Jackson, A.B.

Alexander Brooks Jackson, whose mother was British and father was African -American, grew up in New Haven, Connecticut. As a child, Jackson suffered from asthma, causing much of his youth to be spent indoors with the company of pencil and paper. He showed an early proclivity towards drawing, and when asked to create a portrait of ‘an outstanding person’ during his senior year in high school he chose William Lyons Phelps, a professor at Yale University. Jackson’s father, A. B. Jackson Sr, was a porter (a position colloquially referred to as ‘red cap’) for the New Haven Railroad Station. Under this employment, Jackson Sr frequently encountered Professor Phelps during Phelps’ daily commute to Yale, and gave him the portrait A. B. junior had drawn. Phelps responded with praise and proceeded to arrange an interview for A. B. Jackson, Jr. with the dean of Yale’s Art School. Jackson submitted a portfolio, was accepted, and entered the School of Fine Arts in September, 1946. He eventually became one of the first African-Americans to graduate from Yale's fine arts program, earning a Jackson’s father, A. B. Jackson Sr, was a porter (a position colloquially referred to as ‘red cap’) for the New Haven Railroad Station. Under this employment, Jackson Sr frequently encountered Professor Phelps during Phelps’ daily commute to Yale, and gave him the portrait A. B. junior had drawn. Phelps responded with praise and proceeded to arrange an interview for A. B. Jackson, Jr. with the dean of Yale’s Art School. Jackson submitted a portfolio, was accepted, and entered the School of Fine Arts in September, 1946, a BFA in 1953 and a Masters in Graphic Arts in 1955, after studying under renowned Bauhaus professor Josef Albers. Jackson was also the first black artist admitted to the City of Virginia Beach's Boardwalk Juried Art Show in 1966, after being denied entry because of his race in 1964. His oil painting, for which he won the First prize, depicted the religious subject "Veronica's Veil" and is today in the collection of the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art. In 1967, Jackson was appointed to the faculty of Old Dominion University as its first black professor, having previously served as chair of the art department of the Norfolk division of Virginia State College and then still a traditionally African-American college (now Norfolk State University). Jackson received significant attention in 1968, after several of his drawings were included in a Smithsonian Institution traveling art exhibition