Early Years and Career
Giles Beecher Jackson was born September 10, 1853, one of four children of Hulda and James Jackson. During Jackson's formative years, the family lived in Goochland County. Little is known of his father, but, because his mother was enslaved, by law he and his siblings were born into slavery. During the Civil War, Jackson became the body servant of his owner, Charles G. Dickerson, a Confederate cavalry colonel. After the war, he worked for the Stewart family on the Brook Hill estate in Richmond, where he learned to read and write. On November 17, 1874, Jackson married Sarah Ellen Wallace, and together they had fourteen children. Jackson studied law under the tutelage of the Richmond attorney William H. Beveridge, and on November 30, 1887, he became the first African American certified to practice law before the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals—in its day, the equivalent of passing the bar.
In 1888 Jackson wrote the articles of incorporation for the Savings Bank of the Grand Fountain of the United Order of True Reformers, of which he was a member. The bank was rooted in the tradition of the benevolent societies and fraternal organizations of the era. By 1907 membership had reached 100,000 with deposits of $330,000 and more than $1.5 million in annual business. Booker T. Washington selected Jackson as his aide-de-camp in 1900 when Washington organized the Negro Business League in Boston. Jackson served as a vice president during the organization's first three years.
In 1901, United States president Theodore Roosevelt commissioned Jackson an honorary colonel and Jackson participated in the presidential inaugural parade. In time for his second inaugural parade in 1905, Roosevelt renewed the commission and for the occasion Jackson commanded the Third Civic Division, an African American cavalry unit.
Jamestown Ter-Centennial
The NDEC set up a national board of directors that included both black and white members, and in 1903 President Roosevelt appointed Jackson its director general. The group lobbied Congress for $1.2 million but instead received $100,000 from the Treasury Department; in the meantime, critics charged that Jackson's effort to create a separate exhibit at the Ter-Centennial only emphasized African Americans' position in a segregated society. Jackson defended and publicized the venture in his newspaper the Negro Criterion, which also promoted black business in general. In addition, Roosevelt proved to be an important advocate. In a public appearance in front of Jackson's law office in Richmond, the president, addressing Jackson, congratulated "you and your people on the magnificent showing you have made in your development. I am with you. I assure you and your people that you have my hearty support in the efforts you are making to have a creditable exhibit of the achievements of your race and I commend you in the effort you are making for the betterment of the condition of your race."
Later Years
During World War I (1914–1918), Jackson was appointed chief of the Negro Division of the U.S. Employment Service in Washington, D.C., serving until June 30, 1919. He spent the last four years of his life lobbying Congress on behalf of a commission to address interracial labor problems and, more generally, the working conditions of African Americans. Although both U.S. presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge expressed support for such a commission, they took no action. Separate bills were introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in May 1920, December 1923, and June 1924 and in the U.S. Senate, and Jackson testified on behalf of the Senate bill on May 24, 1924. None of the bills passed, however, and Jackson became ill while attending the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, in June 1924. He died on August 13, 1924.
Time Line
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September 10, 1853 - Giles Beecher Jackson is born into slavery in Goochland County.
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November 17, 1874 - Giles B. Jackson marries Sarah Ellen Wallace. The couple will have fourteen children.
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November 30, 1887 - Giles B. Jackson becomes the first African American certified to argue before the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.
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1888 - Giles B. Jackson writes the articles of incorporation for the Savings Bank of the Grand Fountain of the United Order of True Reformers.
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1900 - Booker T. Washington selects Giles B. Jackson as his aide-de-camp when Washington organizes the Negro Business League in Boston.
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1901 - President Theodore Roosevelt commissions the honorary title of colonel on Giles B. Jackson when Jackson participates in the presidential inaugural parade.
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March 1902 - Governor Andrew Jackson Montague charters the Jamestown Exposition Company to organize an event for the three-hundredth anniversary of the founding of Jamestown by English settlers. Giles B. Jackson heads the Negro Development and Exposition Company of the United States of America, which will feature a Negro Building at the tercentennial.
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April 16–December 1, 1907 - The Jamestown Ter-Centennial Exposition attracts three million visitors, and at least 750,000 of them visit the Negro Building.
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May 15, 1920 - U.S. representative Caleb R. Layton of Delaware introduces a bill "to create A Negro industrial commission" in an effort to ameliorate interracial labor disputes and promote better working and living conditions for blacks.
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March 15, 1921 - Giles B. Jackson writes to President Warren G. Harding requesting a recommendation to Congress to establish the Negro Industrial Commission.
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May 24, 1924 - Giles B. Jackson testifies before a U.S. Senate subcommittee to promote the establishment of a Negro Industrial Commission.
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August 13, 1924 - Giles B. Jackson dies of cardiac asthma complicated with acute nephritis.
References
Further Reading
Cite This Entry
- APA Citation:
Lee, L. Giles B. Jackson (1853–1924). (2014, March 23). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.EncyclopediaVirginia.org/Jackson_Giles_B_1853-1924.
- MLA Citation:
Lee, Lauranett. "Giles B. Jackson (1853–1924)." Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 23 Mar. 2014. Web. READ_DATE.
First published: April 13, 2010 | Last modified: March 23, 2014