Jimmie Lee Jackson

Jimmie Lee Jackson (December 16, 1938 – February 26, 1965) was an African American civil rights activist in Marion, Alabama, and a deacon in the Baptist church. On February 18, 1965, while unarmed and participating in a peaceful voting rights march in his city, he was beaten by troopers and fatally shot by an Alabama state trooper. Jackson died eight days later in the hospital.

His death helped inspire the Selma to Montgomery marches in March 1965, a major event in the civil rights movement that helped gain congressional passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This enabled millions of African Americans to vote in Alabama and across the Southern United States, regaining participation as citizens in the political system for the first time since the turn of the 20th century. Most had been disenfranchised since then by state constitutions and discriminatory practices that made voter registration and voting more difficult. Former trooper Fowler was indicted in 2007 in Jackson's death. In 2010, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter. He was sentenced to six months in prison.

Early life Jimmie Lee Jackson was born in 1938 in Marion, Alabama, the county seat of Perry County, to Jimmie Lee Jackson and Viola Jackson, a local farming family. They all belonged to the Baptist church. He was named after his father. After his father died when Jackson was 18 years old, he took over working on and managing the family farm. He also had a daughter.

Although many sources claim he was an army veteran, and some say that he served in the Vietnam War, his family disputes that he was ever in the military. (The first U.S. ground troops arrived in Vietnam on March 8, 1965, so it is improbable that Jackson served in that war, and claims that he served overseas are unattributed.)

Deacon and activist After moving back to his hometown from Indiana, Jackson worked as a laborer and a woodcutter, earning six dollars each day he worked. Among the marchers were Jackson, his 16-year-old sister, Emma Jean, mother, and maternal grandfather Cager Lee. It was not until 2005 that trooper James Bonard Fowler was publicly associated with the shooting. In an interview with The Anniston Star, he admitted to shooting Jackson, saying it was self-defense, as he thought Jackson was going for his gun. Before his death, Jackson was served with an arrest warrant by Col. Al Lingo, head of the Alabama State Police. The Alabama State Senate responded to national criticism and "formally denounced charges of dereliction by Lingo's Troopers in Marion." and what he witnessed leading up to (and after) the death of Jackson eight days later on February 26, 1965. Sister Michael Anne, an administrator at the hospital, later said there were powder burns on Jackson's abdomen, indicating that he was shot at very close range. He was buried in Heard Cemetery, an old slave burial ground, next to his father. His headstone was paid for by the Perry County Civic League. In the decades since, his headstone has been vandalized, bearing the marks of at least one shotgun blast.

In March 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced his federal bill to support voting rights by authorizing federal oversight of local practices and enforcement by the federal government; it was passed by Congress as the Voting Rights Act of 1965. After the act was passed, Jimmie Lee Jackson's grandfather Cager Lee, who had marched with him in February 1965 in Marion, registered and voted for the first time at the age of 84.

In 2015 the Marion to Selma Connecting Trail was designated to connect the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail with the site of Jackson's death.

Criminal charges against James Bonard Fowler A grand jury declined to indict Fowler in September 1965, identifying him only by his surname. As part of an effort to prosecute civil rights-era crimes, on May 10, 2007, 42 years after the crime, the recently elected District Attorney for Perry County charged Fowler on counts of first degree and second-degree murder for Jackson's death, and he surrendered to authorities. On November 15, 2010, Fowler pleaded guilty to manslaughter and apologized publicly for killing Jackson, expressing remorse. He said he had acted in self-defense. He was sentenced to six months in jail. Arguing that the sentence was too weak, Perry County commissioner Albert Turner, Jr., a civil rights leader, said the agreement was "a slap in the face of the people of this county".

Because of health problems requiring surgery, Fowler was released after serving five months.

In popular culture The 2014 drama film Selma depicts the events related to civil rights activities in the winter of 1965 in Selma and nearby jurisdictions, including Jackson's murder and the marches. Jimmie Lee Jackson was also portrayed in the 1999 film Selma, Lord, Selma which tells the story of Bloody Sunday through the eyes of 11-year-old Sheyann Webb.