number of programs and activities to enhance its challenging liberal arts curriculum through the Leadership Center at Morehouse College, Morehouse Research Institute, and Andrew Young Center for International Affairs. Morehouse is one of only two Historically Black Colleges or Universities to produce two Rhodes Scholars.

Prominent alumni include Martin Luther King Jr., Nobel Peace Prize laureate and civil rights leader; Dr. David Satcher, former U.S. Surgeon General and director of the National Center for Primary Care at the Morehouse School of Medicine; Sheldon “Spike” Lee, filmmaker and president of 40 Acres & A Mule Productions; Maynard H. Jackson, president of Jackson Securities and the first African-American mayor of Atlanta; and Nima A. Warfield, the first African-American Rhodes Scholar from an Historically Black College or University.