By Harry Murphy

“If Christ were to run for office today, I don’t believe he would be elected,” Atlanta Vice Mayor Maynard Jackson told the Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women at its 14th Annual Meeting.

Jackson, the first black man to hold such a high office in the city, said Saturday that he suspected that if the Savior should run for office. “Something in his background would be distorted to defame him.”

He said one of the answers to why there are so many paradoxes in our society today may be found in the words of the song, THE GAMES PEOPLE PLAY: “People walking up to you, Shouting Glory Hallelujah, And trying to sock it to ya, in the name of the Lord.”

The city’s number two official said that if he had lived in slavery, he would have been sold for $1,200, but if he lived in the ghetto today, “My life wouldn’t be worth a dime.”

Jackson said that “For his age and time, Christ was a militant, and I don’t equate militancy with violence. He militated for love, brotherhood and peace, and gave his life in peace.” The vice mayor said the City of Atlanta tries to embody these trademarks of “fighting Christianity” and he wanted the city to eliminate every vestige of racial discrimination, especially that which is institutionalized.

He was strongly critical of block-busting real estate agents, whom he termed today’s “merchants of Venice.”

Atlanta has a unique chance, he said, “to show the world that we can share ... hope ... and understanding.” It isn’t enough to be on record and to speak out for racial equality, he added, but “What we need is action.”

Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan thanked the ladies for their “expertise” and said the Church in Atlanta has “profited greatly from your works. I hope they will continue.”

He told Vice Mayor Jackson, “We share your hope for the future of our city.” Msgr. Donald Kiernan, in introducing Jackson, said, “There is parallel between the struggle of the Irish and that of the blacks. Both sacrificed for an ideal.

“No one better than the Catholic can understand what the black man has suffered because we have been there ourselves. It is fitting that Maynard Jackson is our speaker tonight.”

Mrs. Joseph Meyer of St. John’s Parish was reelected as president of the council. Other officers are Mrs. Ira Driskell of Sts. Peter and Paul, executive vice president; Mrs. James P. Groover, St. Anthony’s, third vice president; Mrs. James Maguire, Holy Spirit, second vice president; Mrs. Millard Norris, Sacred Heart, first vice president; Mrs. William Dennon, Holy Cross, recording secretary; Mrs. Alex Smith, Cathedral, treasurer; Mrs. George Ettel, St. John’s, corresponding secretary; Mrs. John Flack, Cathedral, parliamentarian, and Mary Wells, St. Paul of the Cross, historian.