In the Classroom

James Jackson, by trade a chemist, by choice a revolutionary

James Jackson with Ho Chi Minh (Courtesy of People’s World)

By HERB BOYD

Special to the AmNews

Esther Cooper Jackson was not profiled in this column last week but the paper did feature her obituary, with scant mention of her devoted husband, James E. Jackson Jr. Together they were a dauntless duo in the fight for freedom and to overcome political and social oppression.

When he died in 2007 a gaggle of daily newspapers gladly noted his passing, giving him the kind of coverage he did not receive when he was alive and an active member of the Communist Party. Unless, of course, they were reporting on his indictment for violating the Smith Act, and teaching classes on revolution and how to overthrow the government.

But that inaccurate accusation and incident in 1951 runs ahead of our story on Jackson and his adventurous life among members committed to the civil and human rights struggle.

He was born in Richmond, Va. on Nov. 29, 1914. His father was a pharmacist and they lived in a section of the city called Jackson Ward, set aside for African Americans. Jackson was 16 in 1931 when he entered Virginia Union University. Three years later he graduated with a degree in chemistry. In 1937, he received a degree in pharmacy from Howard University. It was during his final year at Howard that he joined with others to found the Southern Negro Youth Congress (SNYC). One of the central concerns the organization had was aiding the Black women in their strike against the tobacco companies, who paid them only $5 a week. He was there as a union representing the striking workers gradually gained national recognition.

The labor movement in the South was certainly a key issue in 1959 when Jackson wrote that the task before them “was to undertake, without further delay the job of organizing the unorganized southern workers in both industry and agriculture with particular emphasis on workers in the textile and lumber industries and on the cotton plantations.” This is from an essay that’s included in his book “Revolutionary Tracings in World Politics and Black Liberation.”

Several of the essays in the book chronicle Jackson’s intrepid activism as he roamed from the South to the North and then globally. Even in the late 1930s he was part of a team of researchers assisting Gunnar Myrdal in his monumental study, which was titled “An American Dilemma” in 1944. A few years before while he was working in Nashville at Fisk University he met and they married in 1941.

Ten years later, after serving in the military, in 1951, when the McCarthy witch hunts were fully on the move, he was one of 21 Communist Party members indicted for their revolutionary activism. Most of them were convicted and imprisoned but Jackson and five others fled and went into hiding and did not see his family for more than five years. When at last he surrendered in 1956 he and his comrades were convicted of conspiracy. A year before, as he awaited trial, Jackson charged in a speech in front of the Federal Courthouse: “I believe that my action today, in taking into court and before the bar of public opinion the question of my own indictment under the fascist-like Smith Act law, will have the sympathy and support of all who have a regard for justice and a concern for their own liberty.” In 1956, the Supreme Court ruled in the Yates decision that the Smith Act required more than the teaching and advocacy of an abstract doctrine that the government should be overthrown “by force or violence.” The appeals court overturned the convictions, which in effect ruled that the government failed to prove defendants had urged people “to do something” rather than “believe in something.”

After this period of turmoil and pressure from the government because of his political beliefs, Jackson resumed his aggressive activism both as a leader in the Communist Party and engagement in the Civil Rights Movement. Both he and his wife were prominent supporters of the Free Angela Davis campaign, assuring their comrade’s fight for freedom.

Jackson was one of the last writers to interview Ho Chi Minh before his death in 1969. “One of his last political acts,” Jackson said of the great Vietnamese leader, “was to address a greeting of the Communist Party of the United States on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. He applauded the struggles of the working class, Black liberation, and peace forces in our country and expressed confidence in the triumph of their sacred cause.” What he said of Ho are fitting words for his own remarkable commitment and an epitaph noting his passage among us.

ACTIVITIES

FIND OUT MORE

The essays in “Revolutionary Tracings” provided a veritable timetable of events in his life.

DISCUSSION

We wonder how being a communist impacted his military experience.

PLACE IN CONTEXT

Jackson came of age in the turbulent 1930s and settled comfortably in the tumultuous 1960s. He lived to see the comparatively calm ’80s and ’90s.

THIS WEEK IN BLACK HISTORY

Sept. 4, 1981: Grammy Award winning singer Beyoncé Knowles was born in Houston, Texas.

Sept. 4, 1908: Black writer Richard Wright was born in Roxie, Miss. He died in 1960.

Sept. 4, 1957: Nine Black students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School. It prompted Gov. Orval Faubus to order the National Guard to the school.

even with top doctors at Columbia Hospital, Bichotte Hermelyn said she didn’t have the same kind of access, information, care, or proper treatment regardless of her socioeconomic status as a political figure. “Racism is real,” said Bichotte Hermelyn.

Bichotte Hermelyn recounted that she was experiencing high preterm labor where her baby was “bulging out” when two white female nurses told her that her bed was needed and that staff could either terminate the baby or she could leave. “There was no compassion, no need to retain me in the hospital to monitor me,” said Bichotte Hermelyn. She said she was surrounded by two other Black women who were expecting and also in distress. Eventually, she went to a local safety net hospital. She said the second hospital showed her love and support.

Unfortunately, her son didn’t make it.

The maltreatment she experienced in her first pregnancy inspired her to create the Jonah Bichotte Cowan Law (S8525A /A2770C), which requires hospitals to treat people in preterm labor and not send the patients away. It was signed into law by former Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2020. The law is named after the memory of her son, Jonah Bichotte Cowan.

This week, Mayor Eric Adams signed seven bills into laws that addressed racial disparities in maternal health, affecting Black women and birthing people on Tuesday. Speaker Adrienne Adams and other officials were present at the signing of the legislative package.

“For those who choose it, motherhood can be tough—physically, medically, psychologically. I’ve seen firsthand the resilience of mothers: my mother gave birth to six children,” said Mayor Adams in a statement. “Today, we are making sure all expecting families have access to health care when they need it most, no matter the color of their skin, their income bracket, or where they live.”

Speaker Adams said that the city is finally taking steps to acknowledge the horrifying lived experiences that have endangered too many lives with concrete policy actions. She said that maternal health is a “social justice issue” that is a matter of life or death for many women and birthing people in the city and country. She was proud that the historically diverse and women-majority City Council prioritized this issue to reduce the severe inequities faced by Black, Latino, and indigenous people in receiving equitable care.

The new bundle of laws establishes a public education program about “respectful care at birth” and a right to be free from pregnancy-related discrimination, improves access to data, expands doula training services, and requires a report on the prevalence of c-sections that may be tied to an increase in maternal mortality and severe morbidity.

“Birth equity is a social justice issue—and it’s one that’s especially urgent and deadly in New York City,” said Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams, who sponsored one of the bills. “This public health crisis is both under-acknowledged and under-addressed, but today, City Council will take invaluable and concrete steps to protect pregnant people in New York City.”

Williams also advocated for the federal government to pass and enact the Momnibus Act.

Bichotte Hermelyn said for her current pregnancy she has a doula to advocate for her and is happy about the new laws from the city council on maternal health.

Bichotte Hermelyn just got accepted into law school. In the near future, she plans on continuing her education, an externship, taking care of her newborn, and maintaining her legislative duties whenever there’s a session. She wants to take a mixture of virtual and in person classes, and have her husband, Edu Hermelyn in the Mayor’s Office, assist her with breastfeeding.

“We’re putting a whole system in place so I have a designated place where I can pump,” said Bichotte Hermelyn.

Organizations like MomsRising are raising awareness around ‘Black Breastfeeding Week’ to promote breastfeeding among hard working Black moms, who are least likely to breastfeed because of the demands of their jobs or affordability.

Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about culture and politics in New York City for The Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting: https://tinyurl.com/fcszwj8w

Times Square

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debate and demand for political action on gun control. The Bruen ruling also nearly coincided with the massively unpopular Supreme Court decision not to codify legal abortion rights by overturning Roe v. Wade in June.

In a heated response to the Supreme Court, the city and state passed new gun laws designed to increase public safety and legal gun ownership. The state’s new law, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, requires people carrying licensed and concealed weapons to be eligible, complete a 16 hour firearms training course, and have two hours of fire practice. The Associated Press reported that gun carriers will have to provide a list of social media accounts as part of the background check to weed out domestic terrorist or potential mass shooters.

In addition to Times Square, these gun free zones will be on public transit, entertainment venues, bars and restaurants, polling sites, houses of worship, schools and colleges, daycares and summer camps, playgrounds, parks, zoos, libraries, government buildings, courthouses, hospitals, and emergency or homeless shelters.

Official gun free zone signs will be posted at other “sensitive locations” in the near future, said the mayor’s office.

“While the Supreme Court works to make it harder to keep guns under control, Mayor Adams, Governor Hochul and the state legislature are taking steps to protect New Yorkers in sensitive areas of our city,” said Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine in a statement. “The simple fact is the fewer guns on our street the safer everybody will be, and we must continue to work to better control all guns in this country. But I’m proud of the work the mayor and state legislature have done to restrict conceal carry weapons, and to educate New Yorkers about a law that will undoubtedly help keep people safe.”

Only two shootings were reported by the Midtown South Precinct this year, with both occurring several blocks south of Times Squares’ traditionally established parameters, according to the NYPD’s CompStat database. So with higher rates of gun violence around town, why focus on Times Square?

“This legislation is focused on legal guns—there’s already huge efforts to prevent and mitigate illegal guns in the city,” said John Jay College of Criminal Justice Prof. Keith Taylor. “The complication, from the city’s perspective, is that more guns in highly populated areas, lends itself to more opportunity for accidental gun casualties to take place while a civilian is legally using their weapon to defend themselves.”

“A gun fight in Times Square when that takes place, you have innocents that can get hit all around and that’s the last thing you want. If somebody gets shot in Times Square, even if it’s an individual who is lawfully defending themselves against crime taking place, that’s international news.”

Last year, bystanders were caught in the crossfire due to a pair of Times Square shootings. In March 2021, three people including a 4-year-old girl were hit by stray bullets. Three months later, a 21-year-old Marine was inadvertently shot during an argument between street vendors.

According to Times Square’s official website, upwards to 450,000 people visit on the busiest days. Adams says he was losing sleep over the possibility that some were bringing in guns, legal or not, to the tourist hub.

“I never thought from the days of watching cowboy movies as a child, leave your gun at the door would become a reality in the state of New York,” he said. “And it was a challenging time when we saw the Bruen decision handed down. I remember speaking with the governor and she immediately moved into action and stated that we were not going to wait until this terrible, terrible Supreme Court decision created a state of havoc in our city.”

Ariama C. Long and Tandy Lau are Report for America corps members and write for New York City’s The Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep them writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting: https://tinyurl. com/fcszwj8w

Harlem

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and our residents as well as culturally relevant training and expertise is missing. There is no reason for a resident that hasn’t committed a crime to be treated like a criminal. I am deeply saddened by the excessive force used by Officer Kinsey.”

Additionally, Richardson Jordan recommended an elected civilian review board independent of the CCRB should exist to handle such a case. Members would be voted in by the communities rather than picked by governing officials.

On Wednesday afternoon, the National Action Network rallied outside the 32nd Precinct to condemn the NYPD’s actions. On Friday evening, another protest was held outside the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building by police watchdog Copwatch Patrol Unit (CPU).

“We want to make sure that this is not swept under the rug, we want to make sure that Det. Kinsey is held accountable for his action,” said CPU founder Jose LaSalle. “Not just losing vacation pay, we want him fired, we want him prosecuted.”

“And for the mayor to come out there to say that these officers restrained himself is a disrespect to the community that they’re supposed to serve. Because if that’s what you call restraint, then we have a problem.”

Kinsey’s stepmother Carmen Quinones feels like the media coverage mischaracterizes him and maintains he did not punch Crum.

“Our people need to learn that everybody is not the same,” she said. “You can’t treat everybody the same. And they need to respect the police. They’re the first ones you call, it’s the police department. So they’re out there trying to do their job.”

According to the 32nd Precinct’s official Facebook page, the Bronx-born Kinsey is a veteran who “left the Marines on a Friday and was sworn in as a New York City police officer the following Monday.” According to ProPublica’s NYPD Files, there were three complaints holding six separate allegations made against him as a police officer, with two substantiated.

Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps members and writes for New York City’s The Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting: https://tinyurl.com/fcszwj8w