James Edward Jackson, Jr.

James Edward Jackson Jr. (November 29, 1914 – September 1, 2007) was an American civil rights activist and official in the Communist Party USA. He was also a defendant in Dennis v. United States.

Early life Jackson's parents were James Jackson Sr. and Clara Kersey Jackson. James Sr. was a Howard University graduate and businessman who was the second pharmacist in the history of Richmond. Clara also attended Howard, studying music as part of one of the Brown's first classes accepting women. On December 14, 1905, Clara and James married each other.

Jackson was born on November 29, 1914, in the Jackson Ward of Richmond, Virginia. Of his five siblings—two dying as children, his sister was Alice Jackson Stuart, who went on to become an educator. He was raised in a progressive environment, with him present as his members of his community planned protests in the back room of his father's pharmacy. He read W. E. B. Du Bois growing up, including his newspaper column As the Crow Flies in The Crisis. At the ceremony for the rank, Virginia Governor John Garland Pollard tossed the badge at Jackson, as opposed to the handshakes he gave the white Scouts. Following the event, he requested to James E. West that the Scouts be desegregated, and resigned from the organization when his request was denied.

He also studied pharmacology at Howard University, where cofounded the Southern Negro Youth Congress and served as its Executive Director.

Career

Jackson was a founding member of the National Negro Congress, having attended its February 1936 conference in Chicago.

Following the war, Jackson and Esther moved to Louisiana. There, he chaired the Communist Party of Louisiana. During their trials, Esther established the James E. Jackson Defense Committee. Following Yates v. United States in 1957, all indictments were unanimously reversed in the court of appeals in 1958. He attended 21st Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1959. He was questioned by authorities upon his return, and he pled the Fifth Amendment 88 times. In 1962, he and fellow CPUSA member Philip Bart were sentenced to six month of jail for contempt of court in a trial against Benjamin J. Davis Jr. and Gus Hall.

Later life and death Jackson retired following the Communist Party's split in 1991.