From the Executive Director
| Publication year | 2020 |
| Pages | 0014 |
JEFF DAVIS
Executive Director
State Bar of Georgia
jeffd@gabar.org
This is the twelfth in a series of articles highlighting the heroic and vital contributions lawyers and judges have made to the American Civil Rights Movement.
Marva Jones Brooks:
A Life Spent on the High Road
Growing up in a segregated America in the 1950s and 1960s, Marva Jones Brooks overcame racial prejudice by practicing a set of protocols her parents instilled in her and her two brothers. Those included "show up on time," "smile," "be the best prepared person in the room" and, most of all, "always take the high road."
As the first female and African-American attorney for a major U.S. city government and, later, as general counsel for the 1996 Olympic Games Organizing Committee, Brooks had a profound influence on the transformation of Atlanta from a southern state capital to major international destination and trade center by following those childhood instructions throughout her trailblazing career.
The daughter of one of Pennsylvania's first African-American police officers, Brooks was born and raised in Pittsburgh. Upon receiving the prestigious Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award in 2007, Brooks credited her upbringing with paving the way for her future success.
"I feel like I hit the jackpot being born into the family of Henry and Mildred Gordon Jones and their sons Henry and Duane," Brooks said. "There are dozens of reasons to feel this way. But foremost among them to me is that they were people who lived the life they sang about in their songs.
"My dad, a native of Alabama, was one of the first black men to become a policeman in western Pennsylvania. And thus he was almost a surrogate mayor for his people in a large section of the state. He was an icon to many and taught all of us about integrity, fair play and decency.
"My mother, a transplanted Georgian, was one of the most intellectually curious people I have ever known, and the entire home was a reflection of that and her Georgia roots. There were books everywhere, book club meetings, lunch or dinner at the home with any interesting visitor, and endless trips into Pittsburgh to plays, concerts and museums and the like."
From the 45 prestigious colleges that offered Brooks a full scholarship, she chose Howard University in Washington, D.C. Calling it "the place of my dreams...
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