Shelby M. Jackson
| Shelby Marion Jackson | |
|---|---|
Jackson in one of his 1963 political advertisements
|
|
| Louisiana Superintendent of Education | |
|
In office 1948 – May 1964 |
|
| Preceded by | John E. Coxe |
| Succeeded by | William Joseph "Bill" Dodd |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
November 20, 1903 Concordia Parish, Louisiana, USA |
| Died | January 25, 1972 (age 68) |
| Resting place | Scott Cemetery in Monterey, Louisiana |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Phoebe Steele Jackson |
| Children | Patricia Diana Jackson |
| Alma mater | Louisiana State University |
| Occupation | Educator |
Shelby Marion Jackson (November 20, 1903 – January 25, 1972) was a Democrat who served from 1948 to 1964 as the superintendent of public education in Louisiana. In the early 1960s, Jackson tried in vain to block federally authorized school desegregation. Jackson was posthumously honored in 1994 by the naming of the "Shelby M. Jackson Memorial Campus" of Louisiana Technical College in Ferriday.
Jackson was a native of rural Monterey in Concordia Parish in eastern Louisiana. He held both Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.
A former educator, Jackson was elected four times as his state's school superintendent. In his first election in 1948, Jackson ran on the unsuccessful Sam Houston Jones gubernatorial slate but he managed to unseat the two-term incumbent superintendent, John E. Coxe, who in 1940 had defeated the 32-year superintendent T H Harris. Upon reelection in 1944, when he defeated fellow Democrat L. E. Frazier, Coxe claimed to have "stopped the Sam Jones machine in its effort to seize control of the schools."
In 1956, Jackson defeated two primary rivals to gain his third term as superintendent. In his last reelection on April 17, 1960, he overwhelmed the first Republican ever to seek the superintendency, Donald Emerich, a professor at Centenary College in Shreveport. Jackson polled 86.7 percent of the two-party vote, to Emerich's 13.3 percent. Jackson became well-known politically through his tenure as superintendent. For sixteen years, every child's report card in the state bore Jackson's stenciled signature. By the end of his fourth term as superintendent, the state had gained 340,000 more pupils than it had in 1948.
...
Wikipedia