James Jackson

James Jackson

Template:TOCnestleft James E. Jackson of New York was the husband of Esther Jackson. The two were a leading black communist couple from the late 1930s onwards.

SNYC conference

In 2018 South Carolina Progressive Network published a booklet, HISTORY DENIED: Recovering South Carolina's Stolen Past by Becci Robbins. Its content is a substantive introduction to the Southern Negro Youth Congress (SNYC) and the vanguard radical labor organizing among interracial youth in the severely segregated South between 1937 and 1949. Specifically, this tells of a landmark Congress convened in Columbia, South Carolina in October of 1946.

This event had in active participation such Freedom Movement notables as local South Carolina youth leaders in addition to Paul Robeson, Herbert Aptheker, Dorothy Burnham and Louis Burnham, Esther Jackson and James Jackson, Louise Patterson, Sallye Davis, Jack O'Dell, South Carolina's Modjeska Simkins and the Congress' Keynote Speaker, Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, who gave a speech, BEHOLD THE LAND, which "has been a must read' for all young activists ever since".

Fugitive

In the St. Louis Metropolitan area,it is little known that Dr. brother James E. Jackson had refuge underground in the 50s with the famous labor leaders, Ernest Calloway and Deverne Calloway,in Kinloch, MO, a stone's throw from St. Louis

Relationship with Rosa Parks

James Jackson worked as the Southern Affairs secretary for the CPUSA. At that time Jackson worked in close association with Rosa Parks, a relationship which had begun in the days of the Youth Congress and continued during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. As The Worker’s editor, Jackson worked with a number of the leaders of the civil rights revolution.

National Committee Against Repressive Legislation

Circa 1965, James Jackson was listed as the Coordinator of the Greater Boston Area Coalition to Stop S. 1437, an affiliate with the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation.

Herbert Aptheker Testimonial Dinner

On April 28, 1966 James Jackson was a sponsor of the Herbert Aptheker Testimonial Dinner. The dinner was held on the occasion of Herbert Aptheker's 50^th birthday, the publication of his 20^th book, and the 2^nd anniversary of the American Institute for Marxist Studies. It was held in the Sutton Ballroom, The New York Hilton, Avenue of the Americas, 53^rd to 54^th Street, New York City. Most speakers, organizers and sponsors were known members or supporters of the Communist Party USA.

World Peace Council

In 1970 U.S. members of the Soviet front World Peace Council were;

• Saundra Graham
• James Jackson - Communist Party USA member
• Maryann Mahaffey
• Michael Myerson - Communist Party USA member
• Mark Solomon
• Gus Newport - a World Peace Council Vice President

1980s U.S. Peace Council Executive Board

James Jackson was an Executive Board member of the Communist Party USA dominated U.S. Peace Council 1983-1985-Communist Party USA representative.

Communist Party dissidents

On November 15-16 1991, 30 dissident members of the National Committee of the Communist Party USA convened a meeting to "sign a statement of events" - most or all signatories were soon to break with the party and were later to form Committees of Correspondence.

The signatories included James Jackson, New York;

Communist Party reformer

In 1991, James Jackson, New York, was one of several hundred Communist Party USA members to sign the a paper "An initiative to Unite and Renew the Party" - most signatories left the Party after the December 1991 conference to found Committees of Correspondence.

CoC National Conference endorser

In 1992, James Jackson, former editor The Worker, New York endorsed the Committees of Correspondence national conference Conference on Perspectives for Democracy and Socialism in the 90s held at Berkeley California July 17-19.

Symposium on James and Esther Jackson

On October 28, 2006, an event entitled "James and Esther Jackson, the American Left and the Origins of the Modern Civil Rights Movement" was held at the Tamiment Library of New York University. Three panels of academics and activists delivered papers illuminating the lives of the James Jackson and his wife Esther Jackson, their co-workers and the struggles in which they participated that helped shape developments in the United States from the late 1930s to the present. Angela Davis, David Levering Lewis, Percy Sutton, Pete Seeger, Michael Nash, Jean Carey Bond, Michael Anderson, Maurice Jackson and Charlene Mitchell delivered papers and spoke at the event. Sam Webb, Debbie Amis Bell and Daniel Rubin were among the estimated 250 individuals who attended the event.

References

Template:Reflist Template:Endorsers of the Conference on Perspectives for Democracy and Socialism in the 90s