Jackson is an associate professor of history at Georgetown University and a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He’s currently working on a book that will explore African-American history in D.C. from the 1700s to today called, “Halfway to Freedom: A History of African-Americans in Washington, D.C.”
What do you hope to achieve with this book?
I hope it can reach people to tell them the story of one of the great blights on the nation’s history but also of a people throughout these 200 years that have fought for freedom and equality. I think [that awareness is] lost in D.C., especially because the population is changing. I also want to bring to light the many accomplishments of African-Americans in Washington, D.C.
Why “halfway” to freedom?
I called it “Halfway to Freedom” for many different reasons. One is that Frederick Douglass always spoke about this halfway notion … And freedom, of course, has many different meanings. The term freedom, especially used by the old Negro spiritual men, it could mean freedom to escape from slavery, it could mean freedom from all forms of oppression…
Seems like it’s going to be one long book.
I hope not. I want a very readable book. I would like a book that people can pick up at the airport or the train stations or even D.C. public schools, a book that’s a reference source.
What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned?
Something came up lately called the “lost laws” of Washington. There were laws that were written in D.C. during Reconstruction that forbade discrimination of everybody… For years African-Americans in D.C. were imposed on by a sort of de facto system of segregation where blacks could not go in to restaurants, where blacks could not go and try on a pair of shoes … The [courts] eventually decided that in fact it was illegal for discrimination to exist in Washington D.C.
— Courtney Zott
