Thompson, trailblazing lawmaker and jurist, dies at 82

<p>Albert Thompson, the first black elected official in Muscogee County and the modern era's first black committee chairman in the Georgia House died Sunday. He was 82.</p><p>Thompson, an attorney, was elected to the Georgia House in 1965, one of six black legislators whose election that year desegregated the chamber.</p><p>In 1974, then-House Speaker Tom Murphy named Thompson chairman of the House Special Judiciary Committee.</p><p>"He was a trailblazer and he was my friend," said state Rep. Calvin Smyre, D-Columbus, one of the legislature's most influential black lawmakers.</p><p>Thompson also was the first black jurist to serve on the Muscogee County Superior Court.</p><p>Friends remembered Thompson playing a quiet, dignified role in the struggles of the civil rights era.</p><p>"It is a difficult story to tell the young people who have their own perception of what is historically significant," said Superior Court Judge John Allen, the county's second black judge to serve on the court. "The times were different, but the qualities of Judge Thompson endure all times."</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x2865ae0)</p>