Alexander L. Jackson

Alexander Louis Jackson II (March 1, 1891 – October 21, 1973) was an African American business owner and civic leader. Active in the Black community of Chicago's South Side, Jackson was the executive secretary of the Wabash Avenue YMCA, a co-founder of the Chicago Urban League, and general manager of The Chicago Defender. He also helped found the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History along with Carter G. Woodson in 1916.

Early life and education

Alexander Louis Jackson II was born on March 1, 1891, in Englewood, New Jersey. He was the son of Alexander Louis Jackson and Evelyn Martha (Lewis) Jackson.

He attended Englewood High School. After graduating from Harvard in 1914, Jackson took a job as Student YMCA Secretary, working under Jesse E. Moorland and Channing Heggie Tobias in Washington, D.C. The next year he was transferred to become Executive Secretary of the Wabash Avenue YMCA in Chicago. Along with Carter Woodson, George Cleveland Hall, James E. Stamps, and William B. Hartgrove, Jackson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in September 1916; it would later change its name to the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. During the Chicago race riot of 1919, he set up emergency pay stations for Black workers, who were cut off from resources by the police and white rioters. He served in many other organization leadership roles, including as director of the Chicago Council of Social Agencies and director of the Illinois League to Enforce Peace. He married his third wife, Marie Poston, in 1968. In the 1940s, Jackson lived in the Bronzeville neighborhood at 4655 South Michigan Avenue.

He died in Chicago on October 21, 1973.