Esther Cooper Jackson
Encyclopedia
Esther Cooper Jackson is an African American civil rights activist, former social worker and, along with Shirley Graham Du Bois
, W. E. B. Du Bois, Edward Strong, and Louis E. Burnham, was one of the founding editors of the magazine Freedomways
, a theoretical, political and literary journal published from 1961 to 1985. She was married to James E. Jackson (1914–2007), an influential labor activist.
and to earn a Masters degree in sociology from Fisk University
in 1940.
Of her upbringing and family, Jackson recounted:
After graduate school, Jackson became a member of the staff of the Voting Project in Birmingham, Alabama
for the Southern Negro Youth Congress
. While working with SNYC she met her future husband James E. Jackson. In an interview with Ian Rocksborough-Smith in 2004, Jackson explained that her husband James Jackson and the SNYC had in 1937 helped tobacco workers in Virginia
successfully agitate for an 8 hour day and pay increases. The tobacco workers held the first strike in Virginia since 1905, and their gains, according to C. Alvin Hughes, "helped SNYC earn a following among the black working class in the South". Originally intending only to stay for one summer, Jackson remained in Alabama for seven years, engaged in the struggle to bring down Jim Crow segregation.
In 1952, she moved to New York City
.
and Derek Walcott
, articles by African leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah
, Julius K. Nyerere, Agostinho Neto
, and Jomo Kenyatta
and Caribbean leftists like C. L. R. James
, as well as African American authors such as James Baldwin
, Alice Walker
, Paul Robeson
, Nikki Giovanni
, and Lorraine Hansberry
. The most prominent African American artists like Jacob Lawrence
, Romare Bearden
, and Elizabeth Catlett
contributed cover art gratis to support the magazine, which was read worldwide. The magazine, uniting the Southern and Northern US civil rights struggles of the 1960s with an international viewpoint taking in Pan-Africanism
and other cultural and political currents, is often viewed as a precursor of the Black Arts Movement
.
Shirley Graham Du Bois
Shirley Graham Du Bois was an American-born author, playwright, composer, and activist for African-American and other causes, as well as spouse of noted African-American thinker, writer, and activist W. E. B...
, W. E. B. Du Bois, Edward Strong, and Louis E. Burnham, was one of the founding editors of the magazine Freedomways
Freedomways
Freedomways was the leading African-American theoretical, political and cultural journal of the 1960s-1980s. It began publishing in 1961 and ceased in 1985....
, a theoretical, political and literary journal published from 1961 to 1985. She was married to James E. Jackson (1914–2007), an influential labor activist.
Life
Jackson came from a family active in their community. Throughout Esther's youth, her mother served as President of the Arlington branch of the NAACP and was involved in the struggle for civil rights, particularly in efforts to achieve equality in the quality of children's education. Esther attended segregated schools as a child but went on to study at Oberlin CollegeOberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
and to earn a Masters degree in sociology from Fisk University
Fisk University
Fisk University is an historically black university founded in 1866 in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. The world-famous Fisk Jubilee Singers started as a group of students who performed to earn enough money to save the school at a critical time of financial shortages. They toured to raise funds to...
in 1940.
Of her upbringing and family, Jackson recounted:
After graduate school, Jackson became a member of the staff of the Voting Project in Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
for the Southern Negro Youth Congress
Southern Negro Youth Congress
The Southern Negro Youth Congress was established in 1937 at a conference in Richmond, Virginia. The first gathering of the Southern Negro Youth Congress consisted of a wide range of individuals...
. While working with SNYC she met her future husband James E. Jackson. In an interview with Ian Rocksborough-Smith in 2004, Jackson explained that her husband James Jackson and the SNYC had in 1937 helped tobacco workers in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
successfully agitate for an 8 hour day and pay increases. The tobacco workers held the first strike in Virginia since 1905, and their gains, according to C. Alvin Hughes, "helped SNYC earn a following among the black working class in the South". Originally intending only to stay for one summer, Jackson remained in Alabama for seven years, engaged in the struggle to bring down Jim Crow segregation.
In 1952, she moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Freedomways
In New York, Jackson became managing editor of Freedomways, which she would call "a tool for the liberation of our people." Freedomways was a globally influential political, arts and intellectual journal which published international poets such as Pablo NerudaPablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name after Czech poet Jan Neruda....
and Derek Walcott
Derek Walcott
Derek Alton Walcott, OBE OCC is a Saint Lucian poet, playwright, writer and visual artist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 and the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2011 for White Egrets. His works include the Homeric epic Omeros...
, articles by African leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah
Kwame Nkrumah
Kwame Nkrumah was the leader of Ghana and its predecessor state, the Gold Coast, from 1952 to 1966. Overseeing the nation's independence from British colonial rule in 1957, Nkrumah was the first President of Ghana and the first Prime Minister of Ghana...
, Julius K. Nyerere, Agostinho Neto
Agostinho Neto
António Agostinho Neto served as the first President of Angola , leading the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola in the war for independence and the civil war...
, and Jomo Kenyatta
Jomo Kenyatta
Jomo Kenyattapron.] served as the first Prime Minister and President of Kenya. He is considered the founding father of the Kenyan nation....
and Caribbean leftists like C. L. R. James
C. L. R. James
Cyril Lionel Robert James , who sometimes wrote under the pen-name J.R. Johnson, was an Afro-Trinidadian historian, journalist, socialist theorist and essayist. His works are influential in various theoretical, social, and historiographical contexts...
, as well as African American authors such as James Baldwin
James Baldwin
James Baldwin was an American novelist, essayist and civil rights activist.James Baldwin may also refer to:-Writers:*James Baldwin , American educator, writer and administrator...
, Alice Walker
Alice Walker
Alice Malsenior Walker is an American author, poet, and activist. She has written both fiction and essays about race and gender...
, Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
, Nikki Giovanni
Nikki Giovanni
Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni is an American poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator. Her primary focus is on the individual and the power one has to make a difference in oneself and in the lives of others. Giovanni’s poetry expresses strong racial pride, respect for family, and her...
, and Lorraine Hansberry
Lorraine Hansberry
Lorraine Hansberry was an African American playwright and author of political speeches, letters, and essays...
. The most prominent African American artists like Jacob Lawrence
Jacob Lawrence
Jacob Lawrence was an American painter; he was married to fellow artist Gwendolyn Knight. Lawrence referred to his style as "dynamic cubism", though by his own account the primary influence was not so much French art as the shapes and colors of Harlem.Lawrence is among the best-known twentieth...
, Romare Bearden
Romare Bearden
Romare Bearden was an African American artist and writer. He worked in several media including cartoons, oils, and collage.-Education:...
, and Elizabeth Catlett
Elizabeth Catlett
Elizabeth Catlett Mora is an African-American sculptor and printmaker. Catlett is best known for the black, expressionistic sculptures and prints she produced during the 1960s and 1970s, which are seen as politically charged....
contributed cover art gratis to support the magazine, which was read worldwide. The magazine, uniting the Southern and Northern US civil rights struggles of the 1960s with an international viewpoint taking in Pan-Africanism
Pan-Africanism
Pan-Africanism is a movement that seeks to unify African people or people living in Africa, into a "one African community". Differing types of Pan-Africanism seek different levels of economic, racial, social, or political unity...
and other cultural and political currents, is often viewed as a precursor of the Black Arts Movement
Black Arts Movement
The Black Arts Movement or BAM is the artistic branch of the Black Power movement. It was started in Harlem by writer and activist Amiri Baraka...
.
Works
- The Negro woman domestic worker in relation to trade unionism, Fisk University, 1940
- This is my husband: fighter for his people, political refugee, National Committee to Defend Negro Leadership, 1953
- Esther Cooper Jackson and Constance Pohl, Freedomways Reader: Prophets in Their Own Country. Interventions—theory and contemporary politics (Boulder: Westview Press, 2000)
Further reading
- Dayo GoreDayo GoreDayo Gore is an African American feminist scholar, former fellow of Harvard's Warren Center for North American History, currently employed as Assistant Professor of History and of Women's Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst...
, Jeanne Theoharis, Komozi Woodard, Want to Start a Revolution?: Radical Women in the Black Freedom Struggle (New York: NYU Press, 2009) - Michael Nash, African-American Communists and the Origins of the Modern Civil Rights Movement (Routledge, 2009)