Joseph H. Jackson

Joseph H. Jackson
Born	1900 Rudyard, Mississippi
Died	August 1990 (aged 90) Chicago, Illinois
Occupation	Baptist Pastor, Denominational leader

Joseph Harrison Jackson (1900 – August 1990) was an American pastor and the longest serving President of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s was highly controversial in many black churches, where the minister preached spiritual salvation rather than political activism. The National Baptist Convention became deeply split; Jackson had supported the Montgomery bus boycott of 1956, but by 1960 he told his denomination they should not become involved in civil rights activism. Jackson was based in Chicago and was a close ally of Mayor Richard J. Daley and the Chicago Democratic machine against the efforts of Martin Luther King, Jr.. In the end, Jackson prevailed. Yet, surprisingly, it was a former son of Olivet [pastored by J. H. Jackson] L. Venchael Booth, whom Jackson would later install as pastor of First Baptist Church of Gary in September 1944, who issued the founding call for what became a rival group, Progressive National Baptist Convention. The PNBC became the "household of the civil rights movement among Black Baptists," and the frontline supporters of the extensive activism of the King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Jackson's vocal stance for "civil rights through law and order" went in direct opposition to the methods of civil disobedience advocated by King.

Jackson grew up on a farm near Rudyard, Mississippi where he taught himself spelling, reading, and arithmetic while working in the pasture and completing chores. He began preaching at a young age in the rural Coahoma and Bolivar Counties in Mississippi. He pursued a bachelor's degree from Jackson College, which later became Jackson State University. He went on to receive a bachelor of divinity from Colgate-Rochester Divinity School and a master's of education from Creighton University. He also completed advanced masters work in theology at the University of Chicago. Jackson received honorary degrees from Wilberforce University, the College of Monrovia, and Jackson State University.

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