----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Runoko Rashidi <[email protected]> To: Runoko Rashidi <[email protected]>; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] Sent: Thu, 1 April, 2010 15:08:29 Subject: [GlobalAfricanPresence] RUNOKO'S FOREWORD TO JOHN G. JACKSON'S BOOK PROFESSOR JOHN GLOVER JACKSON AND THE INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAN CIVILIZATIONS: A FOREWORD BY RUNOKO RASHIDI “This book is about the history of Africa from the origin of man to the present time. This is not just another book on African history. It is, in my opinion, one of the best books that has so far been written on this subject.” --John Henrik Clarke It gives me great pleasure to contribute the Foreword to the new edition of Introduction to African Civilizations. Both John G. Jackson and John Henrik Clark were icons to me, and major contributors to my life as a historian. Since Dr. Clarke has provided an excellent overview of the book in the Introduction, here I would like to try to put the work in a kind of context and provide a bit of biographical data on the men involved. John Glover Jackson, one of our greatest cultural historians, was born on April 1, 1907, in Aiken, South Carolina. Never short of cutting remarks, Jackson would sometimes say that “I was born on April Fool’s Day, and I’ve been a fool ever since!” Obviously, this was not the case. At the age of fifteen Jackson moved from South Carolina to Harlem, New York, where he entered Stuyvesant High School. During his student days he began to do historical research and was soon writing short essays about African-American history and culture. These essays were impressive enough that in 1925, while still a high school student, he was invited to write articles for Marcus Garvey’s newspaper, the Negro World. In addition to these growing activities as a writer, in 1930 Jackson became a lecturer at both the Ingersoll Forum and the Harlem Unitarian Church. Among his teachers and associates during this formative phase of his life were Hubert Henry Harrison (whom Jackson would later refer to as the “Black Socrates”), Arthur Alfonso Schomburg (the great bibliophile and founder of the Schomburg Library), Joel Augustus Rogers (a journalist and master historian who probably did more to popularize African history than any scholar of the twentieth century), and Dr. Willis Nathaniel Huggins (a chief mentor to both John G. Jackson and John Henrik Clarke). Willis Nathaniel Huggins, a little known figure today, but without whom Introduction to African Civilizations might never have been written, was born February 7, 1886, in Selma, Alabama. Huggins comes boldly to us as one of the most active African-American scholars and supporters of Ethiopia after its invasion and occupation by Italian fascists from 1935 to 1941. Indeed, beginning in 1935, Dr. Huggins was named executive director of the International Council of the Friends of Ethiopia and was commissioned to deliver an appeal on behalf of Ethiopia to the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. This is a critical and insufficiently documented phase in the saga of African people and Jackson was always anxious to point it out and discuss it. In 1932, Jackson became the Associate Director of the Blyden Society. Named after Edward Wilmot Blyden, one of the outstanding African-American leaders of the nineteenth century, the Blyden Society acted most gallantly as an Ethiopian support group. Among the very early and most talented students to come out of the Blyden Society was Dr. John Henrik Clarke. Professor Jackson had a remarkable memory, possessed a keen sense of humor, and enjoyed sharing his life story with those he thought could appreciate it. One mid-1980s afternoon in Chicago he told me that: “Rogers introduced me to Dr. Willis Nathaniel Huggins who had a B.A. from the University of Chicago, an M.A. from Columbia University, a Ph.D. from Fordham University, and he did historical research at Oxford University in England. Around 1932, Dr. Huggins established a little group to study African history at the Harlem YMCA. He called the group the Blyden Society. After Rogers introduced me, he asked me to join it. He was Director. He made me Associate Director. Among our students were Bayard Rustin and John Henrik Clarke. Rustin decided to pull out and join the communists. Clarke was writing poetry. He told me that I changed his life. He said that he was wasting his time writing poetry, which only a damn fool would write. Huggins and I told him that he should be a historian. He says that we put him on the right track.” In 1934, along with Dr. Huggins, Jackson wrote A Guide to the Study of African History: Directive Lists for Schools and Clubs. In 1937, the same team wrote An Introduction to African Civilizations with Main Currents in Ethiopian History. The latter work, a direct precursor of the present text, was actually published by the Blyden Society. According to Jackson biographer Larry Crowe, “Huggins would also open what some think to be the first Black book store in Harlem, The Blyden Book Store on 7th Avenue.” John Jackson lived in New York for five decades. Although these were exceptionally arduous years for him, with race-prejudice, poverty and illness his regular companions, he continued to produce well-researched, informative and provocative texts. In 1939 he authored Ethiopia and the Origin of Civilization, and Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth in 1941. His discerning literary contributions to The Truthseeker Magazine were published regularly from 1930 until 1955. In addition to Introduction to African Civilizations and his works with Dr. Huggins, Jackson authored several major books, including Man, God, and Civilization, Christianity Before Christ, and Ages of Gold and Silver. I first read Introduction to African Civilizations in 1978 during a trip to Mexico. I was young and enthusiastic, and this was my first big international trip. Although the trip itself was poorly planned, I managed to salvage it because I brought along Jackson’s book. Soon, I became enraptured by it. With Dr. Chancellor James Williams’ Destruction of Black Civilizations and the Malcolm X Speaks anthology it became a critical text in my career as a historian. John G. Jackson showed that African people were a global people, and that the history of the African did not begin as a servant and slave. Psychologically, at least, Jackson’s work helped liberate me as a human being. John G. Jackson taught and lectured at colleges and universities throughout the United States, including City College of New York and Northeastern University. I met professor Jackson for the first time in 1982 while working at Compton College. I remember him as a large, elderly, light-complexioned Black man who spoke with a deep booming voice. It was my job at the college to develop cultural awareness programs and bring in guest speakers. Getting professor Jackson was one of my first big triumphs, and I believe that it was one of his only lectures given in California. His lecture was memorable, but what I most vividly recall were our private conversations, sometimes during meals, other times hunting in used book stores, and still other times just strolling around campus. After our initial encounter, we spent many hours in person and on the phone dissecting history, scholarship, politics, and much more. John Glover Jackson died in Chicago, Illinois in October 1993. The twilight years of his life were spent in a nursing home in South Side Chicago. He remains one of my great heroes. __._,_.___ Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1) Recent Activity: Visit Your Group MARKETPLACE Do More for Dogs Group. Connect with other dog owners who do more. ________________________________ Welcome to Mom Connection! Share stories, news and more with moms like you. ________________________________ Hobbies & Activities Zone: Find others who share your passions! Explore new interests. Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use . __,_._,___ -- Sending your posting to [email protected] Unsubscribe by sending an email to [email protected] You can also visit http://groups.google.com/group/payco Visit our website at www.mayihlome.wordpress.com To unsubscribe, reply using "remove me" as the subject.
