On this day in Alabama history: Longtime Birmingham World editor died
Emory O. Jackson, right, joined the NAACP in Birmingham after his service in the U.S. Army during World War II. His civil rights movement activities focused on registering African-American voters and making changes in law through federal courts and the state Legislature. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Birmingham Civil Rights Institute)
September 10, 1975
Emory Overton Jackson was born in Buena Vista, Georgia on Sept. 8, 1908 and grew up in Enon Ridge, a black middle-class Birmingham neighborhood near Birmingham-Southern College. He graduated from Atlanta’s Morehouse College, where he served as student government president and school newspaper editor. After a few years teaching high school English and coaching, Jackson joined the Birmingham World as a book reviewer and sports writer. He became the editor in 1941, advocating for civil rights and social justice in his syndicated column, “The Tip Off.” During the civil rights era, Jackson broke ranks with the Revs. Martin Luther King Jr. and Fred Shuttlesworth over mass demonstrations. Jackson believed nonviolent action would lead only to short-term gains and that registering voters and amassing political power was the blueprint for success. Jackson edited The Birmingham World until Sept. 10, 1975, when he died at the age of 67.
Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.
Civil rights leaders Emory O. Jackson, left, and Benjamin Mays, who was a mentor to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. before the modern civil rights movement. Jackson, a voting rights activist and editor of the Birmingham World, founded the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Birmingham Civil Rights Institute)
For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.
