Award ceremonies can be memorable occasions, sometimes because they’re long and tedious, other times because the honoree is a person of substance whose eloquent thank-you touches the hearts of everyone there.
The latter applies to the dinner at which the Colorado Bar Association presented its highest honor, the Award of Merit, to Gary Jackson. He’s the first African-American to receive the award in its 62-year history.
Speaking to the 400 friends, family members and colleagues who’d gathered at the Hyatt Regency Convention Center, Jackson recalled that he began his career in 1970, after graduating from the University of Colorado School of Law and landing a position in the Denver district attorney’s office. “I had a 4-inch Afro, a brand-new purple Dodge Challenger with a black racing stripe on the hood, and several three-piece suits. You guessed it,” he said. ” ‘The Mod Squad’ was my favorite TV show.”
Shortly after, he and other new prosecutors were photographed for a story that appeared in a local newspaper. “Some people liked it, some did not,” Jackson recalled. “A Colorado Supreme Court justice later commented in an editorial that my appearance did not represent the dignity of the office of the Denver district attorney. I guess he was talking about my hair and not my color, although I was the only black prosecutor in the state.”
Jackson’s mother, needless to say, was far from pleased and wrote the justice a letter praising her son’s abilities. “To his credit, he invited Mom and me to lunch and we became friends.”
From the district attorney’s office, Jackson became an assistant U.S. attorney; served as co-founder and president of the Samy Cary Bar Association and its scholarship foundation; and eventually went into private practice with Michael DiManna, Spike Eklund and Gene Ciancio.
He also was the first black member of the Denver Athletic Club.
“I know that my life has been enriched by every person with whom I have come into contact in my 41 years of practicing law,” Jackson said. “I have grown not just as an attorney, but as a husband, a father, a son and human being.”
To read the text of Jackson’s speech, please visit davidson.
Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com; also, and
