WEEKEND MEMOS

'Weekend memos' give our editorial writers a chance to express their own opinions, comment on topics they have been writing about, or take a lighter approach. The opinions in 'Memos' do not always follow the Enquirer's editorial positions.

The nation can learn significant lessons from the deaths this week of two political giants in Georgia.

Maynard Jackson Jr., the first black mayor of Atlanta, and Lester Maddox, its former segregationist governor, died two days apart - Jackson on Monday, Maddox on Wednesday. They lived and died within close proximity of each other, but philosophically they could not have been further apart.

Maddox, who was 87, took his divisive beliefs into old age. In 1996, the Associated Press quoted him still rejecting forced integration, and that if he had to take a stand against it all over again, "I'd fight even harder." Maddox even refused to close the Capitol for the funeral of Martin Luther King Jr. Many of his comrades long ago denounced their once-popular racist beliefs.

The high school drop-out won the governorship on a fluke in 1967 in a contest that was disputed and had to be decided by the Georgia Legislature. He gained prominence in 1964 when he chased black protesters from his restaurant with a pistol the day after the Civil Rights Act was signed.

Jackson, who came to prominence on the heels of Maddox's political demise, was his antithesis. A passionate supporter of civil rights, Jackson did something Maddox could not do in two tries: become mayor of the state's largest city.

Jackson, 65, was a child prodigy who graduated from prestigious Morehouse College at age 18 and later earned a law degree. He became mayor at 35, and gave blacks and women, who had historically been shut out of Atlanta's public business, a place at the table.

Much of Atlanta's success today - from its international airport, to being an Olympic host city - can be attributed to Jackson's efforts.

He took his message and strategies to other cities, too, including to Cincinnati. His approach to diversity and inclusion eventually was adopted as a model for other governments around the country, former Atlanta mayor Bill Campbell told the Associated Press.

As a son of the South, I grew up seeing Jackson as a hero and Maddox as a villain. I still do.

But today, 30 years after the two men reached crossroads in their careers, America, thankfully, is better because it has rejected Maddox's beliefs and confirmed Jackson's.

Byron McCauley